Contact: Phyllis Levine at 845.896.6934 X3001 or by Email
HVTDC COMPLETES PROFITABILITY SOLUTIONS STUDY
FOR LEADING PALLET PRODUCER
The business and technology resource center for manufacturers, technology-based companies, inventors, entrepreneurs and other businesses throughout the Hudson Valley region, the not-for-profit Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) in Fishkill, has announced the completion of a profitability analysis and solutions project for the New York metropolitan area’s leader in state-of-the-art pallet production, McNeilly Wood Products, Inc. (www.mcneillywoodproducts.com) in Campbell Hall in Orange County, New York. HVTDC (www.hvtdc.org), one of ten regional technology development centers funded cooperatively through the NYS Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) and the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), works directly with small and mid-sized companies to help them adopt new technologies and business practices that will grow their business and be competitive.
In May 2004, the McNeilly Wood Products, Inc. managers Tim and Dan McNeilly, grandsons to the company’s founder, Patrick J. McNeilly, contacted HVTDC because they knew the company was profitable but they wanted a clearer understanding of what makes it profitable. “Our bottom line was fine,” explains Dan McNeilly, “we simply wanted to know which direction to take in terms of which of our products and services in new pallet manufacturing, reconditioned and re-manufactured pallet production, pallet disposal services, and bulk landscape mulch production we should focus on in our marketing. We needed a plan to unify our marketing with sales, operations and our financial efforts. We saw that while we are profitable we wanted a plan for determining how we could maximize the most profits.”
The McNeilly brothers sought the services of the HVTDC to create a financial analysis of the company’s operations to support their strategic planning and future decision-making. They spoke with industrial field engineer, Les Weekes, who listened to their concerns and after several meetings determined that HVTDC’s objectives would be to deliver an analytical approach to calculate future pricing decisions and pursue incremental sales opportunities as they arose; provide a recommendation on how the company could achieve maximum profit; and ascertain what strategies and tactics would be necessary to reach that goal.
To reach those objectives, HVTDC brought in financial business analyst and planner, David Rudofsky, president and founder of Rudofsky Associates in Sleepy Hollow, NY (www.RudofskyAssociates.com), to evaluate McNeilly Wood Products’ production capacity, product line cost profile, pricing structure/sensitivity, and other operational elements that typically affect profitability. He studied every aspect of operations from machine capacity, truck docking, material handling, workspace allocations and the management’s capacity to supervise the workforce. Rudofsky’s goal was to assess the capacity limit for the company’s operations, and project foreseeable bottlenecks or constraints when volumes for each of the company’s lines were gradually increased 10% to 20% to 30% to increase profits.
“As a third party objective observer,” explained Rudofsky, ”I helped the owners see which of their product lines were most profitable, and which direction they should take for more success and where they should direct future efforts.” Dan McNeilly stated, “Our job is to implement the suggestions we received. We’re taking steps to increase our raw material inventory to fill in peaks and valleys in our manufacturing operations and to make our every day operations run at a consistent level of productivity.”
For more information on the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center, contact Phyllis Levine at 845-896-6934x3001, via email at plevine@hvtdc.org.