Background

For more than 25 years, Old Hickory Buildings, a leader in the portable storage industry, has crafted high-quality, dependable storage solutions for their customers throughout North America steeped in the old-fashioned country tradition of barn building.

Opportunity/Challenge

Because their customer base spans North America, these storage sheds must be customized to survive the environmental conditions to which they are exposed. For example, sheds built for customers living in the southeast United States must be able to withstand hurricane force winds while sheds built for customers in the northwest United States must have a roof structure able to withstand the heavy snowfall amounts common in this area.

Not only does Old Hickory Buildings need to customize these storage sheds to meet specific engineering requirements, but they also need an identification product that clearly denotes them. That's why they turned to Metalcraft. The Mason City, IA-based company has been providing identification solutions to companies since 1950 and has a reputation for high-performing, durable products.

Solution

Jeremy Dunn, Purchasing and Inventory Manager for Old Hickory Buildings and his team have been working with Metalcraft for approximately three years. After qualifying their application - including any environmental conditions the tags would be exposed to - the team settled on the "AUTOGRAPH" Color Designed Nameplate to showcase the Old Hickory Buildings logo and graphics. "They're (Metalcraft) fantastic to work with," said Dunn. "Cory (Brooks) is always willing to help. It's a great relationship."

Recently, Dunn worked with Metalcraft to convert their existing screen-printed nameplates to the new digitally printed version. "The new product (Signature™) is even better looking than the previous version," he said. "The printing is even more crisp and clean." The look of these plates is very important to maintaining the reputation of quality Old Hickory Buildings is known for, because in addition to showing the engineering specifications for the storage structure it is also an advertising opportunity for the company."

"It's great that Metalcraft continually adapts and looks for ways to improve the product like converting from a screen-printed product to a digitally-printed one," said Dunn. "Also, the turnaround times have been great."

Result

Whereas Old Hickory storage sheds used to be for more traditional applications like lawn mower storage, the potential uses have greatly expanded. According to Dunn, people use Old Hickory's storage sheds for everything - from tiny homes to home offices. "The uses for them are really only limited by the customer's imagination," he said.

To learn more about our asset tracking solutions, contact us today at [email protected].