General Manager Tim Grahn

Greetings from Panels Plus! I hope that you are having an enjoyable and successful year.

We continue to be busy at Panels Plus as more businesses expand their operations and continue to implement equipment to build wall panels and floor cassettes more efficiently. Orders through July are over 60% higher than this time last year and that is increasing our lead times. While current incoming order production schedules for new equipment may be longer than normal, we will work with each customer to build the best equipment and get it to you when you need it. I hope that you continue to be busy and that the housing market index and other economic indicators start to turn more favorable soon.

Panels Plus has added additional staff to increase production and we also hired a new resource to make final controls improvements to the Automated Sheathing Station. The new version will be displayed at the BCMC show this year in Columbus, OH on September 14-15. This product has been in testing at Panels Plus for some time and we are preparing the first units that will ship to customers. The changes made following the testing improved the speed and nail path of the Sheathing Station, making the operation smoother and more efficient. In addition, the operator can choose which components get nailed and which do not.

The Innovance R&D group has a list of exciting new products that will be developed over the next year, and they have already begun design work on an automated wall stacker.  Other changes will include adding automation to more Panels Plus products similar to the Automated Sheathing Station and developing new accessories.

Panels Plus is moving across town. We have outgrown our current manufacturing space and are moving into a space that is much larger. This change will allow Panels Plus to have more equipment on the assembly floor at the same time and will also allow us to create a more efficient plant layout. While this will cause a short delay in production during the move, it will allow Panels Plus to build equipment faster to reduce our lead times. The plan is to get moved by the end of September or early October.

Our employees recently had fun at a party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our sister company, Lou-Rich. The event was held at our county fairgrounds and consisted of games, food, drinks, prizes and a concert by country music pop singer and songwriter, Niko Moon.  This event was for the employees, retirees and their families and there was roughly 1,000 people in attendance. You can go to www.innovance.com to learn more about our family of companies.

I also encourage you to visit the Panels Plus website. Our marketing staff has been working continuously to keep our website and literature up to date. In fact, new product literature was just released. Panels Plus is also on LinkedIn and YouTube. Please visit us at www.panplus.com or write to us at sales@panplus.com.

I wish you a successful 3rd quarter!

Best Regards,

Tim Grahn, General Manager