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EM Sales, LLC is a limited liability company which traces its beginnings to a predecessor company called PRS Materials, Inc. (PRSM), a closely held Pennsylvania corporation headquartered in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1984, to assure that proper attention would be paid to new products and the future of recycled waste, Nicholas P. Recchi, President and principal stockholder of PRSM, and Richard D. Turner, C.P.A. and general partner of T & A Associates, formed PRS Materials, Inc. with Richard Turner as President.
Since its inception, PRSM specialized in the distribution and marketing of waste to resource products. Two employees, Ronald Alexander, a Delaware Valley College graduate with a degree in horticulture and Franklin Boyer, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, were hired to help develop and implement a marketing plan for the EarthMate product line. The training and experience of PRSM’s personnel enabled it to implement the marketing programs it developed.
The success of a marketing campaign to retailers was highly dependent upon product demand and acceptance by the end users. To minimize initial expenses and assure our getting the end user's reaction to the product, we adopted a direct sales approach. Since we were unable to implement our sales campaign until the late fall of 1984, we knew our success or failure would not be known until the next major growing season. Our off-season hard work and dedication to the plan was rewarded by the sale of 125 tractor trailer loads (approximately 5000 cubic yards) of product in the spring of 1985.
In July of 1985, PRSM signed a new twenty year exclusive contract for the market territory of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
During the next year, PRSM concentrated on increasing sales volume by developing a customer base which would take significant amounts of product on a regular basis. We selected established, respected and well located retail businesses to receive marketing support, customer referrals, inclusion in PRSM print advertising, and price considerations. These customers were termed "stocking dealers" and provided PRSM with a substantial sales base throughout the year.
Our next target market was major users such as large landscapers, growers and other end users. A campaign to have the product used by major governmental agencies in their projects was also instituted. We were quite successful in this area and have maintained a high reorder rate among these professional customers.
PRSM anticipated many communities would use composting as the long term solution to the disposal problem. The cities could produce large quantities of product but would not be in a position to market it themselves. PRSM had a marketing operation and distribution channel in place and would likely be requested to sell the compost. Our projections showed a large volume of product being produced in our territory, so we began taking steps which would allow us to market additional material.
Two outside salespeople were hired to begin a marketing effort in geographic areas not previously visited and to more fully penetrate established markets. Programs directed to specific groups, such as landscape architects, were developed and implemented to begin having compost specified for renovation and construction projects.
By late 1987, there were a total of seven plants in our market area producing product. As expected, a significant increase in supply had resulted, but this was also the first time we had sufficient material to meet customer demand during the Spring season.
Also in 1987, other products were added to our line of landscape materials and the offices of PRSM were moved to a much larger facility in West Chester, PA to provide additional expansion capabilities.
The Spring of 1988 was our best season by far. More product than ever was sold as we entered markets which had not previously been explored. The programs established the year before were in place and the salespeople could provide a complete package of how to renovate different turf types, the products to use, and the follow up maintenance required.
In the Fall of 1988, EarthMate compost became available in 40 pound bags. The reason for bagged EarthMate was to allow even further penetration of the homeowner market and the added name recognition of "EarthMate" at large retailers. Since they were organic and because bagged products were sold by many of our current customers, this line of products was a good fit with our existing lines.
Our original goal of fifty EarthMate Stocking Dealers by Spring of 1989 was attained. In addition, wholesale locations were established to move significant quantities of product during that year. Our thrust is to use those existing locations which are highly regarded in the industry and have a large client base.
In early 1996, we outgrew the West Chester facility but also noticed the first signs of a market becoming saturated with supply. Municipalities were being sold on the idea that constructing compost plants was the answer to their disposal problems. Companies selling compost facilities pitched the ease of marketing compost in an effort to sell their production facilities without regard to whether the market wanted the type of compost to be produced.
Over the next few years, compost plants came on line which produced products which did not meet marketing specifications nor the needs of the market. This caused inferior compost to be sold at reduced prices or given away, destroying the price point and quality characteristics which set EarthMate apart from other products.
Due to poor design, losses in the millions of dollars and a lack of sales, many of the newly constructed plants closed within a few years of coming on line. The damage had already been done in the marketplace, however and PRS M decided to exit the marketplace in 2004 when contractual requirements demanded by producers became excessive.
By 2006, there were only a handful of producers left along the East Coast, and we were contacted by the largest of these and asked to resume marketing their product. At this point, EM Sales, LLC (EMS) was formed and began re-establishing the marketing plan implemented years before. Stocking dealers and major landscape contractors were, one again, the primary customers; many of them the same customers from the early PRSM days.
EMS is researching various new compost products which can be marketed through the existing distribution channels. Growers mixes, topsoil mixes, and construction mixes are three of the most promising compost blends under consideration.
EMS is also looking for other lines of business to enter in an effort to reduce the seasonal nature of the landscape supply industry. We continue to pursue the acquisition of other product lines or businesses which will 1) complement our existing products, 2) provide good value for the customer, 3) can be integrated easily into our current office systems, and 4) provide year-round opportunities for sales growth.
In order to assure continued, undisrupted growth, it is important to establish a solid foundation We have invested in our future by obtaining computing power, designing a business system, and setting a corporate strategy flexible enough to readily expand to include new products and markets.
Through research, a multitude of uses for waste products are being discovered. The expansion of our product line through the addition of new products and production facilities appears assured. We have far surpassed our original goals through hard work and attention to detail. And we look forward to an even more prosperous future.
E-mail: info@emsalesllc.com
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