Steel-willed: New owner plans comeback at Apex of Salem

A business consultant for 17 years, Jeff Sluss probably would have never advised a client to buy a bankrupt company.

But that’s exactly what Sluss did in March when he purchased Apex Industrial Equipment in Salem, which designs and manufactures machinery and heavy equipment for industrial customers.

“I see opportunity here,” Sluss said. “I think there are things we can do in the near- and long-term to make this a successful company.”

Sluss is hoping to bring the company out of bankruptcy and stage a comeback by branching out with a line of residential outdoor furniture made of steel.

“If you don’t diversify your business, if you are going to simply survive off manufacturing, you’re not going to make it,” he said.

Apex’s shop manager, Darrell Breeden, said the company is already seeing the results of Sluss’ leadership and business plan.

Customers “are seeing the changes that have been made in the last couple of months, and we’ve been busy as a result,” Breeden said. “Right now we have more work than we ever have.”

Sluss, a Salem resident, began consulting for Apex in 1997. Up until then, Sluss, whose background is in engineering, had been traveling the world as a business consultant. On the way home from a family vacation Sluss told his wife he was going to look for consulting work closer to Salem. When he arrived home, someone had mistakenly sent him a fax intended for Apex. Sluss hand-delivered the document to Apex the next day, and Apex owner Lee Plymale recruited him to help run the family-owned business.

Apex has worked with local manufacturers to build, install, service and inspect custom machinery for 30 years. The company’s list of customers includes names such as General Electric, Yokohama, AEP, Dynax and Ply Gem Windows.

Apex’s 12 employees work in a small warehouse on Salem’s Fourth Street where they cut, grind and weld steel.

On the business side, Sluss found that it was difficult to impress ideas and direction upon a family business because of differing opinions among relatives. The business suffered the past few years and Apex filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June.

Plymale, whose father, Winston “Bud” Plymale, owned the business, said the company fell on hard times because their customers’ work slowed down during the recession.

“We weren’t able to get enough work to keep things going,” he said.

According to filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia, Apex was at least $300,000 in debt. Apex’s biggest debt was $150,000 it owed to the Internal Revenue Service. Apex also owed $15,000 in taxes to the state, and nearly $3,400 to Salem.

The company was on the verge of closing down and losing all its assets when Sluss stepped in.

He assumed the post-bankruptcy debt and says he has paid off the majority of the debt as part of the purchase.

”For our family, it was just a good thing that we could get out of it as easily as we could,” Plymale said.

Sluss said he offered to buy the business because he didn’t want to see the company’s employees lose their jobs and the Plymales’ legacy come to an end.

“I try to be a Boy Scout,” Sluss said, describing his desire to help where he can.

Sluss wouldn’t have taken over the business if he didn’t think it had potential, he stressed.

His first order of business was to contact customers, some who were tentative about doing business with Apex after the company filed for bankruptcy, and some who thought the business had shut down.

In addition to analyzing customer files and drumming up business with old customers, Sluss has hired a marketing coordinator to help get out the word about the new outdoor furniture.

Sluss came up with the idea for the outdoor furniture in 2011. Tired of spending money at big-box stores for outdoor furniture that didn’t hold up more than a season, Sluss asked the craftsmen at Apex to make him a set of steel outdoor furniture. The clean, modern design was coated with automotive paint so it could withstand the elements.

The furniture will last years without rusting because the craftsmanship on the furniture is the same as on heavy machinery, such as cranes, which could turn deadly if they fell apart or rusted, Sluss said.

Sluss wants to keep the furniture affordable. He said he can do so because he doesn’t have to mark it up since it is not Apex’s primary business. Prices range by design. A set in the warehouse that includes a bench, table and two chairs is selling for $1,800. Apex also makes pergolas, fire pits, gates, trash receptacles, bike racks and outdoor decor.

Sluss, with the help of Breeden, designed a smoker so large it is hauled on a flatbed. It has a grill, smoker and burner and can be fueled by gas, charcoal or wood. The first smoker was set outside the warehouse. Within 15 minutes someone had stopped in to inquire about buying one. Apex has sold 15 smokers, mostly by word of mouth, since 2011, Sluss said.

The furniture and smokers are manufactured at Apex’s warehouse on Fourth Street, but Sluss would like to see the products succeed to the point where he can separate it into its own business at a different location with more employees.

For now, his goal is to pull in $250,000 to $500,000 a year from the sale of the residential products, which would make up 25 percent to 50 percent of Apex’s business. He estimates that those products, which became available in March, now make up about 5 percent of the business.

“What I want to do is restore this 30-year-old business back to its previous glory,” Sluss said.

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