After some research, Lemuel focused on someone with equipment, old trucks and trailers and customer contacts in the pallet industry. He bought the equipment in 1998, went to work and soon incorporated his business. He launched Burton Pallet Recyclers Inc. with $6,000 from his personal savings.
One of his first customers was Plastics Research, now known as U.S. Fence. He bought lumber from the company and built pallets for it, too. “We did this for six or eight months,” said Lemuel. “This work got us on our feet and enabled us to start pallet recycling.”
“I started by charging a small fee for pallet removal and built up a customer base of those customers that would also buy pallets,” he said. The company began retrieving surplus pallets up to about 45 miles away and repairing them.
When he started the company, Lemuel rented a couple of buildings on four acres, but the buildings had only 9,000 square feet combined. Even with only a handful of employees, however, the space was cramped.
Setback, Opportunity
The company was hit by a fire in September of last year. The blaze destroyed one building along with a grinder, bandsaw dismantler, trim saw and other equipment and parts.
Fire officials were unable to determine how the fire began, and the Michigan State Police investigated. A dog even was used to search for the presence of fire accelerant material. “The investigation was a hassle,” said Lemuel, “adding to what we’d already been through.”
The blaze was reported to the fire department about . “Something had a chance to sit and smolder all day,” said Lemuel.
Because the fire interrupted the company’s recycling operations, it fell behind in meeting customer orders. Some of the accounts added up to monthly
Smart Products Helps
Burton Pallet Recyclers had been equipped with a Smart Products bandsaw dismantling machine and a Smart Products trim saw before the fire, but the blaze destroyed both. After the fire, Lemuel called Smart Products
Smart Products was committed to help Burton Pallet Recyclers replace its equipment as quickly as possible. Smart Products can hire additional part-time employees or run overtime in order to fill orders for equipment in emergencies.
“Brad told me that Smart Products would try to get things set up again as soon as possible,” Lemuel recalled. “It wasn’t two weeks before Smart Products delivered new equipment, and in another week that part of our operations was up and running in a new location.”
Smart Products prides itself on understanding the needs of the pallet recycling businesses that it supplies, said Ken Hess, president and owner of the company. “It doesn’t matter how good your product is. If you can’t meet the customer’s expectations, you are only doing part of the job.”
“This happened in the case of Burton Pallet Recyclers,” said Ken. “We ended up working extended shifts. We worked with the company financially through the insurance company settlement process. I knew those things took time. Lemuel and I were both challenged, but we’d done business together since before my time at Smart Products. Lemuel does what he says he is going to do. It makes for a great partnership.”
“It was as simple as a phone call when the fire happened,” added Brad. “Lemuel told us his needs. We were busy then. Our lead time was four to five weeks at that time. That would’ve been too long for
A New Start
Lemuel found an old, vacant storage building three miles away and leased it. “The owner worked with me,” he said. “He’s been a great help.” The new location has 180,000 square feet under roof and 15 loading docks. The building is on three acres, all paved. Burton Pallet Recyclers moved in about mid-February.
“No more snow,” said Lemuel. “No more mud. We don’t have to work outside or store our pallets outside.”
Burton Pallet Recyclers supplies pallets primarily for manufacturers in the food and automotive industries. “We do everything from a 24-inch square up to 5-foot wide by 10-foot long pallets,” said Lemuel. The company will build custom pallets to meet any customer requirement.
The company does not buy any new lumber. “Everything is reclaimed lumber,” said Lemuel. Scrap wood is processed by a grinder into mulch. The company even collects and recycles nail fragments from the grinding process with the aid of magnetized equipment.
Burton Pallet Recyclers employs about 18 workers and has annual sales of about $1 million. Lemuel expects the business will grow steadily over the next year, primarily because of the increased capacity of the new plant building.
The company is reaping other benefits from the new location. For example, employees like the newer, better facility, and their morale has improved accordingly. “Our new facilities also mean less wear and tear on the equipment,” said Lemuel, because it has been moved inside and is no longer exposed to the weather.
