How Pioneer Paper Makes Market for Its Dealers

By Jack Dionne

_ Thg other day I dropped in, careless like, at the plant of The Pioneer Piper Co-pa"y, in Los Angeles. Juit went in to say "Hello" to my good friend Harry Graham, and to Pay my respects to the Pioneer crowd in general. And what started as a casual call was so suddenlv transformed into one of the most interesting and educalional visits I ever made anywhere in my life-and I've lived quite a while and made it my habit to go to interesting places-that it left me sort of dazed. No foolin'. I found myself in the position of the country boy who went to the horse races for the first time. He picked out a h.orse at random, bought a two dollar ticket, and when the race was over he cashed in_ twenty dollars. He picked another horse, bought another two dollar ticket, and cashed thirtv dollars. fmmediately he chose another horse, made anoiher two dollar investment, and cashed fifty dollars. He stared at the pile of cash in his hand, then turned to a bvstander and inquired: "Mister, how long has this been going on, and why haven't I heard of it before?"

I'd heard and read of the Pioneer Paper Company and its products before, but even what I had heard and read poorly prepared me for the business inspiration I got down there. Ride along with me for a while in this stoiy, and see if it isn't so.

I kneel at the shrine of ingenuity, punch, and business virility-and I found it galore. Mer,chandising is my hobby, and I found a place where they are doing miracles, and preparing to do bigger ones. Helping the lumber dealer is one of my chief ambitions, and I found here dealers helps being formulated and planned in the sort of fashion I have long h,oped the lumber industry itself might some day adopt. I found vision, and enthusiasm, and a broad view of the business situation that delighted me. f'm going to try and tell you about it.

Harry Graham introduced me immediately to the Big Boss, J. H. "Jack" Plunkett. I'd heard of him as the busiest man in Los Angeles. But he found time to talk. And how that bird can talk. Straight business talk. Right from the shoulder. Connectedly and convincingly he told me of Pioneer, its aims, intents, purposes, plans. Told me something of its great associates, The Flintkote Company, Shell Oil, etc., how the hook-up was made, and why.

"Fundamentally," he said, "our business is creating markets for asphalt. We are not just makers and sellers of asphalt roofs, as many seem to think. Our business is creating and dis,covering ideas that will bring about the greater use of asphalt. We don't care what form it is in. We don't care rvho does the selling. We will license any good firm to make and sell anything we make, or own the patents on. We have a small army of high priced engineers and scientific sharps doing nothing else except research work for asphalt, and we believe we are just at the threshold of a huge expansion in our business, due to the marvelous new asphalt products we are developing. We are constantly developing improved manufacturing processes, aggtessive sales-building programs, and introducing new products that will put themselves on the books and money in the pockets of the lumber dealer. Tell your dealer friends that. Look about you, see what we are doing, and judge for yourself."

So I looked about. Here's a good starter for you, Mr. Lumber Dealer. I saw them building a great addition to their office, practically doubling its size. Then I saw a great industrial unit being built, with a lot of men employed on the two jobs. The industrial unit, complete, will cost about $4O0,000. Mr. Plunkett said: "The industrial unit is for the production of our Emulsified Asphalt in its various forms; the office space we don't need right now, but we've got it figured out that by next fall it will cost thirty to forty per cent more to do that building than it costs now, as we are certain building costs will rise, so we are building now." There's a piece of optimism for you building folks.

The Pioneer Paper Company was started in 1888 by W. G. Hunt, and Harry Eichelberger. They still control itMr. Hunt is President, Mr. Eichelberger is Vice-PresidentMr. Plunkett came into the picture many years ago as General Manager.

The story of its growth is a recital of intelligent application to business, and steady and gradual development along lines of consistent success. No year in its history but has seen enlargement, extension, and development of the business. And now, because of its partnership with Shell and Flintkote (the latter owns most of the basic patents on asphalt roofings in existence) the development has been greatly accelerated.

They have seventeen and one-half acres at their Los Angeles plant, and it is entirely invested in industrial buildings. It isn't really a plant. It's a group of factories, adjacent in location, and directly correlated in their activities. f won't even start to describe them. This is an editorial, and not a write-up. Just a skip-through. At the back end of the plant comes in the raw materials: trains of crude oil from the Shell Company; cargoes of rags from Europe; carloads of waste paper from Southern California. These are the chief ingredients. Then there is plant after plant and unit after unit that transform this crude oil and rags and paper into their developed materials. They transform the crude oil into asphalt. The rags and paper are ground and mixed and run through gigantic paper m'aking machines, and transformed into dozens of different kinds, and grades, and weights, and thicknesses, and widths, and textures of paper, and of felt, etc. And they further refine the asphalt to make their various other products, and they mix the asphalt with the felts and the papers to make ,commer,cial products of many, many sorts. The roll roofing, the asphalt shingles, the building paper, the asphalt covered wood shingles, the rock covered roofings, the Colas, the Emulsified Asphalt, the Albikote, the Copperclad Valley, and other products that are sold through the lumber dealer, are only a part of their program of production and distribution. But the lumber dealer is tremendously 'interested in the products mentioned, and the Pioneer organization is deeply interested in its dealer distribution.

What impressed me most are the new building products that the retail lumber trade will handle. No need to tell here of the older products made and sold by Pioneer, more than perhaps a passing mention of their asphalt coated wooden shingles-a mirvelous product. From time immemorial asphalt has been considered the chief of all waterproofing, wCatherproofing, protective substances. A gog4 wooden shingle protected by an asphalt covering, should last perminently.

Which is why their new product, Emulsified Asphalt, and their further developed product, Albikote, seem to me to be undisguised blessings to the building public, and, necessarily, to the retail lumber trade that sells that public. There ari'tro less than a thousand things for which-the live retail lumberman can sell these products. Emulsified Asphalt is the new product discovered by their research department which they believe will transform the asphalt business. They are betting $400,000 on it right now. It is simply pure asphalt, with the same protection and valuable characteristics found in ordinary asphalt, plus these featuresit is applied cold-to dilute it you use only water-may be applied with brush or spray-no equipment needed for heating or applying-no obnoxious fumes-it sets qui'ckly and does not soften in the 5un-and because of its use cold it can be used in large or.small quantities at any time for a multitude of purposes.

Up to now asphalt had to be heated, and applied hot. And up to now asphalt was always black, and smelly, and disagreeable in many ways.

But Pioneer has gone farther. Not only have their engineers dis,covered how to use pure asphalt just like cold paint, but they have climbed another high building fence and discovered how to make this pure asphalt in colors. It also comes in cans or barrels, and can be applied cold for any use, large or small.

What do these things mean to the average builder? Sit down and list the things you can think of, right off hand Take the old roof, for instance, that leaks, or is unsightly. It may be of wooden shingles, or rolled roofing, or asphalt shingles, or almost anything else. It is unsightly and un' protective. With these cold asphalt products you can sim' ply re-cover the roof. No need to relay it. The asphalt fills the cracks, the chinks, the leaks, covers the old surface 'and protects it from damp, wind, weather. And it gives it an attractive appearance. No heating. Put it on like paint. And you can get it in colors to make it doubly attractive. It prevents the rotting of wood, the corrosion of metals, it makes a splendid binder with either metal or wood, and you can use it anywhere on wood or metal that needs protection. Think what it means on building foun' dations, for protection against moisture. When you trim y'our trees you put cold asphalt over the wounds. It is like replacing the bark. Cover pipes or building metals of any kind with it, and prevent rust and corrosion.

I may be wrong but that I'ooks to me like one of the