Northern Light

Jim Beran and Ron Mason

UNDER LOCK AND KEY

Mason has heard the criticism that recyclers may not fully understand the security implications of document destruction and he is quick to point out that Shred Right does indeed understand the process.

The company has focused on in-plant shredding throughout its history, and the Shred Right plant in St. Paul has obtained AAA certification from the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).

Having a NAID-certified facility is one of the reasons Mason has confidence in the in-plant destruction process. "Fundamentally, I’m not convinced that on-site shredding is as secure as off-site," says Mason. "We can take locked containers, put them in our locked truck and then bring that container directly into our secure AAA NAID-certified facility," he remarks.

Conversely, Mason worries that "a mobile shredding company does 90 percent of its shredding in an unsecure mobile environment. In a downtown area, people are walking right by where this material is being shredded," he notes.

Nonetheless, Mason does not rule out that Shred Right could some day add mobile, on-site shredding to its roster of services. "You never know; if we have a customer who demands on-site some day, maybe we would do it. But on-site is also more expensive in terms of unit costs, and as more and more customers look at shredding as an operating expense, they are going to look at costs," he predicts.

The Shred Right facility is co-located with the Rohn Industries recycling operations in two connected St. Paul buildings. However, there is no mistaking that Shred Right is a different type of operation altogether, as the shredding plant and its loading bays are in a fenced-off area that is kept separate from the Rohn Industries plant space.

A visitor to the plant can confirm Mason’s statement that "You have to go through security doors and chain-linked fences to get from one facility to the other." Mason says he has trademarked the term "Shredding Vault" to describe the 7,500-square-foot plant space used by Shred Right. "That term kind of connotes the environment of the facility," says Mason. "The entire Shred Right facility is monitored 24 hours per day on video camera. The images are digitally archived for 90 days."

Getting into the Shred Right plant is not easy in the first place. "We have a card access-restricted entrance that is also time-restricted," says Mason. "Even if one of our drivers has card access from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., he can’t get in with that card at, say, 9:00 p.m.," he explains. "Additionally, every time that card is swiped, that information is retained on the hard drive of our computer system. So a breach would be both digitally recorded and, if it’s an internal employee, we would have a swipe record retained as well."

Containers and the papers and files in them are also closely monitored with a bar-coding system. "A programming company has written software programs for us, one of which issues electronic chain-of-custody scanning on a bar-code reader, much like a UPS bar code," Mason remarks. "Customers can go online and see the exact status of every container at their facility."

Additionally, customers can monitor the shredding of their own materials through a real-time video download available through a secure section of the Shred Right Web site.

KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND

While ensuring customer confidence in its security has been one important management goal for Shred Right, having the necessary shredding horsepower to destroy incoming documents is another.

For the past five years, the workhorse of the Shred Right plant was a 36-10000 HD 5/8-inch-cut model made by Allegheny Paper Shredders Corp., Delmont, Pa., that Mason says served the company very well. He is particularly pleased with the sturdiness of the gearbox of the Allegheny product line. "Allegheny procures a gear box that is used on oil rigs," says Mason. "Maybe their shredders could be considered over-sized and over-manufactured for some paper shredding applications, but in five years, we never once had a problem with the gear box. It’s a great selling feature," he comments.

Toward the end of 2005, Shred Right took delivery of a new Allegheny 36-10000 HD 2-inch-cut crosscut shredder unit that will work in tandem with its existing Allegheny unit. "The new one will be a pre-shredder in some applications, such as for hard drives," says Mason, who also notes that the new Allegheny model will allow Shred Right to handle additional product destruction chores.

"In addition, our shredding system feeds directly into the baler, but material coming out of the new shredder has swivel conveyors that allow us to keep non-paper products out of our baling system," notes Mason.

The separation allows Shred Right to continue to market its shredded fiber at premium pricing, according to Mason. Shredded fiber is conveyed through the cinder block wall from the Shred Right facility to the Rohn Industries facility, where it is baled and quickly hauled by forklift to a semi-trailer waiting at one of the 23 Rohn Industries loading docks. The trailer will head directly to a consuming mill, providing the company with a fast turnaround time on the sale of its fiber and allowing it to keep its storage space to a minimum.

The shredders are the critical components of an overall infrastructure that also includes a baler and conveyors and the company’s fleet of collection trucks.

SPREADING THE WORD

The investments in upgraded security and processing have to either be preceded or quickly followed by sales growth, and Shred Right has succeeded in growing its business accordingly.

Mason is quick to give much of the credit to Shred Right Sales Manager Jim Beran, who joined the Shred Right team in 1996. "He’s a phenomenal sales guy who has helped us achieve our growth," says Mason. "It has largely been due to Jim’s personal energies; we were not marketing or advertising to any great degree—it was Jim out talking to people. He is the face out in front of the company that everyone knows and loves—he’s a fantastic people person and truly the engine behind our sales growth," adds Mason.

Beran has cultivated Shred Right’s customer base from a variety of business categories found in the Twin Cities region. "We have a fairly broad mixture of customers," says Mason. "Minneapolis is a Mecca of corporate headquarters with General Mills, Target and Best Buy, and 3M is here in St. Paul," Mason notes.

"Those types of companies combined with the medical field are probably the two largest segments for the shredding industry in this region," he says.

Mason and Beran have made an appeal to cost-conscious customers, says Ron Mason. "During the past 12 months, a large part of our market share gain has been customers leaving mobile shredding firms and coming to us because of cost," he remarks.

A recent focus for the company has also been to make sure the Shred Right division of Rohn Industries establishes its own corporate identity. The name Shred Right only dates back to 2002. Before that, the document destruction segment operated as the shredding division of Rohn Industries.

But now, Twin Cities motorists can see separate Shred Right collection trucks with visible signage, and Shred Right sales personnel carry business cards with the Shred Right name on them. "In a short time we have established different drivers, different trucks and a different (although adjacent) facility," says Mason. "We have spent $100,000 to label and market that name, but it’s paying off. If you Google shredding in Minnesota, Shred Right now comes up just as quickly as Rohn Industries, which has a much older name."

Mason says he is pleased with his Web site, which is multi-functional and allows customers to perform several tasks online. "We’ve spent in excess of $15,000 developing our Web site (www.shredrightnow.com) and the results of that are far exceeding my grandest expectations. It has paid for itself in almost no time at all."

MORE TO BE DONE

The past several years have included several noteworthy accomplishments for Ron Mason, Jim Beran and the other employees of Shred Right. But Mason is confident the company still has additional avenues for growth.

Future success, as has past success, will rely on the quality of Shred Right’s employees, notes Mason. "I am a firm believer that it is employees that make a company, not the owner and not the marketing materials," he comments. "We pay above-market wages, provide 401(K)s and medical and dental plans that are superior for the service industry. I believe in hiring quality people, rewarding them and passing that quality on to our customers," he continues. "Customers see a difference in dealing with us not just on the sales side, but also in the truck driver. We can provide superior customer care because we invest time and energy into our employees."

With the right team and equipment in place, Mason is confident that Shred Right can pursue several growth opportunities at once. "My belief is that as long as we stay dedicated to the goal of being truly a company of substance, we’ll be able to compete in this market," says Mason. "I truly believe that in any business you have to differentiate yourself and give the customer a reason to do business with you, and I think our company’s personnel understand that."

The author is editor of Secure Destruction Business and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.