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BusinessJuly 14, 2003

Service area from Rocky Mountains to Eastern seaboard. By Lindsay Cummings Special to Business Today POPLAR BLUFF -- Through dedication, hard work and smart business practices, brothers David and Doug Libla have turned a small nail factory into an industry leader...

Service area from Rocky Mountains to Eastern seaboard.

By Lindsay Cummings

Special to Business Today

POPLAR BLUFF -- Through dedication, hard work and smart business practices, brothers David and Doug Libla have turned a small nail factory into an industry leader.

The Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce recently recognized their achievement by awarding Mid Continent Nail Corp., a division of Libla Industries, the Small Business of the Year Award.

Originally started in Malden in 1987, Mid Continent Nail Corp. was created by brothers David and Doug Libla in response to their own need for a high quality pallet nail. David and Doug Libla owned several successful pallet-making businesses.

During the 1980s automated machinery was introduced that made six to eight pallets a minute. These machines use around 400 nails per minute. If a nail is made to sub-standard quality, it could jam the machine.

Libla Industries created Mid Continent Nail Corp. to ensure the quality needed for their automated pallet manufacturing facilities.

"We did not intend to be in the nail manufacturing business," David Libla said. "Initially, the business was to make the nails for our own consumption. While we didn't know what was involved in making the nail in advance of our decision, we did know how the nail should be."

Through research and by touring other facilities, the Liblas set out to make their own nails. They met with success, and it was not long before other pallet manufacturers took notice.

"In 1986 we made our first nail," David Libla said. "As we refined the production process, we started having other pallet companies around the country become interested. We sold off the pallet business in '96. Now we focus just on nails and nail distribution."

In 1996, as Libla Industries decided to get out of the pallet-making business, Mid Continent Nail Corp. moved into Poplar Bluff Industrial Park. The company began taking market share as soon as new machinery could be attained. A second plant was opened in Radford, Va., to better service East Coast customers.

The plants have widened business to produce collated construction nails for use in nail guns, and their area of service stretches from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Eastern seaboard.

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As the business expanded, David Libla's wife, Mary, has taken charge of marketing and Web-based development. His daughter Marsha heads up customer service, and his son Jeff, supervises the first shift department. Doug Libla takes charge of the large accounts. Sales management is headed up by Kirk Henningsen.

The cut nail - or machined nail - has been used since the late 1700s when machines were first used to sheer strips of steel off of a plate and pound them into nails while other machines would head them. Today machines automatically take wire and produce the finished nail without much human intervention.

At Mid Continent, large spools of high carbon, steel wire are brought in by truck. The wire is fed through a machine and stretched to its desired length.

"It's like stretching a piece of bubble gum," said Plant Manager Chris Pratt. "After we have the thickness we want, the wire is put back onto reels and taken to the machine that will produce the nail."

The machine that will actually turn the wire into a nail is completely automated, needing only one attendant to ensure the process is completed. The wire enters into one end where it is cut to a desired length. One end is smashed to form the head. The unfinished nail then travels through an elaborate conveyor system that uses the magnetic properties of the steel nail to make them scoot along. The nail is pulled into a threading machine, which helps the nail hold firmly in the pallet. Finally, the nail is either collated or packaged in a 50-pound box and shipped to the distributor.

The process ensures a high quality product that performs well for the pallet building industry and other construction applications as well.

"Raw material goes in one side and a finished, boxed product comes out the other side," Pratt said. "It's wire, header, threader and into the box."

General Manager K.G. Sims estimates about 3,000 tons, 30,000 miles or 750,000,000 nails are produced monthly at the two plants. Machines create between 1,500 and 2,000 nails per minute and over 100 truckloads of finished product leave the on-site warehouse each month. Impressive as it is, this machinery does not come cheap.

Since 1996, Libla Industries has invested $10 million in the automated cellular production machinery. The investment makes Mid Continent Nail Corp. one of less than 10 domestic nail manufacturers who have remained profitable in recent years.

"We are one of very few that invested heavily over the last five years in anticipation of heavier competition from foreign sources," Libla said. "As a result we are one of very few that are profitable. We quietly went about business managing our affairs to the best of our abilities. We have had many sleepless nights trying to stay competitive and cut costs without cutting the employee."

The strategy has worked, but the battle is far from over. With increased costs in raw materials and rising insurance coverage for workers, the small-business environment is becoming increasingly competitive, and foreign manufactures in Asia provide fierce competition to domestic nail companies.

Libla Industries is looking at diversification and expansion of its product line to offer more than pallet and collated nails.

Lindsay Cummings is a staff writer at the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff.

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