September 25, 2020 – Start-up acquisition company GBR Riverdale has completed the operational transition of Timberline Pallet. The sale, which closed June 5, 2020, is the first acquisition for the company, founded by entrepreneur investor Michael Kelker in 2019.
”Timberline Pallet was exactly the kind of business we had been searching for” says Michael Kelker, “a customer focused manufacturer with over 40 years of producing custom wood packaging and crating in the Quad Cities.”
Customer focus has always been a key driver for Timberline. Founded by the Duff & Tindall families, they knew that value pricing with unbeatable customer service was how to win and keep customers. Timberline has been supplying the Quad Cities with export-ready crates and pallet solutions for decades. Without a successor in place, Joe Tindall and Steve Duff turned to GBR Riverdale when they planned to retire. But selling the business takes work on both sides of the table.
“When you’ve built a business over 40 years, you can’t simply hand over the keys” says Joe Tindall. Joe and Steve committed to staying on during the transition as Michael and the team came up to speed. Both sides worked hard to ensure the employees and customers experienced a seamless transition.
“Michael brought experience, enthusiasm and energy with a strong commitment to customer satisfaction,” shared Steve Duff. “He quickly made us feel comfortable that we’d made the right decision.”
Timberline continues to provide custom designed export-ready solutions assembled by hand. “There is nothing our craftsman can’t build” says Kelker. “We produce custom crate & pallet solutions from 16 inches to over 25 feet long. When we partner with a customer, we work with them to ensure we design a tailored shipping solution that ultimately saves them money.”
Timberline has always been an environmentally responsible company but GBR is strengthening Timberline’s Sustainability commitment. “We recently started to remanufacture pallets” says Kelker, “This is something Timberline hasn’t done for decades but we simply kept getting calls asking if we buy or sell used pallets. We already source our wood from sustainable forests, why not repair pallets to give them new life and help reduce our waste stream?”
Timberline Pallet strives to be the preferred custom wood packaging provider for the Quad Cities region. They would welcome an opportunity to earn your business. For more information, go to www.timberlinepallet.com or call 309-752-1770.
