How Woodstock Improved Their Furniture Waste Processing with the Komar Auger-Pak®
“It didn’t take but four or five minutes until we knew that (the Auger-Pak®) is what we wanted. When you can take a sleeper sofa and throw it in the hopper, and it is gone in just a few minutes…people don’t even understand when you say you can throw a sleeper sofa in it.” – Brian Aaron, President
“It made a HUGE impact on our business because it is confined to one area, it is very efficient to get the material into it and get it in place so that we can auger it. Life is good.” – Dale Roberts, Recycling and Fleet Manger
Company Description
Founded in 1988, Woodstock Furniture is the biggest independent furniture retailer in north Georgia. Family-owned and operated, out of five retail locations, Woodstock excels in making your home both beautiful and comfortable, with products that will last for years to come.
Challenges
INEFFICIENT LABOR-INTENSIVE PROCESSING
The ram compactors that Woodstock rented were breaking down constantly, and they couldn’t handle full-sized furniture waste.
That ram deal that we were renting, you couldn’t throw whole sofas and dressers and sleepers in it, that thing was tearing up anyway with just the other stuff. So, all the furniture…, we had literally a 26 ft truck, and that was all it was for.” -Brian Aaron
A 26-foot box truck had to be designated for stacking furniture waste to take to the landfill. This solution was inefficient, labor-intensive, and the hauling bills were high.
“We bring furniture back because it may be damaged in shipping, or something is returned that you just can’t resell. So, what we would have to do is bring it into an outside dock and load it onto a truck. Sometimes it wouldn’t be stacked well, and we would have to restack it just to take it to the landfill. We were making about two to three trips a week to the landfill, which required us to have two or three people on board the truck to get it unloaded. It was labor-intensive, and it was also wear-and-tear on the truck. We had to have a special vehicle that we just designated for that, and the fuel cost… Everything just wasn’t working out real well.” – Dale Roberts
Solution
FINDING THE RIGHT MACHINE FOR THE JOB
The builder for their new distribution center suggested they check out the Komar Auger-Pak® for bulk waste processing.
It was USSI who built the building, and we had a list of different manufacturers and different equipment, and Komar was there. When we looked at the auger and realized that you could get nine-plus tons in there (the receiving container), and we started looking and we thought this is a good idea.– Dale Roberts
The Komar sales manager arranged for a live demo at Safelight AutoGlass®.
“We go to Safelite and meet Sheldon, and they had a bunch of stuff waiting on us to demo it. It didn’t take but four or five minutes until we knew that (the Auger-Pak®) is what we wanted. When you can take a sleeper sofa and throw it in the hopper, and it is gone in just a few minutes…people don’t even understand when you say you can throw a sleeper sofa in it.” – Brian Aaron
Results
OPTIMIZED OPERATIONS, CUT LABOR, REPURPOSED THE BOX TRUCK AND REDUCED HAULING BY 75%.
The auger can handle all the furniture waste, even full-sized sleeper sofas.
“I call it the beast, we never put anything in that it couldn’t handle.” – Dale Roberts
Hauling trips went from three to four times a week to once a week.
“So, with the auger, which we call the beast, now all of that (the furniture waste and non-recyclables) goes in there (the auger) and gets basically mulched up, and so now we are getting 8-9tons on a container, which means we got about one trip a week going to the landfill” – Brian Aaron
Processing efficiency went up, labor costs went down
“It made a HUGE impact on our business because it is confined to one area, it is very efficient to get the material into it and get it in place so that we can auger it. Life is good.” – Dale Roberts
The Komar solution was a great investment.
“We would always recommend the product and the service that we have gotten from Komar. It’s been a great experience, and it pays us back every day” – Brian Aaron