Framed for Big Success

Originally published in Wisconsin State Journal, April 5, 2008. Written by Barry Adams

And if the growth projections over the next seven years for Uniek -- the largest manufacturer of picture frames in the nation -- hold true, keeping an eye on the minutia will continue, whether it's the design of a frame, using recycled materials or buying better pallets to reduce damage to packaged frames during shipping.

The company's leader, Tom Pyle, who helped resurrect battery maker Rayovac in the 1980s, also knows that his company is bucking the trend for picture-frame manufacturers, most of whom do their work beyond U.S. borders.

"We are competitive on a global basis," Pyle said. "But, more importantly, we have the ability to respond quickly. One of the things about sourcing in the Far East is that it's a very long supply line. We can make it here relatively quickly and we can get it to the customer very rapidly."

When Pyle, 66, purchased the company in 1998, it had annual revenue of about $20 million. Revenue for 2007 topped $130 million. Pyle expects that number to double by 2015.

Big name customers

At the company's massive plant in this growing village's east side industrial park, about 400 workers make 30 million plastic picture frames a year.

Uniek's biggest customer is Wal-Mart, but others include Green Bay-based ShopKo, Eau Claire-based Menards and Woodman's, headquartered in Janesville. Kmart, Walgreen's, Office Depot, Hobby Lobby and Michael's are also major customers, but the company also does business with smaller stores, too.

In 2001, the manufacturing facility was expanded from 145,000 to 240,000 square feet. When the original 45,000-square-foot plant was built in 1989, it was one of the first tenants in the industrial park that is now brimming with activity over nearly 300 acres.

"It's kind of a home-grown industry," said Kim Wilde, the village's administrator. "They've made use of real cutting-edge technology to maintain their competitiveness. It's exciting to see how successful they've been."

One of the most recent additions to the company is a 10,000-square-foot research and development center, located just up the street from the manufacturing plant. The bright, smartly decorated facility that opened in July provides space for finished products to be showcased and meeting space for focus groups that help a team of six product and four graphic designers come up with ideas for products.

To better understand how their products are marketed, a large portion of the facility is used to re-create picture-frame aisles found in stores that sell Uniek products.

"You truly want to understand where the marketplace is going," said Robin Provost, Vice President of Design and Creative Services, who started with the company in 2002. "We weren't known as a leader in design. Now we're known as a design leader and innovation leader."

The plastic picture frames manufactured in Waunakee account for between 40 to 50 percent of the items it sells. Other products include wood picture frames made in Asia, framed mirrors, photo albums and craft items. In most cases, the Uniek name isn't visible to the consumer, something vastly different from Pyle's experience with Rayovac, the Madison battery company he owned and operated in the 1980s and 1990s.

"The level of brand awareness in this business is very, very low," Pyle said. "What that means is that your design and price points become very important."

Teamwork, Automation

In the manufacturing plant, teams of employees work in unison with automated machines and technology.

Some employees work on a line assembling injection-molded, one-piece frames, putting in glass and backing as the still-warm frames come off the machines.

Others staff plastic extrusion machines resemble Play Dough machines. The machines melt plastic and then push the mixture through a die to give it the desired shape. The long sticks of plastic are then embossed and colored before being cut into about 10-foot lengths. The sticks, which can vary from 1 to 4 inches in width, are then cut and assembled into different-sized picture frames.

The extrusion machines and co-extrusion machines, which add a foaming agent to the plastic to make frames lighter, run three shifts, seven days a week and crank out about 50 million feet of framing material a year, said Jeff Armstrong, Vice President of Manufacturing.

At the assembly line, larger frames are manually put together with power nailers while smaller frames can be assembled with a four-armed robotic machine capable of doing up to 500 frames an hour. Another machine that inserts matting and a backing for the frames can do 1,000 frames an hour.

"It still doesn't eliminate labor," Armstrong said. "We're always going to be a large employer."

Recycling is central to the production process. More than 95 percent of the plastic used in the frames comes from recycled material. About 30 percent of the recycled plastic is from waste scrap from within the plant while the remainder is from an outside vendor.

"We're trying to insulate ourselves from the (plastic) resin market," Armstrong said. "We feel we have a huge competitive advantage but we still have to work hard every day."

In the 100,000-square-foot distribution center, where there are positions for 13,000 pallets, cases of picture frames are electronically tracked. Up to 40 trucks a day depart the facility and that number increases to up to 80 a day during the company's run up to Christmas, said Ed DeMeo, Director of Distribution.

Since 2006, Uniek has also been buying better pallets. The result is fewer damaged cases of frames, which are more prone to topple with shoddily made pallets.

"It's one of those things that you don't think about, " said DeMeo. "We make it very hard for our customer to go to somebody else."

COMPANY PROFILE: UNIEK
Address: 805 Uniek Drive, Waunakee
Type of business: Largest manufacturer of plastic picture frames in the nation
Employees: 400
Revenue: $130 million
http://www.uniekinc.com/

Pyle has clear picture for Uniek frames

WAUNAKEE -- Uniek was founded in 1988 by Greg Wenkman, who had spent the previous 10 years running his own injected-plastic product company called Traco.

He sold the company to Menasha Corp. in 1984 and then stepped out as its executive director in 1987. A year later, he started Uniek, which included buying the craft division of office supplier W.T. Rogers Co.

After its first year, Uniek, then located in a 35,000-square-foot building on Stoughton Road on Madison's East Side, had $1.5 million in sales and 35 employees.

While Wenkman was building his plastics businesses, Tom Pyle was turning around the struggling Rayovac Corp. When Pyle and his then-wife, Judy, acquired a majority stake in the company in 1982, the one-time powerhouse of the battery industry had fallen on hard times.

When the company was sold to Thomas H. Lee of Boston in 1996, annual sales for that year topped $665 million. A year later, in 1997, top Rayovac officials bought out the Pyles' remaining shares in the company, which in 2005 changed its name to Spectrum Brands.

In 1998, Pyle's investment company, The Pyle Group, purchased a majority interest in Uniek.

"We thought it was a nice-sized business in a good-sized, growing category," said Pyle, a Philadelphia native who got his MBA from UW-Madison in 1963. "We thought there was good opportunity to build it and grow it."

Pyle, who would rather talk about his company's future than his own past successes, began his career with management positions at Bristol Myers and Procter & Gamble, and then became president of the Butterick Fashion Marketing Co., a home-sewing supplier in New York.

His focus now is clearly on picture frames and staying competitive in a hyper-competitive industry.

"We've made a lot of progress," Pyle said. "We want to be the best managed company in the industry."