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IF there were such a thing as Extreme Makeover: Manufacturing Plant Edition, Reading Truck Body wouldn't have welcomed Ty Pennington and his crew of hundreds to the facility in Reading, Pennsylvania.
There wouldn't have been camera shots of Pennington on the team bus, saying, "I'm Ty Pennington, and the renovation starts right now!"
And at the end of seven days, there wouldn't have been any camera shots of Pennington shouting, "Bus driver, move that bus!" as the new plant was finally revealed for the Reading Body family to see the end result of the team's efforts.
It's a nice, feel-good concept, but it wouldn't have been enough for Reading.
For a true transformation, Reading needed more than new machines, a reconfigured plant, the adoption of a lean-management system, a partnership with Monroe Truck Equipment, the addition of new visionary executives, and the development of a platform of diverse new products for different market segments. Reading needed an entirely new mindset that drilled right to the core of a company that was started in 1955 as Reading Body Works Inc by Irving Suknow.
And now, two years after Brian Nadel took over as CEO/president, the results are quite obvious.
"We're in the absolute top tier in our industry today from a performance standpoint," Nadel says. "This industry generally runs on slim margins and price sensitivity. However, our new processes and practices allow us to maximize "cost-out' opportunities. The first quarter of 2013 was the best quarter financially this company has had in its history. The last two quarters have remained positive and improved year-over-year, but the first quarter remains our best."
For most of the past 23 years, the 48-year-old Nadel has been a turnaround expert, most recently at TRW Automotive, Parker Hannifin, and the Dover Corporation. He comes in when things get rough. And things had gotten rough at Reading.
He had two other job offers in December 2011, but he chose Reading because he remembered the iconic logo on the tailgate of truck bodies he had first seen as a boy, he had studied the company's downfall, and he wanted to be a part of a return to glory.
"For 50 years, it was a founder-family-owned, family-run, operation," he says. "After that, it grew...