Lift Bed Manufacturer Business Plan

Load Hog designs, manufacturers, and distributes devices for lifting loads on light and medium trucks and trailers.

3.1 Product Description

1. The principal product is the Load Hog Pickup Truck Kit. Packaged in a single carton, this kit includes all the material necessary to turn any pickup truck into a full-on dump truck. Lightweight, maintenance free, and easy to use, the kit is virtually invisible when installed. The product retails for approximately $2,800. Wholesale averages $1,620 per unit.

2. Load Hog builds a Trailer/Flatbed Kit for use on other than normal pickup truck applications. This kit is sold both in single unit packages and to OEM trailer builders. This kit retails for approximately $1,500 and wholesale for approximately $930.

3. Load Hog has developed a proprietary receiver hitch trade named “Razorback,” retailing for approximately $300. Wholesale on this product is $205.

4. Load Hog has developed a tailgate gap cover trade named “Liner Tongue,” which retails for $24.95 and wholesales for $12.47.

5. Load Hog has also been engaged in providing body and lift kits to TORVEC International, a manufacturer of fast tracked vehicles primarily for export. The TORVEC sells for $3,650. (See appendix**) 

**appendix were not available for this sample plan.

3.2 Sourcing

Load Hog is primarily an assembler of outsourced components.

There are three principal areas of the product.

SHEET METAL

We have established relationships with several sheet metal suppliers, including Chase Industrial Products of Tarentum, PA., Trost Metal Products of Erie, PA, and Blackstone Manufacturing of Jamestown, NY. All three vendors have programmed our complex parts and are pursuing our business with vigor. Additionally, we now manage our own powder coating and have two vendors in H&S Coatings of Etna, PA and A-Plus Coatings of Columbiana,OH who can coat Load Hog Yellow to our standards.

LIFT CYLINDER & THRUST PLATES

This is the most critical element in our system. We have been working with Breton Industries, of Amsterdam, NY who sews the jackets (the ballistic nylon outer shell of the cylinder) and welds the urethane liner of the cylinder, and has for more than three years. Although Breton has the capacity to build 200 units per week, we have successfully sourced and tested jackets made by Five Filer Brothers of Grove City, PA, and bladders made by Evans Products of Akron, OH. Both Five Filer Brothers and Evans Products are capable of more than 200 units per week.

Our fiberglass thrust plates are made by another Pennsylvania company, Creative Pultrusions of Alum Bank, PA, another three-year veteran of our development program. Creative Pultrusions can produce more pultrusion than we can ever absorb. Pultrusion is a commodity product, and there are many suppliers ready, willing and able to secure a new customer.

COMPRESSOR

The area we could be most vulnerable to a supply chain interruption could be our compressor. Although comprised of several components, including a motor which we are double-sourced with both Prestolite Motors of Wagoner, OK, and Fasco Motors of Eaton Rapids, MI, and our dump valve from Parker-Hannifin of Pascagoula, MS and Horton of Upper St.Clair, PA, our dependence on Westmoor, LTD of Sherrill, NY, who is a smaller business, could be a critical interruption to our process if a catastrophic occurrence were to happen at their single facility. In light of that, we are exploring alternatives with Gast Manufacturing of Detroit, MI, Blackmur of Grand Rapids, MI, and Thomas Pumps of Rochester, MI. All three vendors make a comparable offering to the Westmoor #2 and have a nominal adaption to standard product to make them usable for our program.

3.3 Technology

Although Load Hog is not a hi-tech product, we continue to develop and patent proprietary technologies that relate to the bag and hinging system, as well as the pump system. (See appendix for patents.**)

For the moment, Load Hog has a full plate keeping up with the manufacturers newest designs in pickup trucks and trailers. The Load Hog II is the small truck (Ranger, S-10, Dakota, etc.) alternative and should keep us busy through calendar 2000. Most of the fiscal capital necessary for the development of these projects has already been expended. The balance of the resources are primarily intellectual.

Skunk works projects include a Leviathan lifter for loads of 50 tons or more and some flotation devices for marine applications. These are principally discussion projects and unless a killer marketing reason appears they will stay primarily intellectual exercises.

**appendix not available for this sample plan.