HAINES CITY, Florida – Things are booming in Florida. In recent years, the state has led the country in population growth. Its agriculture industry is booming, too. In just a couple years, Florida has led the nation in the production of sweetcorn, Valencia oranges, tomatoes, watermelons, sugarcane, and foliage plants, and it was second in five other categories of fruits and vegetables.
JW Pallet is in a great position to benefit from Florida’s population growth and flourishing agriculture industry, and its partnership with Midwest Machinery & Automation is helping it along the way. JW Pallet runs a wide variety of equipment provided by Midwest Machinery & Automation, including the popular Woodpecker nailing machines, the Master Recycler designed to handle reclaimed lumber and the Big Buddy and Little Buddy machines for nailing block pallets.
Location, Location, Location!
The company is located in Haines City, less than 50 miles southwest of Orlando. It straddles U.S. 27, a north-south highway that runs through the rural agriculture region of the central southern Florida peninsula. The company ships 20-30,000 pallets per week, most of them new pallets. It has accounts in agriculture, building material manufacturers, bottling businesses, and glass manufacturers.
JW Pallet employs over 50 people and is located on seven acres with access to 20 altogether. Two buildings house CHEP sort and repair operations, plus an office. A third building supports lumber remanufacturing, pallet assembly and pallet recycling operations.
JW Pallet is owned and operated by Jeremy Herndon, 43, who grew up in nearby Winter Haven. It is his second time in the pallet business. In 1992 his stepfather, Wayne Berry, and Jeremy’s mother, Reneah, started Haven Pallet, where Herndon grew up in their pallet business and began working in it a year after high school. He gained experience in production, ordering lumber, shipping and receiving, and outside sales.
Later Jeremy and Wayne started JW Logistics providing sort and repair services for CHEP and other services in nearby Lakeland.
Wayne and Reneah sold Haven Pallet in 2007. Wayne and Jeremy bought the business back in 2011, establishing JW Pallet. Wayne sold his interest to Herndon in 2018. Essentially retired, he still does some selling and manages a few small accounts.
About 80% of the company’s revenues come from new pallet sales, 13% from recycled pallets, and about 7-8% from services for CHEP. Although most accounts are in Florida, the company also sells pallets through brokers that are delivered to customers in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The company leases four semi-tractors and owns over 40 flatbed and van trailers for delivering pallets and hauling recycled pallets and lumber.
Focusing on Southern Pine Processing
JW Pallet buys Southern yellow pine dimensional lumber – 2×4, 4×6 and other dimensions. About 90% of its raw material is kiln-dried Southern yellow pine. Another 8% is green Southern yellow pine, and the remainder is hardwood cants or hardwood cut stock purchased from mills in Georgia.
For cutting material to length the company has a Newman Whitney KM-16 multi-trimmer and a Go Fast Manufacturing 3-head trimmer. For resawing the material, it is equipped with numerous single, double, and triple-head band resaws from Morgan and Brewer. Notching stringers is accomplished on a Go Fast two-head notching machine and a Morgan two-head notcher. Cants are cut to length on the KM-16 and then resawn on a Morgan 3-head bandsaw system.
Midwest Machinery & Automation Offers Wide Variety of Nailing Solutions
About eight JW Pallet employees are dedicated to the assembly of custom and odd-size hand-built pallets, and the rest of the company’s production is assembled on one of seven nailing machines. Six machines are dedicated to the production of stringer pallets; one is uniquely designed for assembling block pallets, and two machines produce mats for block pallets. Every nailing machine uses collated fasteners, and all but three machines were supplied by Indiana-based Midwest Machinery & Automation. Herndon also has three more machines on order from Midwest Machinery & Automation.
The company’s newest nailing machine is the Master Recycler from Midwest Machinery & Automation. The Master Recycler is built on a platform like the Woodpecker, Woodpecker Junior, and Block Pallet Buddies, so it was a simple path forward for JW Pallet’s operators and maintenance team. The Master Recycler provides JW Pallet with added flexibility in the reclaimed pallet market as well as much needed ergonomic support for the operators using the machine. Operators would have manually maneuvered some of the heavy pallets built on the Master Recycler, but the Master Recycler’s unique pallet flipping mechanism allowed the operators to place the lumber while allowing the machine to do the rest.
Herndon has been doing business with Midwest Machinery & Automation since about 2018. He is running two full-size Woodpecker Nailing Machines, one of which can build pallets with up to 108” long runners, and one Woodpecker Junior Nailing Machine. In addition to these runner-style nailing machines, Herndon has invested in the block pallet business with a Big Buddy nailing machine and two Little Buddy mat nailing machines. The Big Buddy nailing machine assists in the assembly of the bottom half of the block pallet while at the same time nailing a pre-made mat to the bottom half to complete the pallet. The Little Buddy mat machines sit right next to the Big Buddy, where their mats are readily available to the operators of the Big Buddy for final assembly.
Herndon cited the reliability of the machines – and Midwest Machinery & Automation staff – as reasons for continuing to rely on the supplier. “Whenever you call them, they pick up the phone and answer it. Immediately,” he said. “They have very good customer service.”
“They’re just deep down, good people,” Herndon added. He also mentioned the “easability” of servicing and maintaining the machines.
