Doonan Specialized Triples Trailer Production, Projects Continued Growth

Doonan Specialized Trailer LLC Management Staff - Left to right, Darrell Ochs, Michael O'Flannagan, Jack Dunn, Jody Wise, Matthew Hensiek, Kelly Zecha and Mike Gordy.

Mike Gordy, co-manager of Doonan Specialized Trailer, LLC, saw untapped opportunity when his management group purchased the Great Bend business in late September. The new owners, three members with more than 75 years of combined experience in the commercial trailer industry, figured Doonan to be a small business that carried a sterling reputation for building quality products with potential for significant expansion in platform trailer production. They couldn't have been more accurate with their assessment.

In the team's first quarter of its inaugural fiscal year of operation, Doonan is on pace to increase trailer production and sales by more than 200 percent compared to its historical annual numbers. Formerly known as Doonan Trailer Corporation, the company typically turned out 300 trailers a year; the new owners expect to manufacture 1,000 trailers this year and even more in future years.

Arc'n Sparks - Jesse Torres welds a subassembly for the rear bumper of a trailer. Doonan looks for experienced welders, but has recently implemented a program where it trains its own assembly workers at night. "When they pass the class, they have learned a new skill and as spots open for welders, they are on a list waiting for that job," said Gordy. "The extra-trained welders also create good back fill opportunities for us in situations of absenteeism and allows us to maintain productivity."

To handle the increased production, Doonan has grown from 87 to 116 employees during that six-month span and is operating 10-hour shifts five days a week. It even operates a limited second shift in its north facility to support assembly and sub-assembly work. "There's no end in sight with the work that's coming in," said Gordy, who operates the business with Elgen Reynolds and a silent member.

"Our growth is a planned event," he explained, "This company was a small-quantity generator of high-quality drop-deck and specialty trailers. There is a demand out there for our product because it has an excellent reputation. It's our expectation that we will grow significantly beyond the 2007 forecast of 1,000 trailers a year. We believe this plant has potential to go far beyond that."

Gordy's economic forecast comes with 30 years of commercial trailer experience in engineering, sales and operations. He left Southern Illinois and his position as vice president of industry leader Transcraft Corporation to take over daily operations of Doonan. Reynolds, who served alongside Gordy as chief financial officer of Transcraft for seven years before leaving the company, still lives in Illinois and joins Gordy in Great Bend one week a month. Their silent member is inactive in running the business, said Gordy, but is immersed into the sales side of the trailer industry.

Lead Guys - North plant production manager Michael O'Flannagan poses for a photo with team leaders George Read, Daryl Klepper, Arturo Sanchez, Terry Perez and Curtis Bailey. "I can direct all I want, but these are the guys that pull it all together," said Doonan co-manager Mike Gordy. "I have visions for us, but these guys make it happen."

Two key factors attracted the management team to Doonan. First, the name Doonan has more than three decades of quality reputation in the commercial trailer industry. Second the plant comprises two buildings that combine to provide 86,000 square feet of production space.

Besides trailer production, Doonan Trailer Corporation used to perform other services like steel fabrication and various trailer service work. Not anymore. Nowadays, Doonan focuses 100 percent on production of trailers. It provides the industry with standard drop deck, flatbed, double drop and oilfield trailers; and it will also manufacture specialty trailers for companies based on quantity possibilities. "We see opportunity and go after it at times when the big guys don't want to muddy up their assembly lines with the products," explained Gordy.

"That's why we have been able to grow the business," he added. "We have turned all the floor space into trailer production. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, you have to understand what the core services are and focus on those."

Detail Work - Production manager Darrell Ochs (middle) takes a photo with team leaders from Doonan's south plant, Dustin Alloway (left) and Larry Backstrom. Once the steel is welded and the frame is painted in the north plant, the trailers are moved to the south plant where aluminum components are added. The trailers then enter an adjoining room where electrical and air lines are connected and the floor is decked with wood.

In the south plant, Gordy pointed to the company's former service bay as an example. There, a crew was busy producing extendable boat trailers.

"It's a new flavor of an old design, and it's a good business for us," said Gordy.

With the company's emphasis squarely placed on trailer production, Doonan is manufacturing a record-high four trailers daily. That's up from the company's historical production of 1.2 trailers daily. The increase is impressive, considering every trailer produced is already sold to a dealer before work begins.

"We carry no inventory of our own," explained Gordy. "If there is a trailer sitting on the lot, it's already paid for."

Initially, Doonan has increased production by meeting the demand that already exists in the marketplace for its network of nearly 30 commercial trailer dealerships that it serves from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan to Louisiana and Tennessee to Arizona. The company has dealerships representing 18 states. Gordy said future growth will mainly come as the company expands its sales to other dealerships further east and west. Additionally, the management team views Canada as a lucrative market for its top trailer products.

Specialty Work - A Doonan employee sits in solitude as he welds a specialty beam for a trailer. The specialty trailer is built on a saw horse because it is too unusual for the assembly line. "The reason we have the word, specialty, in our name for the new company is to recognize the fact that we are building specialty products," said Gordy. "Even what we consider our standard line has more features on it than most competitors in the drop-deck business. We tend to take the higher option type trailers that other companies don’t want to do on a higher volume assembly line and produce them in our plants.

As production increases, Doonan has become creative in growing its workforce, training welders through night classes at its facility. Doonan's fold of MIG welders comprise the largest contingent of workers, followed by the general assembly workers. Doonan also utilizes aluminum and carbon steel welding. Since Gordy implemented the training program last October, nearly 20 employees have successfully trained as welders, providing a $2 per hour increase on average for those workers who hired on with a starting wage of $9.50 an hour as general assembly workers. Doonan also relies on a handful of painters and maintenance workers to move its product lines along and has a three-person sales staff that keeps orders coming in from Doonan’s dealership network.

"When we came here, we said we wanted to be an employer of choice in the community," said Gordy. "So far, I haven't found labor to be a problem with our competitive wages in place. On average any week I have about 30 applications sitting on my desk."

Gordy said Doonan's workforce has stabilized for the next six months, but the company will continue expanding its production by implementing efficiency improvements. Beyond that point, Gordy said the plan is to add positions to Doonan’s workforce as business continues to boom in the coming years.

"We're extremely pleased with the business. We purchased a company that had a wealth of knowledge in how to build a product and we've added members to that team to be able to supply a product that is needed. We are taking on new models to broaden our product lines and taking steps to offer our product to regions of the country to expand our dealer base and we have a facility that is large enough for us to grow for some time. With everything in place, we are ready to ramp it up to another level as we move forward.

Access more information about Doonan Specialized Trailer at www.doonan.com.

Trailer Team - Doonan Specialized Trailer, LLC, owners stand with Farmers Bank and Trust NA officials Aug. 30 at the Highland Hotel Heritage Room to commemorate the announcement that Doonan will receive a $25,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank. Pictured left to right are: Farmers employees Don Brenning, Darrell Touslee (holding check), Elgen Reynolds and Mike Gordy, co-owners of Doonan, and Farmers Bank president Gene Dikeman (holding check) along with loan officer Tom Kirkhart. The grant will help the custom trailer builder upgrade its blasting and painting facilities.