January/February 1992
MAC Corp. has grown and diversified with the recycling industry, providing some of the tools and expertise on the forefront of the field.
By Jeff Borsecnik
Jeff Borsecnik is assistant editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
"I received a call one Saturday night—one of our customers had a machine problem. It wasn't a problem we caused; the equipment wasn't supposed to be shredding certain materials. But this client had some serious problems, so I made a few phone calls and one of our people was on a plane Sunday morning in an attempt to get this machine up and running again. That's what I mean by service—and I like to be a part of a company that offers such service."
So reports Damon W. Dedo, national sales manager for MAC Corp. (Grand Prairie, Texas), a company that emphasizes service throughout its business, from helping prospective clients determine the specifications their new equipment must meet, through full-scale testing and demonstrations, to installation, and beyond. "We like to have every customer happy. It's not just the spare parts business that we're after from a customer. If satisfied, each client can help sell at least five more machines."
The firm divides its volume and size reduction equipment product line into two groups: most of its scrap processing equipment carries the MAC Corp. brand name, but its Saturn Shredders Division also includes machines used by the scrap industry. The MAC line includes mobile and stationary auto crushers—the firm's initial products—as well as fabricated front-end-loader forks used with the crushers and nonferrous balers. The Saturn line is made up of rotary shear shredders—relatively slow-speed, high-torque units designed to process nonferrous metals and a wide variety of other materials, including plastics, paper, tires, and hazardous and radioactive waste. Both lines include conveyors and other accessories.
A First Flattening
A couple of guys running a Dallas salvage business called Parts Exchange laid the foundation for MAC Corp. by building a mobile car crusher in the late 1950s to feed hulks to the original automobile shredder operated in Houston by Proler Steel Corp. (now Proler International Corp.). Bob Flanagan designed the machine, a trailer with a 20-by-7-foot platform onto which a car hulk is placed and then flattened by two vertical hydraulic presses. Two or three more hulks can then be added to the package, easing the transport of hulks to automobile shredders and increasing the throughput of the shredders by providing denser feedstock.
After a few months of operation, the bottom fell out of the market for auto hulks and the company sold the original flattener. By 1965, however, growing interest in automobile shredding spread promise for the crusher. Flanagan and his partner, Jack West, and Norman Kramer, a scrap processor from Chicago , incorporated Mobile Auto Crushers Inc. in 1965 and sold their first flattener to a small Texas company; number two was sold through Luria Bros. (Cleveland), to one of its scrap suppliers. Then Luria Bros. itself bought the firm's first stationary crusher. Mobile Auto Crushers also went East, holding a demonstration at Proler's shredder in Boston , which resulted in several sales to area suppliers, spreading the word and expanding the range of the new equipment company.
What was the business like in those days? For one thing, the company's first facility consisted simply of a sheet metal building to house parts and a field where the crushers were welded together, reports Kramer, now assistant to the president of MAC . For another, "no one had any money," says West, who's now MAC 's executive vice president. Banks were unwilling to finance purchases of the new machine and many of the customers didn't have the cash for such a substantial piece of capital equipment, so Mobile Auto Crushers financed the sales themselves, arranging for the auto shredder operators to divert to the equipment company a portion of the payment for each hulk received from the crusher purchaser/operator.
In 1971, the owners sold the firm to the Woods Corp., a company with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange, but the principals remained involved. (Except Flanagan, who died that same year.) In order to serve processors of white goods and loose scrap, the firm then bought a baler-manufacturing company in Waco, Texas, called Hupp Systems, acquiring designs that resulted in several patents for the firm, which changed its name to MAC Corp. as it diversified. In 1980, MAC purchased Saturn Manufacturing (Wilsonville, Ore.), capturing that company's line of shredding equipment to further diversify, softening the impact of what Kramer calls the "enormous cyclical schisms" of the scrap processing industry.
MAC also moved to a new facility near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport , consolidating its operations. The 10-acre site has a main manufacturing building of more than 35,000 square feet, an 11,500-square-foot machine shop, an office, a large painting and mechanical facility, and a building for storage.
Reputation Building
MAC boasts that better than 95 percent of its 1,300-plus auto crushers delivered since 1965 continue to flatten auto hulks at an average rate of 8,000 to 10,000 per year. Early on, some handled up to twice that throughput, helping erase a backlog of hulks that had been collecting in America 's auto graveyards for decades.
The crusher's durability helped win loyalty from its first customers that continues today. "We've had the same people, the same customers, the same integrity from the very beginning—that's what built MAC ," says West. "We know everybody by their first name and they know we do what we say."
"In the scrap industry, MAC Corp. is the epitome of quality and credibility," says Kramer. "I think that now we've achieved that reputation for Saturn as well." Though Saturn products were "acceptable" when MAC took over the company, he says, the firm embarked on a rigorous effort to improve the reliability, maintenance demands, and longevity to the shredders. MAC 's engineers simplified systems, altered gear designs, and increased the amount of torque the units could deliver, among other changes.
