Beltservice, UBR eye bright future together

ST. LOUIS—For years, Beltservice Corp. and Universal Belting Resource L.L.C. were friendly competitors and respected partners, at times vying for the same business and in other cases supplying each other with materials for conveyor belt fabrication.

Following the recent purchase of the Carmichaels, Pa.-based UBR by Beltservice, the companies now call each other colleagues—and the two former industry rivals are looking toward a bright future together.

Terms of the July 31 acquisition were not released.

"Everyone at UBR is extremely excited to join the Beltservice team," said Vernon Smith, president of UBR. "Being part of Beltservice will allow UBR continued growth in the distribution market. Beltservice and UBR share the same focus of supporting distribution, and together we will become a better supplier to our customers."

No changes in personnel are expected with the acquisition, said Ken Engelsmann, the fourth-generation president of the family-owned Beltservice.

UBR adds about 50 employees to Beltservice's 375 workers, located across 10 North American facilities, with eight in the U.S. In addition, UBR brings 53,000 square feet of fabrication space to Beltservice's total of 700,000 square feet at its 10 sites.

Beltservice purchased UBR from Cumulus Companies Inc., a Merriam, Kan.-based holding company.

"Beltservice is the correct company to carry on UBR's outstanding history of service to distribution," Cumulus Chairman Stephen Cloud said. "The Beltservice family and entire team operates in much the same way Cumulus operates UBR. Just like Beltservice, our family-owned company cares for its employees."

The family values employed by both Beltservice and UBR are virtues to be celebrated, Engelsmann said.

"The big attraction for us is Beltservice's longevity and its abilities," Smith said. "Beltservice is a family-owned company and this transition was very important to us, moving to another family-owned environment."

The two companies also maintain similar marketing goals, with philosophies that dovetail as they relate to a complete dedication to their distribution and OEM-direct customers.

"We have long been admirers of UBR as both a competitor and a customer," Engelsmann said. "We have respected them in the industry for a very long time—for their service levels, reliability and support for distributors."

While Beltservice works in both heavy duty and lightweight belting, a majority of the lightweight fabrication duties will be taken on at UBR's Carmichaels facility, where UBR fabricates primarily in polyurethane and polyvinyl chloride belting materials.

Overall, Beltservice serves the agricultural, auto and foundry, construction, energy, food, logistics, lumber, mining, waste and recycling industries with its light and heavy duty, interwoven PVC and incline belting.

For the foreseeable future, UBR will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of Beltservice, meaning it will retain its brand and name recognition.

"The facility in Carmichaels will remain dedicated to PU and PVC products and will be the centerpiece of all future lightweight belting efforts," Engelsmann said. "We want to take our time to figure out the best features of both companies. There is value in both the UBR and Beltservice reputations.

"We need to be intelligent as to how we do this."

As future branding is ironed out, Smith said UBR will take advantage of the "synergies and opportunities that are available."

"We need to listen to what the market is telling us and continue to think about our customers and distributors," Engelsmann said.

Future challenges

While the existing 50 or so UBR employees are secure in their jobs and excited for the transition, Smith said, the overall labor market continues to pose a problem.

"This is easily our No. 1 problem," Engelsmann said of hiring and retention.

As demand skyrockets in the food and packaging and logistics markets for lightweight belting, businesses like Beltservice and UBR need to be fully staffed to meet this spike.

"We are still meeting customer demand," Engelsmann said. "Both businesses are doing very well."

Like many industries, supply line challenges are present in the belting space as well. But there is strength in numbers, and shared inventories between UBR and Beltservice should allay some supply line difficulties.

"There are similar issues for off-shore suppliers," Smith said. "But with this acquisition, we are now able to benefit from shared inventories.

"I say bring it on—we're good. We have a strong, mature customer base that is more than willing to work with us on alternatives. If they can't get 'x,' they take 'y.' That is one of the big advantages in placing a premium on customer relationships."

The merger will allow Beltservice to leverage UBR's unique fabricating capabilities in the lightweight belting space, namely via UBR's machines and equipment and custom specification capabilities, Engelsmann said.

"They have a tremendous amount of know-how—their facility is more than double the space for a product line. They have great rotary slitter and longitudinal press as well as welding machines. Most importantly, they have a dedicated, well-trained employee base and they are super responsive to customers.

"They can turn things around quickly."

Engelsmann said the timing was right for both businesses with the acquisition.

"We have experienced very strong growth, double-digit growth, over the last five years," Smith said. "To continue this growth pattern, to take advantage of opportunities, this made a lot of sense to do this now."

Smith added he expects demand for belting in the food industry to continue to rise, and Engelsmann said the combined company will continue to place a premium on industrial distribution.

"We are very bullish on industry in the U.S. right now," Engelsmann said. "There is potential for on-shoring of manufacturing once again and we expect that markets will continue to be strong."

Family values

Founded by George Engelsmann in 1892, the Missouri Belting Co. produced leather conveyor belts for the food and packing industry, namely meatpacking, a dominant market in St. Louis at the turn of the century.

By 1921, William H. Engelsmann, George's son, joined the business, working for the company until 1969.

At that point, William sold his interest and formed a new company—the beginning of Beltservice Corp.

Representative of strength and speed, a running cougar became the new Beltservice logo—a fitting logo now for UBR as well, with its quick order turnaround time.

Over the coming decades, Beltservice added subsidiary conveyor belting companies in Mexico and Canada, and established eight different locations in the U.S. that incorporated automation and the ability to make custom-cut parts.

Plant modernizations continue to this day, Engelsmann said.

Now in its fourth generation of family leadership, Dick Engelsmann serves as chairman at Beltservice, Tom Acker is CEO and Ken Engelsmann is president.

As for UBR, Vernon Smith serves as president; his son, Jim Smith, serves as vice president and Linda Berish is vice president of finance.

"Vernon Smith is a true leader in the industry, his insights are very valuable and we are thrilled to be joining our efforts with UBR," Engelsmann said. "UBR is a great fit because they believe as we do in a sales channel that supports distributors rather than competes with them. This acquisition is about bringing two great companies together to better serve customers."

Smith added that "there is a lot of excitement at UBR right now."

"From the UBR side, everyone here is really excited to move forward and watch the business grow at a rate that we know it can grow," he said.