CEO ROUNDTABLE: Warren County also known for nursery equipment
Warren County is well known as the Nursery Capital of the World. The county is allegedly the largest shipper of nursery stock in the 48 continental states.
Did you know nursery processing machinery is also manufactured in Warren County? Two such manufacturers are Bouldin & Lawson, Inc. and Pack Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Bouldin & Lawson was founded in 1959 by Sonny Bouldin and Avery Lawson, who both had worked at Powermatic. Floyd Bouldin, oldest son of Sonny, purchased the business from the two families in 1980.
This is a locally owned and operated business. There are approximately 75 employees today of what has become the largest nursery/greenhouse equipment supplier in the world. Located at 70 Easy Street, Bouldin & Lawson today occupies an 85,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.
Bouldin & Lawson manufactures a full product line of machinery used by greenhouses and nurseries, such as flat fillers, seeders, transplanters, potters, planters, fillers, mixers, and bale processors. A capable staff of six engineers custom design machines and systems for customers, representing 35 percent of overall business. Machine prices range from $2,500 to $150,000.
The nursery business in Warren County is primarily field grown shrubs and trees. The target market for Bouldin & Lawson is the large commercial greenhouses and nursery growers of flowers and plants. Such processors would typically have from 100,000 square feet to 35 acres of glassed in, inside growing area.
A customer in Illinois grew 6 million 6-inch high poinsettia plants in 2002. Most nurseries will turn their crops two to three times per year. These nurseries and greenhouses perform what is called “forced growing” 24 hours per day to allow eight to 12 weeks between planting and selling.
Bouldin & Lawson machines involve the latest in electrical and electronic controls, such as PLC drives, PC drives, servo drive motors, etc. About 75 percent of its business is from repeat customers. These large processors demand labor free processing with incredible rates. Bouldin & Lawson has the ability to plant 70,000 flowers/plants along with mixing the soil in one hour, all automatically.
Bouldin & Lawson machines are sold all over the U.S. and throughout the world. About 15 percent of their business is export. The business prospers with add-on sales to existing cells, retrofits and upgrades, and rebuilds. An extensive on-hand parts inventory keeps customers up and running.
New technology in development includes automatic grading machinery whereby a vision system is used to detect “bad” plants, which are then automatically replaced with “good” plants, assuring 100 percent product quality to a customer, such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot. Another development is automatic planters for ground planting, once plants are automatically potted.
Bottom line is Bouldin & Lawson technology can provide for complete unmanned automation from planting seeds, filling a flat, transplanting to a larger container, etc. The first and only time the plant or flower is touched by human hands is the consumer at Wal-Mart or the garden center.
Pack Manufacturing Co. is located at 1219 Belmont Drive in the McMinnville Industrial Park. This business was founded by Jerry Pack in 1994.
A new 15,000-square-foot building on Belmont Drive was moved into in January 1999. Pack Manufacturing fully manufactures conveyor components and systems primarily for the nursery industry. Product price ranges from a low of $3,500 to a high of $150,000 for a complete system. As Jerry Pack describes his business, most everything they do involves a roller, chain, or belt. Their materials handling apparatus has found its way into other industrial applications.
Pack Manufacturing has built conveyor systems for Yorozu to handle scrap created with automatic presses, automotive parts conveyance for Hillsdale Tool, flooring material transfer for McMinnville Manufacturing, and automated load/unload conveyors for Accu-Router CNC routers.
Pack employs 13 people, including three family members. This is a locally owned and operated business. Major equipment investment in 2002 included a large CNC machining center and a CNC press brake. This capital expansion supported higher product quality and an overall revenue increase of 20 percent for the year. Jerry is forecasting a similar gain for 2003.
The manufacturing process includes welding, machining, painting, assembly, and electrical. The conveyor systems are height adjustable meeting an important ergonomic need. Average product lead time is four to six weeks. Sales are made across the U.S.
The good news for Pack Manufacturing is that business growth has led to a decision to expand the plant by mid-summer 2003 to add another 8,000 square feet of factory space. We congratulate Jerry Pack, family, and associates for making their success in Warren County.
The Nursery Capital of the World is also the Nursery Equipment Capital of the World.
Todd Herzog owns Accu-Router and presides over CEO Roundtable, a group of local executives who meet monthly.