Clement Industries Builds for the Big Haul
Published Mar 11, 2008
Clement Industries’ Bill Garrison markets the company’s trailers – such as the 42-foot MonStar – across the globe.
Were it not for necessity, Clement Industries might not be flexing its muscle in the heavy trailer business today.
The company formed in 1952 when a Minden area mining company, Braswell, petitioned design engineer Lamar Clement to develop a heavy-duty trailer to carry large-volume sand and gravel loads. Clement’s handiwork caught the eye of other haulers, more orders came in “and that was the basic start of Clement Industries,” says Bill Garrison, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Today, 200 employees design, fabricate and ship steel trailers of gargantuan proportions at Clement’s 170,000-square-foot plant along Interstate 20, about 35 miles east of Shreveport.
Garrison recently transported the mother of all the Minden company’s trailers to a Las Vegas trade show, where the 42-foot MonStar commanded attention. Clement crafted the model for a California customer in 2004 as the largest end-dump trailer ever built.
“They wanted to haul a lot of material,” Garrison says, “but it’s become a standard product today.”
“Standard” refers to the 80 percent of Clement’s product mix that’s not significantly customized for one customer apart from another. But there’s little standard about the sophisticated wiring, suspension and other components built into the steel trailers. Another unusual order came a decade ago when a Middle East mining company ordered self-contained trailers that loaded and emptied through special hatches. Today, new aluminum products are rolling off Clement’s assembly line to meet demand for lighter trailers.
Payloads on the strongest trailers can reach 40 tons, with the mining, scrap and construction markets among the biggest customers. Clement produces about 1,000 trailers annually and commands 12 percent of the national market through a 60-dealer network. In-house engineers and consulting engineers refine the models that often cost $30,000 to $50,000.
Chairman Glen Hicks, who bought the company 30 years ago, had moved to the area from Pennsylvania but says Northwest Louisiana owns distribution, climate and energy cost advantages that would be hard to match in other parts of the nation. He and his son, Greg, have taken Clement from a three-state market to global distribution.
“I didn’t have any idea how tough that was going to be, but we’re there,” Glen Hicks says with a chuckle. “It’s an exercise that never ends, really.”
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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