WHITEVILLE, Tennessee – When it comes to family businesses, sometimes the second generation doesn’t have the drive of the founders. That isn’t the case for the Swarey brothers who manage West Tennessee Lumber and Pallet. They are following in their father’s footsteps by pushing ahead with expansion in the pallet side of their business. Getting the right equipment is part of that growth plan, and they have relied on ‘‘The Woody’’ pallet nailer by Viper Industrial Products to provide much needed capacity expansion.
Sam Swarey Sr. founded the company in November 1998 as a hardwood operation selling primarily cut stock. Over the last several years, the company has moved into new pallet production.
Sam Swarey Jr., known as Junior, explained, “We are in a good geographic area for pallets. We service customers in West Tennessee, North Mississippi, middle Tennessee and North Alabama. Eventually, we could even reach pallet users in Southern Illinois, West Kentucky and Southeast.”
Located about an hour east of the Mississippi River, the region has about 12 hardwood sawmills nearby. Junior said, “Our county was the hardwood capital for years. We’ve got an overabundance of sawmills in the area.”
Junior commented, “We are still pretty new in the pallet industry. Success in lumber has set us up to do pallets well. My dad gets a lot of credit for making this business happen. He was a straight shooter who treated his customer right. We try to follow his Christian example.”
Junior manages the business alongside his two brothers Jonathan and Steve. Their father passed away last year. But the brothers have pressed on with a focus to grow cut stock and pallet sales.
Viper’s ‘‘The Woody’’ Pallet Nailer Fits Their Needs… Speed for the Money
Looking to boost production, Steve Swarey, who manages the pallet production part of the business, has evaluated a number of machines on the market. He explained, “‘The Woody’ is a very smooth-running machine. It is faster than some other nailers using collated nails on the market. It’s the fastest nailer we have seen for the money.”
Another big bonus for the Viper is that you can actually get one, said Junior. He commented, “I understand Viper’s goal is to offer 90-day turnaround on new machinery orders.” Other machinery suppliers are six months to a year or more. Getting the machine faster allowed West Tennessee Lumber and Pallet to expand without having to spend money on equipment before new accounts were secured.
When it comes to machinery performance, Steve suggested, “Overall, ‘The Woody’ is a very sturdy and well-built machine.” The company can easily reach 600 pallets per shift with one operator if building GMA pallets. Currently, “The Woody” produces 48x40s and 48x45s, and it is capable of producing a pallet as large as 48×56.
Another major benefit of “The Woody” is the speed to changeover pallet sizes or perform general maintenance. Steve commented, “Changing over to different pallet sizes is done with a crank versus sliding everything over by hand. The gun mounts are set up to allow you to quickly replace the nail guns. A lot of other machines we have seen, you have to loosen bolts. With ‘The Woody’, all you have to do is release a quick clamp that secures the nailers in place. Quick connects on air hoses further makes the processes very easy to handle.”
“The Woody” comes with more electronic controls than some other machines stated Steve. “But once you get over the initial learning curve, which isn’t very long at all, you have a lot of useful control options,” added Steve. This aids in troubleshooting, by giving you a flashing light and a fault code.
Todd Mazur, president of Viper said, “I was very impressed with the Swarey brother’s knowledge and experience with pallet equipment. They were hitting production numbers in weeks that takes other companies months to learn. I think it’s their brotherhood that allows them to know what the each other is doing. They run a very lean and efficient operation and I feel ‘The Woody’ will be a great asset to help them grow and improve productivity.”
“We really enjoyed working with Tony Grilo, Viper’s lead engineer. He put in a lot of hard work designing the machine and assisting us with the setup. He’s a great guy with a ton of knowledge,” said Junior.
The Viper team was able to get them up and running very quickly after the machine was delivered. West Tennessee also runs a Pallet Chief, which it is planning to replace with a Rayco Pro nailer in the future. That machine will be used for larger pallet sizes.
Controlling Lumber Production Is Key
One thing that really sets West Tennessee apart is its cut stock mill. Junior explained, “We’re not depending on a cut stock mill three hours away to cut what we need. We’re not at their mercy. We can generally produce most sizes pretty quickly. Being able to cut our own material has definitely been a big plus for us.”
By running its own cut stock operation on site, West Tennessee shrinks its lumber procurement supply chain. This allows the company to eliminate transport costs, lower production costs, easily secure odd-sizes and improve turnaround time
Jonathan, who oversees cut stock sales and lumber buying, said, “We can make a good amount of cut stock quickly and do custom sizes. This in-house sawing ability with ample supply of hardwood material allows us to be very price competitive in the market.”
In the past, the company has shipped pallet lumber as far as California and Ontario. It primarily processes hardwood, especially oak, poplar, sweetgum and mixed hardwoods. It also will handle some green pine.
The older mill is equipped with a Pendu gang saw and resaw line. It cuts stringers and can notch up to 110-inch stringers with a Pendu in-line notcher. This building also houses the Viper nailing machine, a hand nailing station and the Pallet Chief. Most of the standard pallet sizes are produced in this building.
The second mill is newer and bigger. It features a Brewer cutoff saw, Morgan sizers and bandsaw lines. Junior said, “We have three 4-head Morgan saws in line to cut deck boards and 1.25-inch stringers. We cut some stringers there, but all our deck boards get cut back there.”
Added Heat Treatment Capacity to Further Grow the Business
A little more than a year ago, West Tennessee added a Kiln Direct heat treater. Junior commented, “The Kiln Direct equipment opens up opportunities that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to service ourselves.”
The Kiln Direct unit holds 600-700 pallets and can be monitored and controlled remotely using a computer or smartphone. Junior added, “The Kiln Direct heat treatment kiln is simple and easy to run.”
Looking to the Future, Securing It by Focusing on Customers Today
Like the rest of the pallet industry, 2020 has not been an easy year. Jonathan admitted, “Some accounts are down right now due to COVID-19. Others are going OK with modest reductions. Lumber demand in our regions has dropped, which has led to price reductions. We are able to pass along these savings, which has made us more competitive.”
Overall, the year has been a bit of a roller coaster ride with ups and downs. One example is a product used a lot in baseball fields. Orders were down for months. But now with baseball back, the customer needs pallets again.
West Tennessee works a lot with brokers, which puts the pressure on them to help find customers. Junior said, “We like working with brokers because we get our money in 30 days or less. Plus, brokers do the selling and handle customer relationships.”
However, the company is more than willing to work directly with any customer that desires that kind of relationship.
The company wants to grow but only in the right way. Junior laughed when asked about pallet recycling. He said that was a different business altogether. He predicted, “We aren’t looking to grow outside of our region. We are looking to expand our production in this facility. We would love to get to about 15-20 truckloads of pallets per week. There is some business in this region we can target and be price competitive in.”
West Tennessee has about 15 employees when fully staffed. The brothers work together to handle various aspects of the business. Junior commented, “We get along pretty well and each have our area of focus. I put most of my attention on pallet customers. Steve does some of that too. He’s mostly on the floor around the machines keeping production humming. I also oversee the machines in the back where we focus on deck board production and the band sawmills. Jonathan buys lumber and cut stock sales as well as administration.”
Ultimately what makes the company a success is its commitment to follow the values set out by the Swarey brothers’ father. It all comes down to delivering on your commitments. You have to get the customer the pallets they need when they need them.