Herndon also employs several women who operate the nailing machines. All the operators have a great understanding of how the equipment functions, can perform changeovers, and can keep up with anybody in terms of production.
When asked about their relationship with JW Pallet, Wayne Wagner from MMA commented, “we really enjoy working with Jeremy’s team. He has key people that understand our equipment and we do the best we can to make sure they have what they need.” Whether it’s technical support and parts, or advice about building a new pallet spec, we emphasize fast response times and valuable information. We provide all of our customers with the kind of support that we expect from our vendors.
Midwest Machinery & Automation (MMA) offers all American-made nailing machines for building new pallets and skids, including block and stringer pallets. Plus, machines to build pallets with recycled lumber, machines to build crate sides, crate tops, and block pallet mats, plus other custom wood-to-wood nailing solutions.
MMA is the exclusive distributor for Woodpecker and Woodpecker Junior nailing machines, which are manufactured in Ohio. Every Woodpecker nailing machine is built to the customer’s specifications and can nail a variety of stringer pallet sizes and designs. All Woodpecker nailing machines are high-production and low-maintenance, and they increase productivity, employee retention, and profitability.
The Woodpecker Junior is commonly operated by one person and includes everything needed to build a quality pallet right out of the box. The machine is easy to set up and use, and when purchased with the optional pallet stacker and rollout conveyor, it will support most operators in producing 500+ GMA pallets in a shift.
MASTer Recycler nailing machines are manufactured in Iowa and are the original nailing machines designed to assemble stringer pallets made with recycled lumber. All machines include an automatic pallet flipper to further reduce operator fatigue. The MASTer Recycler enables companies to build quality recycled pallets with less skilled labor, provide better ergonomics, and be more competitive.
Block Pallet Buddies are the newest line of machines from Midwest Machinery & Automation. Block Pallet Buddies consist of the Big Buddy block pallet assembly machine and the Little Buddy mat nailing machine. All are made in Ohio, on a platform that is similar to the Woodpecker Junior.
(For more information about Midwest Machinery & Automation nailing machines, call 888-577-3886 or visit www.woodpeckermachine.com.)
Over the years Herndon has considered other brands and manufacturers of pallet nailing machines. “I decided to stick with (Midwest Machinery & Automation)…I like them. We’ve just had really good luck with them.”
JW Pallet uses one operator for the Woodpecker Jr. and one each for the two mat nailing machines. The company puts two operators on the Woodpecker and the block pallet nailing machine. (JW Pallet does not make block pallets for CHEP or PECO, as noted Herndon.) An extended Woodpecker, used for assembling longer pallets, has three operators.
Herndon said, The Woodpecker and 108” Woodpecker build 600-1,000 pallets in an 8-hour shift, the Big Buddy block pallet nailer, about 500, and the Little Buddy mat nailing machines produce 500-700 per shift.
JW Pallet manufactures over 100 pallet sizes, said Herndon, although most are the standard GMA 48×40 size and varieties of that size. Pallets for shipping tomatoes, for example, are the same size, but the bottom and top decks are different from a GMA. Pallets for shipping drums of material are the same size but have thicker deck boards and other differences.
Reclaimed Lumber Operations Support Midwest Nailing Machines
In its recycling operations, JW Pallet services a few warehouses and distribution centers. It also sorts trailers of pallets for a Sam’s Club store and purchases the white wood pallet cores from CHEP.
Three Smart Products bandsaw dismantlers are used to disassemble scrap pallets, and recycled lumber is cut to length on a homemade trim saw or Makita and Dewalt chop saws. The recycled stock is used for repairing pallets, making ‘combo’ pallets of new and used lumber, and assembling pallets made of 100% reclaimed lumber. ‘Combo’ pallets and pallets made of recycled lumber are assembled on the Woodpecker and Woodpecker Jr. machines and will also be nailed on the new Master Recycler. “Those machines work well with recycled material,” said Herndon.
Wayne Wagner also commented on the Woodpecker, Woodpecker Junior, and Master Recycler’s recycled wood capabilities. “The Master Recycler was designed for this purpose and we continue to make small change to make it better – new pallets have always been easy. The Woodpecker and Woodpecker Junior were never designed for reclaimed wood, but they certainly do the job.” Wayne continued, “The Junior has been used for reclaimed wood for some time – especially combos where new runners are used with reclaimed deck boards. The Woodpecker has now become very popular for reclaimed lumber as well. The design of the machine plus some of our mechanical provisions and parts just lend themselves to building a nice used pallet. The machine is still fast with reclaimed lumber, and it will accept so many different types of boards without issue.”
A small, modified Farmhand tub grinder is used to grind scrap wood, which is supplied to companies that make mulch or sent to a landfill.
Employees Benefits and Active Owner
JW Pallet offers employees health insurance, vision and dental insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan, and vacation.
Herndon owns some land in South Carolina and likes to deer hunt there in the fall. He also enjoys fishing, mainly saltwater fishing for snook, redfish and sea trout. In the office with two other staffers, Herndon schedules production, buys lumber, helps with billing and invoices, and does some sales. “I drive a forklift when I have to,” he added.
