My friend Joe and I actually owned and almost operated a wood pallet business in 1992 or 1993 here in northwest Minnesota that we named, "McDonnell-Reynolds Wood Products Limited"/MRWP. At the time, we were indecisive about what we should be when we grew up, me being 42 and him being 46, and with the help of a more senior friend of 48--a successful businessman in his own right--decided to buy a fledgling wood pallet business that had initiated operation at a rural residence six miles from where Joe and I, respectively, reside.
Our more senior friend--we'll call him Jerry, had met this up and coming entrepreneur recently from Maine, named 'Seth,' at Jerry's steel fabrication business where he had repaired something for him. At length, he learned about Seth's ambitious foray into the world of wood pallet building and supply.
Through his various church contacts, Seth had rented a farmhome and acreage from a fellow churchgoer as well as acquiring a beautiful stand of poplar 'stumpage' adjoining it. (Stumpage allows an individual to harvest mature trees from a specific acreage for a fee, paid to the owner or manager of the land parcel.) Recognizing the potential of the timber acreage, aside from heating his home, he realized he had the building blocks of a business he could create and support his young family, so following up on his idea he swiftly put things together.
Contacting two prominent businesses in northwest Minnesota, one an organic grain mill for which wood pallets were used in their warehouse shipping and receiving facility; and the other, a manufacturing giant of recreational vehicles, their usage of pallets ultimately the same, except the toy factory's demand exceedingly higher, he inquired of their suppliers and offered a competitive bid, after learning what sized pallets (commonly the 42x48, 2-way pallet) the two businesses required.
Cutting his stumpage using a chainsaw, he cut the large-diameter poplar trees into logs, then hauled them to a local sawmill which cut all his timber into lumber, where it was planed into 2x4s, 1x4s and various other size stock.
Seth built simple wooden nailing jigs in which he could place pre-cut lengths of green planed-to-size wood boards, 2x4s and 1x4s, and using a pneumatic air nailing gun, nail them one upon the other, and then as a whole be flipped in-place, to be nailed again. The completed pallet was quickly removed from the nailing jig and stacked one atop the next, eight pallets, to a height of four feet, where after being shrink wrapped by hand. Using his tractor equipped with fork tines, he could load them onto his straight truck for transport. His wife helped him when she could, creating a two-person assembly line.
Just as Seth became proficient, his father back in Maine, became ill and Seth was called home to assist his family there. He sold his business, all the equipment including saws, jigs, and truck to Joe and I, after I underwent a mere two weeks of one-on-one training. As it turned out, the organic mill had more pallets than they would need for another couple years, and the recreational vehicle company had decided to build their own pallets in-house.
We never built a pallet for sale to anyone else, imploding before we got started, selling off the equipment we purchased to pay off the loan we had taken out, and looking back at the whole thing as a bullet we had luckily dodged, for we realized none-too-soon that neither of us had the ambition or business sense to run an operation like that,--we became writers and publishers instead, of a rural home press we call Palmville Press & Publishing, Inc., of Wannaska, MN. We printed and published a full-color, advertisement-free, small magazine (zine, if you will) titled The Raven: Northwest Minnesota's Original Art, History & Humor Journal, for 24 years. Talk about an obsession.
Our more senior friend--we'll call him Jerry, had met this up and coming entrepreneur recently from Maine, named 'Seth,' at Jerry's steel fabrication business where he had repaired something for him. At length, he learned about Seth's ambitious foray into the world of wood pallet building and supply.
Through his various church contacts, Seth had rented a farmhome and acreage from a fellow churchgoer as well as acquiring a beautiful stand of poplar 'stumpage' adjoining it. (Stumpage allows an individual to harvest mature trees from a specific acreage for a fee, paid to the owner or manager of the land parcel.) Recognizing the potential of the timber acreage, aside from heating his home, he realized he had the building blocks of a business he could create and support his young family, so following up on his idea he swiftly put things together.
Contacting two prominent businesses in northwest Minnesota, one an organic grain mill for which wood pallets were used in their warehouse shipping and receiving facility; and the other, a manufacturing giant of recreational vehicles, their usage of pallets ultimately the same, except the toy factory's demand exceedingly higher, he inquired of their suppliers and offered a competitive bid, after learning what sized pallets (commonly the 42x48, 2-way pallet) the two businesses required.
Cutting his stumpage using a chainsaw, he cut the large-diameter poplar trees into logs, then hauled them to a local sawmill which cut all his timber into lumber, where it was planed into 2x4s, 1x4s and various other size stock.
Seth built simple wooden nailing jigs in which he could place pre-cut lengths of green planed-to-size wood boards, 2x4s and 1x4s, and using a pneumatic air nailing gun, nail them one upon the other, and then as a whole be flipped in-place, to be nailed again. The completed pallet was quickly removed from the nailing jig and stacked one atop the next, eight pallets, to a height of four feet, where after being shrink wrapped by hand. Using his tractor equipped with fork tines, he could load them onto his straight truck for transport. His wife helped him when she could, creating a two-person assembly line.
Just as Seth became proficient, his father back in Maine, became ill and Seth was called home to assist his family there. He sold his business, all the equipment including saws, jigs, and truck to Joe and I, after I underwent a mere two weeks of one-on-one training. As it turned out, the organic mill had more pallets than they would need for another couple years, and the recreational vehicle company had decided to build their own pallets in-house.
We never built a pallet for sale to anyone else, imploding before we got started, selling off the equipment we purchased to pay off the loan we had taken out, and looking back at the whole thing as a bullet we had luckily dodged, for we realized none-too-soon that neither of us had the ambition or business sense to run an operation like that,--we became writers and publishers instead, of a rural home press we call Palmville Press & Publishing, Inc., of Wannaska, MN. We printed and published a full-color, advertisement-free, small magazine (zine, if you will) titled The Raven: Northwest Minnesota's Original Art, History & Humor Journal, for 24 years. Talk about an obsession.
Comments