Brown Street, Vermont Tubbs successfully combine operations
Long process brings positive changes, say owners
Thomas Russell -- Kids Today, 12/1/2009 7:29:00 AM
WHITEFIELD, N.H. — When the new owners of Vermont Tubbs announced plans to shift production from the company’s Brandon, Vt., plant to Brown Street Furniture’s Whitefield, N.H., factory, it was the start of a long process to bring the two lines under one roof.
After about 16 months of work, the owners say the process has brought positive changes to each company.
The owners are Adam and Kyle Tager, who along with business partner Elwin Wright, announced in June 2008 that Brown Street subsidiary BSF Transition LLC was acquiring Vermont Tubbs. Both companies primarily produce bedroom furniture and each has a domestic manufacturing strategy.
But the consolidation wasn’t easy. For one, it had to be done within the 90-day period before the Vermont Tubbs factory was slated to close.
Also, no Vermont Tubbs production workers opted to accept the company’s offer to join the Brown Street factory 100 miles away. That meant the Brown Street workers had to learn to make a new line that had about 500 SKUs.
“We got orders every day and had to acknowledge that those orders would be shipping in a given time frame,” said Adam Tager.
Around the time of the purchase, Vermont Tubbs had a four- to six-week lead time on its shipments. The challenges associated with the move caused that time frame to rise to 12 to 16 weeks.
Since Brown Street produced in larger cuttings that took longer to produce, its lead times ran eight weeks or longer.
To make the consolidation work, the new owners had to make some tough decisions, including narrowing both lines by 20% to 30%, giving the companies a combined 500 to 600 SKUs.
Brown Street discontinued its dining program to focus on youth and adult bedroom. It also dropped some bedroom and occasional SKUs, while Vermont Tubbs reduced master and youth bedroom SKUs.
“We primarily sat down and looked at the rate of sales. There was a decent amount of product on the Vermont Tubbs side that was not producing the type of sales we needed to produce,” Adam Tager said.
As part of the transition, the company also added three quality control checkpoints to cover assembly, hand-sanding and finishing. Previously, Brown Street had one quality control department.
“We have worked to push (quality) to a new level,” Kyle Tager said. “There was just one quality control department before and now there are four. We know who is making what and are reducing the opportunity for error.”
The plant now has about 100 workers, including 25 to 30 added before the purchase. They are producing more pieces based on specific orders, rather than producing large cuttings of a single group that end up sitting in the warehouse.
While the changes took time, the company is seeing results. Before the October market, lead times had fallen to six to eight weeks. It plans to reduce that figure to four weeks by early March.
Another change the company made during the transition was to reduce its energy costs by nearly 50%, mainly by buying two biomass burners that use materials such as sawdust and wood scraps to heat the plant. Fuel saved over a single winter covered the cost of one $22,000 unit.
Throughout the transition, the company said, many customers remained loyal and for that the owners are grateful.
“They are the main reason we are still around and we plan on having a very long future,” Kyle Tager said.
Concord, N.H.-based Endicott Furniture has carried Brown Street since 1990 and it has become the store’s bestselling case goods line. He said the Tager brothers have visited the store to explain the situation in person and assure him that things will improve.
He also said that trimming the SKU count shouldn’t hurt the line.
“When Brown Street makes changes, the changes they make are for the better,” Branch said. “They are excellent to deal with and are popular in terms of their looks.”
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