Two very different pallet companies, one supplier for pallet machinery and equipment. One large company running with about 100 employees and two locations, operating three shifts around the clock; one company a small family business — very different, yet both rely on one pallet industry supplier when they need machinery or equipment.
The two companies are Pallet Market Inc. in California and Doyle’s Pallets in Kentucky. Their equipment supplier: Indiana-based Universal Machinery Sales.
Universal Machinery offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ approach for pallet manufacturers and recyclers. The company offers machinery and equipment for processing rough lumber into pallet components and for nailing pallets, from simple jigs for nailing pallets by hand to machines that nail pallets automatically. Universal Machinery offers equipment for disassembling and repairing pallets and recovering and recycling used wood material. It can supply component machines or complete systems.
Although very different in size and operations, both Pallet Market and Doyle’s Pallets have relied steadily on Mona Tracy with Universal Machinery for their equipment needs.
Pallet Market Seeks Strong Growth
Pallet Market is led by Alexander de los Rios, 46, who started the business with his wife, Julia, in 1995. The company is headquartered in Fontana, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, and has operations in Fontana and about 15 miles south in Riverside. The company employs 90-100 people, split approximately evenly between the two facilities. The business operates three shifts, an arrangement it has been doing for a couple of years.
Pallet Market supplies both new and recycled pallets; about 60% of its business is recycling, and 40% sales of new pallets.
For new pallets, the company produces all its own components. It buys economy, utility and better grades of softwood 2×4, 4×4 and 4×6 by random length. The material is cut to length first on manually operated chop saws. Material for deck boards is resawn on horizontal bandsaws.
Pallet Market has a diverse customer base. Customers range from manufacturers of office equipment, computers, and consumer electronics products to groceries and beverages. The company supplies about 100 different size pallets to customers. Production last year was about 3.2 million pallets or about 17-25 loads per day.
Alex de los Rios has been turning to Mona Tracy for pallet machinery for about seven or eight years, and he continues to rely on Universal Machinery as his primary equipment supplier. The first machine he bought from Mona was a Run-A-Gade band saw disassembly system. He recently added a couple of chop saws.
“They’re very honest,” said Alex. “Mona Tracy, when you ask her for something, she comes through right away. She’s never hiding anything from you. She’s very professional.”
The company assembles pallets by hand with pneumatic nailing tools. The work is made easier with Nail Ease jigs supplied by Universal Machinery. The Nail Ease jigs can be used to assemble pallets up to 50×50 made of new or recycled lumber, either three stringers or four. Alex’s next upgrade is the Universal In-Line Nailer.
Alex earned an accounting degree from Marymount California University. He worked briefly in his father’s lingerie business, then went to work as a cost accountant at a business that manufactured wire and cable products. However, the company lost a considerable volume of its business and was forced to downsize, and Alex was laid off.
He turned quickly to the pallet industry. “They were buying a lot of pallets,” he recalled. “I did some studies…Pallets are a good business.”
The Right Equipment Propels Doyle’s Pallets
In north-central Kentucky, Gary Doyle operates Doyle’s Pallets in Cynthiana, about 30 miles north of Lexington and 60-odd miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Doyle’s Pallets is a small family business of four employees, including Gary, 52. The company has a shop with about 9,000 square feet, and Gary has an office in his home. The company produces both new and recycled pallets, but new pallets account for 85-90% of production. Average production is about 375 pallets daily.
Before entering the pallet business, Gary was a carpenter, working on high-rise buildings in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. He had some relatives who worked in the pallet industry, and he began building pallets in his garage on weekends. He got an offer from a company to supply them with pallets and took the plunge to go into business full-time. That was nine years ago. He made GMAs and other standard pallets and eventually was producing more than six truck-loads per week.
However, Gary changed his business model after the economic collapse in 2008-09. “Everybody was cutting each other’s throats,” he recalled, undercutting competitors in order to get enough business to hold on as the recession took hold.
He turned to making odd-size, specialty pallets and some wooden crates and containers. “That’s what kept us alive,” said Gary. Most of the company’s pallet production is for a specialty furniture manufacturer that requires large, oversize pallets made with four stringers.
Doyle’s Pallets produces about 85% of its own pallet components from 4/4 and 5/4 rough lumber and cants, all mixed hardwoods, all purchased in random length and width. The company also buys cut stock from mills in Kentucky, Tennessee, and some from Indiana.
For cut operations the company is equipped with trim saws for cutting material to length. Resawing is done on the two-head band saw or a single-head Morgan style band saw supplied by Universal Machinery and a Pendu gang saw. The company is also equipped with a band saw disassembler in order to recycle pallet lumber.
Gary bought his first machine from Universal Machinery 7 years ago and has continued doing business with the supplier since then. Mona Tracy and her staff are responsive to customers, according to Gary, providing prompt over-the-phone assistance to keep him up and running. “If something happens, they’re there to answer questions and make things work.” Staff answer the phone and will make a return call within minutes to provide assistance, he added.
The Universal In-Line Nailer is set up to handle three or four stringer pallets, comes with a stacker and a 10-foot outfeed. Average production is 1,200 pallets per day, according to Universal Machinery.
The standard size is 84×64, but Universal Machinery customized the machine for Doyle’s Pallets to enable it to build the oversize pallets (80×80) for its biggest customer. Doyle’s Pallets began operating the machine around the beginning of the year.
The nailing machine is nearly 70 feet long. It flips the pallet over automatically to nail both faces. As the nailing gantry rolls along, it nails the bottom face of one pallet and the top face of another pallet. Pallets are automatically stacked at the end of the machine and dispensed to the outfeed.
“I’m very happy with it,” said Gary. He especially likes the fact that the machine is designed to function simply, and parts are readily available from Universal Machinery and even local suppliers. “There’s not really much complicated or that you can’t work on.”
“We used to build them by hand,” recalled Gary. “It was just killing my guys.” He consulted with Mona and her staff about making a custom machine that could nail the specialty pallets.
The machine also enabled him to reduce labor. He formerly had as many as eight employees, but now four can do the work. “That’s the way I want to keep it,” said Gary. “I don’t want to get real big.”
(For more information about Universal Machinery Sales, call (855) 298-8890, or visit the company’s website at www.universalmachinerysales.net.)
