Texas Forest Country Manufacturers Craft Success Around the Globe
Specialty manufacturing has forged a long history in the Texas Forest Country, turning out diverse products that reach across the United States and the globe.
Fortune 1000 companies, such as building materials heavyweight Temple-Inland and oil field equipment maker Lufkin Industries, grew from its soil and are still major presences in the region.
Family-owned companies are a big part of the region’s manufacturing base, which numbers some 26,300 workers.
In 1951, two brothers started Bright Coop after local chicken haulers expressed a need for wooden coops to get their birds to market.
The company, based in Nacogdoches, changed with the times, turning to plastic and metal coops and adding trailers and forklifts tailored for the poultry industry. Charles Bright, the younger brother, still runs the business.
Texas Farm Products Co. started in 1930 in Nacogdoches and makes livestock feed and pet foods, including premium and holistic offerings, sold under labels such as Precept and Precise. A new line will debut in spring 2010.
“Pet food has evolved, and the botanical ingredients that you find in a health food store for humans is what dog and cat owners want for their pets,” says CEO Bud Wright, the founder’s grandson.
The company employs about 160; the pet food ships to 30 countries; some lines, including ANF and Precept, are for the international market.
Wright estimates the business is evenly split between livestock feed and pet food, and Nacogdoches provides good access to markets for both. Regionally, small towns in East Texas and Louisiana are big destinations for Lone Star Feeds. The Port of Houston makes international shipping of pet foods convenient, though items destined for Asian markets are moved by rail from Houston to the Port of Long Beach in California.
Proximity to ports, major interstates and key markets, plus low land costs and an ample workforce, make the Texas Forest Country fertile ground for manufacturing investment.
In 1996, Vincent Vernon and his wife started Showcase Systems in Carthage in Panola County. The company designs and builds bottling plants and has worked in the Middle East, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico, some 20 different countries in all, Vernon says.
About 60 percent of Showcase’s business involves milk, water and juice. Detergents and bleach account for 30 percent. The remaining 10 percent is a mix that includes fluids for the agriculture and chemical markets, plus other odds and ends.
“The part of the plant that makes and fills the bottles is the same whether [the product is] windshield fluid or milk,” says Vernon, adding that Showcase is working on a new project with a California company to package powdered nutritional supplements.
In Shelby County, Port-A-Cool LLC manufactures portable cooling units for garages, warehouses and other similar sites. In 2009, the company introduced a new line of smaller, quieter units that can supplement home air conditioning systems.
All the company’s products use evaporative cooling, a technology that has made some strides since ancient Egyptians hung wet towels in the heat. Port-A-Cool is seeing growth in the residential market, says spokesman Leon Aldridge.
Customers also buy units to cool outdoor pool and patio areas. Evaporative cooling is gaining favor in the push for cleaner energy. “The fact that it is a natural process calls attention to it,” Aldridge says.