Sales, Mark eting
Burton Pallet Recyclers receives a lot of phone calls from businesses looking for a pallet supplier, according to Lemuel. He lists his business in the phone book and the Midwest Industrial Purchasing Guide. “I also get business through ‘cold calls’ when I’m shopping for supplies,” said Lemuel.
“Our service makes us unique,” he said. “If someone calls us for a pallet, we try to deliver it the next day. Sometimes we custom build a pallet. Customers aren’t afraid to pay a little more for that.”
Burton Pallet Recyclers stocks extra pallets for regular customers in case of emergency orders. The company also keeps a large inventory of GMA pallets and other standard pallets.
“I rely on the customer to tell me what they want in their pallets,” said Lemuel. “We let the customer tell us what they want.”
Equipment
Burton Pallet Recyclers is equipped with a Smart Products 52-inch, two-man bandsaw dismantling machine. (It is the first model developed by Smart Products, which has sold 3,000 of the machines in various sizes in recent years.) The company also has a Smart Products trim saw and a Smart Products power-feed automatic trim saw. “Smart’s new automatic trim saw has been a great machine,” said Lemuel.
For building and repairing pallets, the company uses Stanley-Bostitch power nailing tools and fasteners supplied by Hahn Systems of Michigan. All saw blades are purchased from Saw Service and Supply in
Burton Pallet Recyclers has 50 semi trailers kept at customer locations up to 100 miles away to be filled with surplus pallets. The company offers next day service on trailer pick-up. If a customer calls by , the trailer will be retrieved the next day.
Burton Pallet Recyclers has three semi tractors to retrieve the trailers and deliver empty ones. For out-of-state customers Lemuel contracts with truckers for trailer pick-up.
All equipment and trucks are inspected regularly, and Lemuel performs most of the needed repairs. He employs a truck driver who also does repairs.
Labor and Safety Issues
There is a good labor supply in the region, according to Lemuel. “If we need workers, we can get them by asking our current employees if they know of anyone looking for work,” he said. “We also have a healthy supply of completed applications.”
Some employees are paid hourly, including drivers and general laborers. Workers who build and repair pallets earn piece rate wages; the pallets they complete are marked with lumber crayons to identify them.
Lemuel’s years of working for Ford included many hours of training, including safety seminars. He uses this knowledge to help his employees work safely at all times at Burton Pallet Recyclers.
“A lot of it is common sense,” he said. “I just like to emphasize a constant safety awareness in my workers.” Workers are required to use ear plugs and safety glasses.
Colored Mulch
Residuals are an important part of the company’s operations. “When I was first in the business and was producing all this waste wood, I had a huge pile of mulch building up,” said Lemuel. “Despite the fact that we try to reclaim every piece of wood possible, there is always a certain amount of wood that you just cannot market.”
Initially Lemuel contracted with another company to provide on-site grinding at Burton Pallet Recyclers. “This cost us quite a bit of money,” he said, “and seeing truckload after truckload pulling out, I realized there was a lot of money in this in addition to the money I would save by not having the hired grinders come in and work.”
The company eventually purchased a grinder, but it was destroyed in the fire. Lemuel replaced it with a Bandit Industries Beast model 3680 grinder. Within a month of setting up the grinder, he had customers for the mulch.
“When my wife, Kim, left her job and was looking for something to do, I told her that instead of wholesaling the mulch, we’d make more money by retailing it instead,” said Lemuel. They decided to invest in an Amerimulch Mini-Mite mulch coloring system and started another business, B&B Mulch, which is owned and managed by Kim and operates primarily from spring through fall. Burton Pallet Recyclers supplies uncolored mulch to B&B Mulch.
B&B Mulch producers colored mulch in four stock colors but can produce mulch in 26 colors in all. All mulch is sold in bulk. In addition to Kim, the business employs one worker who runs the loader to feed the coloring system and who also makes deliveries.
