NATDA Magazine May/Jun 2020 | Page 20

1 February of 2020 held a lot of promise for Mike Teso. He and Kurt Clearwaters had just finalized a sales agreement for Clearwaters’ manufacturing company, Liberty Trailers. Originally started in ‘98, Liberty Trailers has built a strong name for itself through quality and reputation, even if it had only relied on word-of-mouth advertising. With Clearwaters agreeing to remain with Liberty Trailers, Teso was eager to lead the company to new heights. Teso, like so many others, could not have predicted what happened next. Though he and Clearwaters shared a common vision, a virus was captivating the world. It had the potential to bring Teso’s plans to a screeching halt. “Here I am - excited to become a part of the team and facilitate big changes,” Teso remembered. “Then, boom! COVID-19 hits.” Like dominos falling, industrial areas all over started to slow. Eventually, local, then state, governments issued “Shelter in Place” ordinances that prevented businesses from operating unless deemed essential. For Teso, that presented a silver lining. He knew, going into his purchase, that his new plant would need more space and that an expansion was in order. Moving with the virus rather than combating it, Teso gained a new perspective. The governmentmandated closures and restrictions freed up the time needed to renovate the plant and add 10,000 square feet of production space. When life handed him lemons, Teso made lemonade. “We used this opportunity to complete the expansion and then move into revamping our production process, including a complete overhaul of our monorail systems for better production flow. Our team did an incredible job in a very short amount of time” shared Teso. “From a lean integration perspective, we were fortunate to have this downtime. Tackling many of these in-house initiatives will pay off for us.” Due to certain customers, the company is considered essential in the state of Indiana, Teso has taken every precaution to ensure his employees are safe. He explained that there are sanitation zones throughout the plant and that the workforce maintains safe distances from one another. Though he understands that 2020’s data will be skewed, Teso isn’t letting the virus push him off course. “This year, sales industrywide will be compressed. However, Liberty has never truly run at 100% capacity. We’re adding a second powder-coat booth and oven this year. The preliminary analysis shows a throughput increase 75%,” Teso said. “Based on the vol- 20 NATDA Magazine www.natda.org