| A Semi-Monthly Newsletter for Material Handling Equipment Distributors |
July
1, 2003
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| MHEDA welcomes new Distributor Member Industrial Battery Products of St. Louis, MO and new Supplier/Associate Member NJMEP of Mendham, NJ. MATERIAL HANDLING MANUFACTURING ON UPSWING Material Handling Equipment Manufacturing (MHEM) is shifting into a growth mode, according to the latest numbers released by the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA). Compared to the same period last year, MHEM is growing at a rate of over 8%, and continues to move steadily along a forecasted line of improvement of 7% to 8% on an annual basis by year end. MHEM represents over $20B or approximately 30% to 35% of MHIA's estimate for U.S. Material Handling Consumption of nearly $65B, and includes: Conveyors and Conveying Equipment; Overhead Traveling Cranes, Hoists and Monorail Systems; Industrial Trucks, Tractors, Trailers and Stacker Machinery; and Other Material Handling Equipment. Daniel J.
Meckstroth, Ph.D., chief economist for the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI
(the group that prepares the report for MHIA), says that recent
numbers offer a glimmer of hope that the declining dollar, low interest
rates, federal tax cuts, lower oil prices, easier business credit
terms and rising business profitability have started to stem the
slide in goods production. HOUSE APPROVES DEATH TAX REPEAL On June 18, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 8, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2003, by a margin of 264 to 163. The "yes" votes came from 223 Republicans and 41 Democrats, with 158 Democrats, 4 Republicans and 1 Independent voting in opposition. The proposed law would permanently eliminate the estate tax by removing the sunset language implemented in President Bush's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. As the law currently stands, the estate tax will be phased out gradually over the next several years and abolished in 2010, but will be reinstated at pre-2001 levels on January 1, 2011. The bill now faces debate in the Senate. SPONSORS PULL FAMILY FLEXIBILITY ACT In June, sponsors of the Family Time Flexibility Act (H.R. 1119) pulled the measure from the floor of the House of Representatives. The Act would have allowed hourly workers, through a voluntary agreement with their employer, to choose paid time off as compensation for working overtime hours, permitting them to bank up to 160 hours of comp time in a single year. A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 89% of HR professionals said at least some of their organizations' employees would take comp time in lieu of overtime pay if it were offered to them. Republican leaders opted to delay the bill in hopes of gathering more votes. INDUSTRY
BEAT
MCFA Decertifies Union (Houston, TX) • Production and maintenance employees at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Inc. (MCFA) voted to decertify the Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) by a vote of 210 to 174. The SMWIA previously won the right to represent the employees in a certification election held in May 2002. MCFA employees interested in returning the company to a union-free operation filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board on May 19, and the decertification vote took place on June 20. "We are grateful for this show of support from our employees," says MCFA VP of Manufacturing Buddy Hibdon. "The union's win last year made us realize that we had lost touch with some of our employees, and we are very pleased that those employees have now decided to give the company another chance."
Storage Equipment Hosts Chamber (Minneapolis, MN) • On June 25, members of the Twin West Chamber of Commerce, which includes 3,000 businesses located in the Minneapolis area, met at Storage Equipment, Inc. Thirty businesses visited the company for lunch and a tour of the facilities. Company President Mike Dubbs spoke about his company and its work in the community. Says Dubbs, "These monthly meetings provide an excellent networking opportunity. We were able to tell our story to the people who attended and received three leads. It's also an opportunity for us to showcase our industry and to inform people about the vital role material handling plays in commerce." Berry Purchases Material Handling Corp. (Wichita, KS) • On June 2, Berry Material Handling of Wichita, KS purchased Material Handling Corp., also of Wichita, incorporating the company as a branch renamed Berry Workspace Solutions. The acquisition brings Berry a 50/50 balance in its product offerings between forklifts and allied products.
Skivington
Joins Aloi (Rochester,
NY)
• Courtney Skivington joined
Aloi Materials Handling as a salesperson specializing in pallet
rack repair service. Says Aloi VP of Sales Scott Ras, "We
have always felt there was a market for rack repair, and we will
aggressively pursue this access into additional accounts that we
would not have been able to infiltrate otherwise." Anderson
Relocates (Billings, MT)
• In June, Anderson Forklift combined
with Anderson Service, its sister company specializing in truck
equipment, relocating to a new 10,000 sq. ft. facility. The combined
company becomes the largest provider of services to the truck equipment
and material handling markets for Montana, northern Wyoming and
the Black Hills Area. Anderson is now located at 745 South Moore
Lane, Billings, MT 59101. The phone number remains the same. Unex Names Top Distributors (Jackson, NJ) • Unex Manufacturing Inc. named its Top Ten Distributors, including MHEDA members Cisco-Eagle (Farmers Branch, TX), Container Systems (Westmont, IL), Malin Integrated Handling Solutions & Design (Addison, TX) and Storage Solutions Inc. (Westfield, IN). Others named were Ampro (Milford, MI), Creative Storage Solutions (Hudsonville, MI), Material Handling Solutions MH2 (Salt Lake City, UT), Storage Systems of Wisconsin (Waukesha, WI), Thornel Associates (Burr Ridge, IL) and Warehouse Equipment Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL).
