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September 17, 2009
Employment at Winfield Consumer Products is steady, according to owner Bob Tyler, but manufacturing workers there have been on a four-day week since August 2008.
The current employment level is 87, according to Tyler.
The company sells into the automotive market, which has seen a decline in sales from 19 million to 9 million vehicles annually.
At the height of what Tyler called the “boom” in sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), in 2007, his company employed 120. The annual payroll then was over $5 million, he said.
Winfield Consumer Products principally makes Husky Liners, which include floor mats, cab and bed liners, mud flaps and other products for trucks and SUVs.
The payroll this year will be about $4 million, Tyler predicted.
“I think we’re doing really well,” he said, “even though last year was the worst year we’ve had in 10 years.”
He said January 2008, was the best month the company had ever had, and then, “It fell off a cliff.”
Sales at Winfield Consumer Products dropped but less than the market for trucks and SUVs as a whole. Nationally, sales of trucks and SUVs fell 50 percent, Tyler said, but sales at his firm fell only 25 percent.
“We’re not down as much as the truck and SUV market,” he said.
Since February of this year, Winfield Consumer Products sales have been on the increase, according to Tyler, and there is an upturn in the company’s outlook. But he is still conservative when talking about the future.
The spectacular market in 2007 may not be seen again, Tyler believes. Relating the truck and SUV market to the housing market, he said, things “never should have been that good.”
Winfield Consumer Products can be even more profitable at a lower level of sales in the future, Tyler believes. The company is profitable now and is nearly debt-free, he added.
Shipping has resumed on Fridays, which were “dead” after the firm went to a four-day week.
Mud flap sales are up. “I think people are keeping their vehicles and taking better care of them,” Tyler quipped.
Looking ahead, a line of similar products for cars has been developed, Tyler said.
Manufacturing at Winfield Consumer Products also went from two shifts to one last August, when some employees were laid off. The slower pace has allowed more time for new product development, Tyler said.
The company has its eye on a new product “in plastics,” according to Tyler, but he did not want to reveal any details The company has picked up new customers, too, one of which is J.C. Whitney, a major auto parts warehouse firm.
The four-day work week gives employees a three-day weekend, which most of them like, according to Tyler. But it also means a 10-percent reduction in hours and pay, and has led some employees to take second jobs.
Seven or eight employees were laid off in August 2008, Tyler said, when Winfield Consumer Products moved quickly to cut costs. “I thought it was better to do it then, when Calmar was hiring, than to wait,” Tyler said.
Calmar manufactures plastic bottle sprayers at the Winfield Industrial Park.
The workforce at Winfield Consumer Products has been loyal, Tyler said, and more employees than not have been with the company for 10 years or more. Financial officer Greg Thompson confirmed the figure at 59 percent.
The firm has not hired any new employees in the past two years, according to Tyler.
Husky Liners are sold into the warehouse market for auto parts, now including J.C. Whitney. Those warehouse firms then sell to auto parts dealers like NAPA and O’Reilly’s.
Customers can find outlets for Husky Liners on the company’s Web site, HuskyLiners.com, and can also buy them directly.
Competition has been a factor in recent months, Tyler said, but about 18 months after a new competitor enters the market, the rate of sales growth at Winfield Consumer Products almost always recovers.
Those rates are upward again. Sales to foreign markets have grown to about 10 percent of the company’s total, Tyler said, with Canada and Russia leading the way.
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