In January of 2020, Lancaster Products/Kercher Enterprises owner, Curt Snyder, acquired the assets of Bradley Pulverizer and we are thrilled to add over 130 more years of complementary industry experience to our 70+ years. While each will continue to operate as 3 separate businesses, we are already leveraging the benefits of the new acquisition. When Snyder first explored this opportunity he immediately identified 5 primary synergies between the businesses that would benefit from cross-company collaboration and improve efficiencies to benefit our organizations as well as our combined pool of clients.
In just a short amount of time a strategic plan has been instituted to align the best of all 3 companies with a focus on the following:
Product Line Synergies
The market’s response to the combination of Lancaster Products and Bradley Pulverizer has been outstanding. In fact, we’re already working with clients to implement equipment from both of our companies into their production lines. Afterall, it is not uncommon to find pendulum roller mills, classifiers, and separators in the same processing plants (or even the same processing line) along with high shear mixers, roll crushers, and table feeders.
Examples of a process line that takes advantage of Lancaster Products and Bradley Pulverizer equipment a is a Lancaster roll crushers feeding crushed catalytic converter materials to a Bradley air swept mill to be pulverized for further processing. Another example is a Bradley mill turning materials into a fine powder to be mixed, pelletized, and granulated into marketable end-product by a Lancaster high shear mixer.
Furthermore, the Kercher Industries custom fabrication division works closely with our engineers to accommodate special fabrication requests in-house. These product line synergies are unique to the market in that we offer several types of materials processing machines engineered together from one source complete with secondary equipment and customizations.
Overlap in Industries Served
Bradley Pulverizer was established in 1886 and Lancaster Products traces its origin back to 1930, which amounts to an unprecedented level of experience across a wide, but common, spectrum of industries. Some of the industries most commonly overlapping are cement, building materials, ceramics, glass, fertilizers and phosphates, steel, mineral fillers, clay, coal, and pigments. The overlap in both industries served as well as the process applications within those industries not only allows us to provide more equipment to a wider audience, but it also affords our customers the ability to consolidate supply chains, engineering time, production time, and more.
Expansion of Manufacturing and Fabrication Capabilities
Lancaster Products and Bradley’s manufacturing footprints are complementary with little overlap in capabilities. Lancaster Product excels at fabrication (laser, saw, bend, weld, assemble) and small CNC machining. Bradley Pulverizer specializes in large machining. Now both companies can insource more work to their sister company. This allows for better control over scheduling, inventory control, shop utilization and quality.
These expanded manufacturing and fabricating capabilities also benefit our customers as they minimize outsourcing to third parties and therefore consolidate the supply chain. Furthermore, the combined manufacturing resources allow us to partner with our customers at more of a turnkey systems level by providing a greater level of customizations and ancillary equipment.
Leverage Existing Global Sales Channels
Lancaster Products has traditionally managed its international accounts from our headquarters in central Pennsylvania, but Bradley Pulverizer has maintained an international office in the United Kingdom with a mature international sales network. These newly combined sales channels will give both companies a much larger presence both domestically and internationally. As mentioned above, the many synergies between the product lines, processes, and industries across both companies means less time needed to ramp up each of these sales channels.
Leveraging these existing sales channels allows our customers to work with reps who are experienced in regional markets and familiar with regional business practices. Not only can we meet with more customers on-site and in person, but it also helps us to provide business terms that are more in-line with various international regulations.
Enhanced Business Efficiencies
Over the last few years Kercher & Lancaster Products have undergone a transformation to modernize and become more efficient. We have learned a tremendous amount about building a more competitive business that can take advantage of numerous marketing and operational opportunities. These opportunities which include digital marketing, lean principles, sales pipeline management and enhanced engineering practices. The combined businesses can leverage numerous internal manufacturing and operational learnings to accelerate the business and better position them to take advantage of opportunities.
In addition to the aforementioned synergies, there are numerous other efficiencies within the business that are driven by scope and scale. The ability of the combined business to leverage savings from a larger entity with improved negotiating powers. We believe these synergies will allow for a better value proposition for our customers and employees. The combined businesses are now a stronger more capable entity that can deliver a better customer experience.
Contact us today to discuss your next materials processing project and see for yourself how you can benefit from these improvements.
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