Burkhalter Joins Santana (Arlington Heights, IL) • Scott Burkhalter joined Santana Equipment Trading Co. He will be working as a salesperson. Provia Wins Award (Grand Rapids, MI) • Provia Software was named by iSource Business magazine as one of the top 100 supply and demand chain enabling organizations. The iSource 100 honors organizations with innovative, enterprise-wide solutions and services that enable their customers to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their supply and demand chain operations. McKenzie Joins Sellick (Harrow, ON, Canada) • Sellick Equipment Ltd. appointed Brian McKenzie territory manager for the southeastern region. McKenzie most recently worked with Clark Material Handling. Wal-Mart to Deploy RFID Tags (Chicago, IL) • Wal-Mart is working with its top 100 suppliers to deploy radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for tracking crates and pallets in its supply chain beginning in January 2005. Says Kevin Ashton, executive director of MIT's Auto-ID Center in Cambridge, MA, "The fact that the largest retail company in the world is publicly adopting Electronic Product Code (EPC) open standards should give companies confidence that the day of a single, interoperable RFID system is close at hand." According to Pam Kohn, vice president of Wal-Mart's global supply chain operations, by asking its top 100 suppliers to support RFID technology, the company hopes to improve inventory management and gain better visibility into the supply chain. Deploying RFID tags at the pallet and crate level with the retailer's top 100 suppliers will involve about 1 billion tags. CUSTOMER DISCOVERS "KEY" TO BEING ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND In an effort to increase environmental safety within its three plants, Manhattan Beer, a Coors distributor, contacted Key Material Handling Equipment Company (Brooklyn, NY). "Alternative fuels are a hot topic in New York right now, and we've had a lot of experience with them," says Robert Kehley, vice president and general manager. Manhattan Beer was concerned about carbon monoxide, interior air pollution and dirt from the combustion engines in its propane powered forklifts. After an assessment of the company's existing equipment and a look at the alternatives, Kehley weighed the benefits of each fuel. "Do they go with compressed natural gas and air purifiers, or do they go radically different with electric units?" Employees who objected to electric were concerned with running batteries 24 hours a day and changing battery packages. Despite employee reservations, the customer took Kehley's advice and decided electric would be the most beneficial and efficient for the operation. Kehley partnered with Les Zuckerman, lease consultant from International Lease Consultants, to convert the company from propane to Yale electric forklifts with Deka batteries and Hobart chargers. Once it began, Kehley described the transition as "smooth and painless." It worked because "we were able to put together a very simple system that fit into the customer's lifestyle." The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Wyandanch, NY Manhattan Beer facilities were completely converted in June at a cost of approximately $1 million.
2004 Convention Winners • Congratulations to Matt Olson of Faultless-Nutting, winner of a free 2004 Convention registration, and to Sam Arfanella, winner of a free night at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel during MHEDA's 2004 Convention, taking place May 1-5 in Miami, FL. Thank you to all 169 MHEDA Members who took the time to participate in the online Convention surveys; we appreciate your feedback and will use your comments as a source for improvement next year. For more details about MHEDA's 2004 Convention, visit www.mheda.org. Achieve a Sales Edge • MHEDA invites you to promote your company's products or services in the 2004 MHEDA Membership Directory. The Directory contains over 700 material handling company listings and offers competitive rates and long-term frequency of ad exposure. Rates start at $850; additional options available include: 4 color, cover positions, section dividers and tip-in postcards. The 2004 Directory will be mailed in early December 2003. Tear sheets and invoices will be mailed in January 2004. Call Evelyn McWilliams at (847) 680-3500 or e-mail emcwilliams@mheda.org.
In
Sympathy Known as a progressive businessman dedicated to innovation and his company's growth, Mr. Hamerslag never forgot the early days. He and his wife Minnette started the company in their apartment soon after their marriage. Together, they sold hand trucks, and grew the company into a thriving regional business. He was a strong believer in education, and during his tenure as MHEDA president, unveiled the association's 5-year plan for greater membership services. Those services included selling clinics throughout the country for grass roots participation, seminars and mini-conferences on taxes, government legislation, personal growth, family issues and industry-specific topics. Years before the "webinar" was conceived, Mr. Hamerslag was thinking of innovative ways to communicate with members. He wanted to develop correspondence courses, along with audio/visual presentations to send to members located throughout the country. MHEDA spouses have Mr. and Mrs. Hamerslag to thank for the tradition of spouse participation in the annual convention. At the 1977 convention on Marco Island, Minnette Hamerslag was determined that spouses also had opportunities to learn. "Spouses are very involved in the business," she says, "and we wanted to participate, learn and network." Together, she and her husband made sure that spouses were recognized as important contributors to the success of the business and offered appropriate seminars. Mr. Hamerslag is survived by his wife of 55 years, Minnette, three children, seven grandchildren, and a sister. Memorial services will be held on July 24 at Temple Beth Shalom in Burlingame, a suburb of San Francisco. |
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