B.R. Williams expands area of expertise

 [From The Anniston Star]

B.R. Williams Trucking Inc. turned 50 last year. But rather than settle in for the golden years of senior citizenship, the company is expanding during a tough economic climate to better serve customers.

In recent years the company has moved beyond its trucking and warehouse business into the foray of crate building. If a local defense contractor needs an item shipped overseas, B.R. Williams is equipped to meet shipping crate standards, thanks to a new wood shop.

“The main push for this is because we’re not only trying to be a trucking and warehousing company, but we want to be a full logistics company,” said marketing and sales director Misty Skinner.

“Now we’re fully equipped to do all of it from beginning to end,” she said. “Not only can we transfer or store things for our customers, but now we want to package it for them as well. We don’t want to buy (shipping crates). We’ll build it ourselves.”

Skinner said the company has mostly built crates for automotive and defense industry businesses, but is looking forward to expanding to other areas. Crates of all sizes can be produced in the wood shop.

“We’ve made some that are super small — for example, one that can hold a wrench to be shipped to Egypt in order to fix a military vehicle — to a huge one the size of a room,” she said. “We don’t care if it’s a tiny or a huge order. What we focus on is custom.”

“If you want to ship a bike, we’ll build a crate around it for you.”
Wood shop manager Kurt Heiland has been in the business of building crates for 25 years, and joined B.R. Williams recently. He said most of the wood used is grown in Alabama.

Along with custom building, Heiland said the company’s specialty is being able to heat-treat the wood, a requirement for overseas shipping. The process heats the wood to at least 133 degrees for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Heiland said this process, overseen by the International Plant Protection Convention and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, kills insects living in the lumber. He also said that the process could be mandatory for any kind of shipping in the future.

The expansion into the crate-building business has been good for B.R. Williams, even with the recent economic downturn. Heiland said more than 600 crates were constructed at the wood shop in the last month. Skinner said the company has produced more than 6,000 since January.

The wood shop is staffed with more than 15 employees currently, Skinner said, but with more orders, more local jobs could be created.

“Every crate we create is handmade; it’s not made by a machine,” she said. “There are guys out there cutting the wood, measuring the wood, and designing the crate specifically for you.”