Paul Ross, President & CEO of Douglas Manufacturing, Discusses The Acquisition By Rulmeca Group
Douglas Manufacturing, known for top-quality conveyor components, is now part of the Rulmeca Group. What does this mean for the company and its customers? Paul Ross, the CEO of Douglas, gives us the details. Let’s dive into the conversation and find out what changes and opportunities this acquisition with Rulmeca brings.
Understanding the Rulmeca Acquisition’s Significance for Douglas
Joining with Rulmeca means that Douglas Manufacturing will begin to grow at a much faster pace than we would have had we not joined together. Rulmeca has made and will continue to make significant investments in our pulley product line and our idler product line, making significant investments in our people and our processes that will help us to become one of the largest pulley and idler manufacturers in the United States within the next 24 months. This will improve our quality, our throughput, and also help us to drive down costs as we leverage their global supply chain and make American-made products.
Community Impact
Rulmeca’s investments in Douglas Manufacturing will create a lot of job opportunities for the Pell City, St. Clair County community over the next two years and they will create a lot of opportunities for our existing team members as we continue to grow and progress. Rulmeca is dedicated to helping the local community through charitable contributions and active involvement in the community, and we look forward to bringing this on board and enhancing this tradition of our company by being engaged in the local community.
Exploring the Positive Impacts of the Acquisition
Joining together with Rulmeca creates a lot of opportunities for Douglas Manufacturing and will help ensure our continued growth and success for many years to come. Together, Douglas and Rulmeca represent over 105 years of combined experience in the industry. They bring a wealth of knowledge to us as we do to them, and we will leverage this knowledge in our current capabilities to improve the deliverables we offer to our customers. What this means is we will be improving lead times, improving products, improving inventory levels, improving our sales team, and making improvements across the board that will lead to us becoming one of, if not the best conveyor component manufacturer in the United States.
Preserving Local Roots Amidst Global Expansion
While Douglas Manufacturing is going to quickly grow into a global presence, we are still a local company and maintaining our traditional values which are in line with Rulmeca’s values. We will continue to support the local economy, we will continue to support local charities, and we will work together with the local government to create and sustain a lot of jobs for the community, bringing a lot of value to the communities that we’re involved in.
Upcoming Product Upgrades and Improvements
While we will continue to make many changes to our product lines, our primary focus is on the idlers. This focus will allow us to increase the throughput of idlers and propel Douglas to be one of the largest idler manufacturers in the United States within the next two years. In addition, Douglas will begin to adopt the PSV idler design. This successful design has been utilized around the globe for many years and there are millions of these idlers in service in a wide variety of applications.
Looking Forward
This acquisition promises new opportunities, enhanced product offerings, and a future where the sturdy legacy of Douglas Manufacturing melds with Rulmeca. As we step into this future, we are eager for the adventures this partnership will surely bring.