Robert Taylor’s grandfather, W. A. Taylor Sr., started Taylor Machine Works in 1927, and his father, W. A. “Bill” Taylor Jr., created The Taylor Group of Companies in 1992.
Nearly 100 years later, as one of the third-generation owners of the Louisville, Mississippi-based material handling manufacturing company, Robert serves as president and chief operating officer along with his brother, Lex Taylor, who is CEO, and his sister, Teresa Taylor Ktsanes, who is director of marketing. They’re even joined by fourth-generation family members, who have become involved with the business.
“Not only from an ownership standpoint, but you wouldn’t believe how many second-, third-, and fourth-generation team members we have who have been with us and are part of our team carrying on the legacy of Taylor,” he said.
The generational component is important to you and the company, but that mimics a lot of the sawmills and suppliers you work with, right?
I tell that very story when I talk to people, suppliers, and industry professionals. The forest products industry, especially in this market, is the last of the family companies out there – and it’s multi-generational.
Every time I go to these different association meetings, where I used to be the youngin’ in the crowd, now I’m the old guy. Then our children are talking to their children and their children’s children. That’s the American Dream, and that is very special.
Part of the American Dream is being a homeowner, right? Where do homes come from? Wood, which is what you work with. Taylor does a lot beyond just forest products, but why is the wood part so important to you?
This is where we started. The very first Taylor product was the Logger’s Dream. It was the first mechanized way of skidding logs out of the wood and loading them onto a truck. Those Logger’s Dreams replaced mules, mule teams, wagons, and log sleds.
The forest products industry is integral to our business; it’s 30% of our business. We’ve diversified into some other things, but it is still one of the core parts of our business. We look at trends and try to understand where things are going and what mill owners want. That forklift is just another piece of sawmill equipment that’s making a mill owner money every day.
One of those big trends is sustainability, right? Talk a little bit about what Taylor has done to be more environmentally friendly and support that sustainability mission.
Over the past five years or so, we have put a tremendous amount of investment and engineering into 100% battery electric. We now have a full product line of battery-electric equipment. It’s typically a one-shift machine. We’ve made two-shift machines, but the one-shift seems to satisfy the need at this point.
We don’t think that’s the only item in this journey to zero emissions. The next step we’re working on is hydrogen fuel cells. We’re coming out with that in our container handling equipment in the next couple of years. If hydrogen infrastructure continues to evolve as being a true, available commodity, the ultimate goal will be a hydrogen internal combustion engine. We’re in an agreement with Cummins to put in the first beta engine hydrogen internal combustion engines that don’t have to be charged.
Many people think of the forest products industry as old and never-changing, but then you hear all about this cool stuff, and it really makes you rethink what you think is an antiquated industry really isn’t that antiquated anymore.
Sawmill owners don’t talk about heavy metal equipment anymore. It’s very obvious there’s nothing antiquated about any sawmill that’s still in business; the investment these guys have put and are putting into their manufacturing methodology is unbelievable. The forest products industry, from a technology standpoint, is probably one of the leaders in technology, and it’s just going to continue to grow and evolve to get that efficiency out of lumber production.
What is the most renewable product on the planet? It’s forest products. You can’t get any more renewable than that. So, the old days of people fussing about cutting trees? No more. We made the full circle in the lumber industry.
This is what you do for a living, and you grew up in this industry, but why do you like this industry so much? What excites you?
Probably the main thing is the family portion, and, even in the big companies, there are a lot of second, third, and fourth generations. The other side is the actual people themselves. These are not corporate people who don’t give a rip about anybody. These are real people who have to put out production every day. They live it, they eat it, they breathe it, they sweat it, and it’s in their blood. It’s the excitement when they talk about what they do.
It also excites us to be part of the mill planning on the front end … anything we can do that makes you carry that bunk of lumber less. We’re working on technology to efficiently load a truck, so when a guy goes up there, he knows exactly where to put that bunk of lumber to get the most efficiency when loading his truck.
Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. Lean mean operating machines. I love it. You answered most of my questions right there, so I’m going to jump to my favorite question and ask you to pull out your crystal ball. Where do you see this industry in 10 years? What do you think it’s going to look like? What are we going to be doing?
As time goes on and family circumstances change, we’re going to see more consolidation. With the technology that’s going on in engineered woods, we’re going to see more buildings and facilities with more wood.
There are going to be more products made of wood from a sustainability factor. We’re going to see products that are more bug-resistant, more fire-resistant, more all of the above … that make this industry continue to thrive and grow. We’re still going to build houses.
It’s a strong industry that will continue to be strong. It may evolve somewhat, but from an efficiency factor, if you look at what it was to what it is now, the next 10 years of technology that’s going to become available will be amazing.
The Southern Forest Products Association’s A Cut Above series highlights and introduces to the Southern Pine lumber community and the greater world the amazing people who are part of our community and help keep Southern Pine among the premiere wood species domestically and internationally!