The company's broad engineering and manufacturing know-how is a key MAC characteristic, according to John Crowley, who handles Saturn sales for the Western United States . "One of our strong points is that we manufacture almost all of the components in most of our systems. We build all of our own shells and all of our own gearing, so we're able to maintain very strict quality-control standards on the equipment."
Before any MAC machine is assembled, engineers carefully check that every component—both those crafted in the firm's machine shop and purchased parts, such as diesel motors and hydraulic components—matches specifications. Every completed machine is also "live tested" under the eye of a senior manager.
MAC has one full-time service engineer and two other technical staff who go on the road to install new equipment and provide on-site service. Though the firm derives revenue from service calls and parts sales, this consideration is secondary. "The addition of this service aspect provides our users with the most desirable company for all their needs," says Glen Newton, company president.
The Saturn line is sold through regional manufacturer's representatives with the technical support of a handful of in-house sales people, several of whom are engineers (as is Newton ). Though MAC 's scrap line has two reps—in Canada and New England —most of the equipment is sold directly by Kramer and West, who have deep ties to their scrap and auto dismantling customers. Kramer says scrap processors prefer to buy large equipment directly, expecting that it will bring better service. West notes also, "We've been in it so long and we have so much equipment out there, we figure our customers are our best salesmen."
Each sales person has specific product responsibilities and/or regional assignments, but "titles don't really mean much" at the firm, says Dedo, and teamwork is the norm. The firm takes advantage of the different backgrounds of those involved in sales, he says. For example, Kramer usually works with scrap processors, West with auto dismantlers, Crowley specializes in the emerging technologies, and Dedo and Newton handle major technical issues.
"The Texas Spirit"
MAC Corp. is a company that stresses "human relationships" with its customers and employees, says Kramer, who notes, "It's not easy to keep a very close human relationship and keep warmth and still be a very successful company. I think it's quite an achievement."
He says the warmth is a result of "a feeling of the people at the top—that has to be there—and I think part of it is that we're in a small rural area, too. If people come here from New York or from London , they are absolutely amazed at our ease, our nonconformity, and the social discourse between people. We exude the Texas spirit down here. It's not an official company policy, but it happens."
There's also a comfortable feeling among employees, says Kramer. "Even the plant people say it," he notes. "They say they've worked places where there was always a divisive situation between the office and plant personnel, and that's not obvious here; here we're all one and we enjoy that kind of a warm atmosphere."
MAC certainly holds onto its employees—for an average of 15 years each. "We have tremendous longevity," says Newton . Why? "We try to put something into our people," he says. "An employer has more responsibility to its employees than just providing a job and a paycheck. There's a responsibility to the individual." The firm's roster is comprised of just under 55 employees.
A Secure Path
MAC has enjoyed a "good growth pattern," even in 1990—when the scrap side of the business slipped with the economy, but some areas of the firm's recycling business continued to grow—says Dedo. But things slowed in 1991, with few customers looking to buy major capital equipment. (MAC 's machines fall in a price range of about $60,000 to $600,000.)
Dedo estimates that 75 percent of MAC 's shredder customers—especially the growing public-sector contingent—are first-time buyers, many looking to save a buck in tough times. "With the economy slow, everybody's fighting for the business that's out there. We're addressing that by stressing the quality and longevity we put into the machines, and try to impress the buyer with a long-term aspect of use, rather than the short-term recession thinking. After they've either bought a dog or investigated someone else's unsatisfactory purchase, they come around to us."
Diversification has helped MAC ride out the dips in the economy. The company has also moved into some very reliable, specialized niches, such as custom-designing radioactive and hazardous waste disposal equipment, by forming partnerships with firms in those fields that seek sophisticated shredding and baling expertise.
Innovation has also been key to the firm's success. Its auto crusher was designed with a patented system featuring two hydraulic units that operate in a coordinated see-saw fashion, reportedly producing a tighter package. Kramer also gives the firm credit for building the first system designed specifically to shred whole tires. MAC has also developed mobile versions of nearly all of its equipment.
Kramer says its customers—especially scrap processors—expect innovation from their vendors. "I give the scrap industry an excellent mark for being innovators," he says. "I think they come to convention exhibits to see something new and different. If they see it, they're thrilled; if they don't see it, they're disappointed. So, as a manufacturer to that industry you've got to keeping thinking ahead, just to gain respect and let people know that you are trying."
Today, MAC emphasizes customized systems that include material handling as well as processing equipment. Such systems allow the company to sell its design and engineering expertise in addition to its hardware and offer the user a single responsible party to contact for all facets of effective operation, the company says.
In addition to custom systems to meet unique volume-and-size-reduction needs, some new areas MAC leaders consider most promising for the firm for the foreseeable future are complete recycling of scrap tires and yard debris.
But what are MAC 's long-term goals? Kramer shrugs that question off, saying, "Ask the younger folks. I think we've achieved mine. What I wanted to do was build an organization that was known as the highest-quality company in the industry with impeccable integrity and high moral character, and I think we've achieved that." •
MAC Corp. has grown and diversified with the recycling industry, providing some of the tools and expertise on the forefront of the field.