Precast Inc. - September/October 2008 - (Page 33) comes, it is better to be ready for it than to try to play catch-up. Be flexible It is not a good idea to engage in expansion and Barry Fleck might be served well by the nickname “Barry modernization projects when business is booming, according to Flexible.” Fleck is president of A.L. Patterson Inc., Fallsington, Hoene. “For one thing, I find that you end up paying a higher Pa. (www.patterson-online.com), a distributor that provides premium for the construction,” he explains. In addition, the plant products for the precast industry from more than 100 people are so busy with their regular jobs that they don’t have manufacturers. The company recently expanded into a larger the time to learn how to run the new equipment. facility in April 2008. Another benefit of expanding during slow times is that you are “We had outgrown our existing facility, where we had been more likely to have the time, resources and manpower to do so. for over 22 years,” says Fleck. “We had run out of office space, In addition, the expansion project presents less of a disruption. warehouse space and parking. We went from 18,000 square And one more thing to consider: “Personnel will be properly feet to over 31,000 square feet, and also significantly increased trained in running the equipment, so that they will be ready to the height.” In the old building, they could store products threerun it efficiently when business picks up again,” adds Hoene. high on racks. In the new one, they can go five-high. What about financing during down times? It shouldn’t be a In planning the facility, Fleck and his team didn’t just want to problem, according to Hoene, at least for companies that put away a lot of money during the last boom. In addition, banks are always looking for borrowers with good – BARRY FLECK, A.L. PATTERSON INC. credit when fewer people want to borrow. “We had been in business long enough that we knew what we didn’t want. We then combined this information with what we knew we wanted.” Seek good vendors Once you have made the decision to expand, it is important to select the highest-quality vendors, which may not necessarily be the least expensive. According to Hoene, some customers just look at the bottom-line number being presented by the vendor, then compare vendors, doing an apples-to-apples comparison. “However, before making a decision, you should go out and visit some of the sites where the vendors that you are considering have done work in the past,” he says. And this is another advantage to doing a project between construction booms, he adds. That is, management has more time to make these site visits. Look to the future One thing that Terry Fellabaum finds is that a lot of precasters don’t look far enough into the future when planning expansion projects. “When they are spec’ing out a plant, they tend to want to look at what they need for today,” says Fellabaum, director of sales and marketing for Mixer Systems, Pewaukee, Wis. (www.mixersystems.com), which designs, manufactures and installs custom-built batch plants. “I try to get them to look at what they will need five years down the road. In this way, they won’t under-buy.” Fellabaum also tries to make sure they install the proper electronic controls, including the proper computer to run the plant. “Years ago, all you needed were cement, water and aggregate,” he says. “Today, there is so much more that goes into the process, including admixes, moisture control and microwave technology.” And with the move toward “green,” he adds, you also need to consider the ability to add recycled material to your batch. A.L. PATTERSON BUILT ITS NEW OFFICE SPACE USING PRECAST CONCRETE EXTENSIVELY, INCLUDING A PRECAST BASEMENT, PRECAST INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR WALLS, AND EVEN PRECAST RETAINING WALLS OUTSIDE. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 | WWW.PRECAST.ORG Photos courtesy A.L. Patterson Inc. 33 http://www.patterson-online.com http://www.mixersystems.com http://www.precast.org
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