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Article From Pallet Enterprise
By Diane Calabrese • Date Posted: 1/3/2005
FAIRTON, New Jersey — In the days when tomatoes brought a mere $30 per ton to growers, Herb Smith Sr., a vegetable farmer and industrial worker, added a pallet recycling business to his endeavors.
His three sons, Herb Jr., Dan and Mike, now run the operations side of Fairfield Pallet Inc. while his wife, Frederica, and their daughter, Cecily Riley, run the financial side of the company.
Herb Sr. retired 12 years ago and is no longer involved in the company. Herb Jr. (Herb), Dan and Mike started working full time for their father when they graduated from high school. Today, Herb and Dan are co-vice president and Mike is president. Frederica is corporate treasurer and Cecily is secretary.
Fairfield Pallet is very much a family-owned business, noted Mike. It is also a forward-looking business, he added. “I still drive truck, forklift, go out and meet customers,” said Herb, explaining that he knows the business from every angle.
Fairfield Pallet makes any size or type of pallet a customer requires, said Herb. The company makes some pallets as big as 9 feet long and others as small as 30 inches square. The most common footprint is the GMA-style 48x40 pallet.
For the most part, pallets are repaired and recycled, and ‘new’ pallets are made from reclaimed pallet parts. Fairfield Pallet seeks to reclaim and re-use as much wood as possible from incoming pallets that cannot be repaired. The company also manufactures combination (‘combo’) pallets made of both new and recycled lumber...