Skip to main content

Jackson Cast Stone Increases Production and Broadens Distribution Including New Distributor Success Program

By: Issuewire
Forrest Jackson CEO of Jackson Cast Stone

CEO Forrest Jackson Outlines New Initiatives for the Nation’s Premier Cast Stone Manufacturer

Dallas, Texas Oct 6, 2021 (Issuewire.com) - In response to growing demand from landscapers and landscape architects nationwide, Jackson Cast Stone, one of the nation's premier cast stone manufacturing companies, has taken new steps to increase production and broaden distribution, including the launch of a Distributor Success Program this month.

Jackson Cast Stone products, which include cast stone planters, are used by landscapers and landscape architects around the country in residential and business developments to provide innovative, contemporary designs in long-lasting, quality cast stone materials.

According to Forrest Jackson, the Chief Executive Officer of Jackson Cast Stone, "We are making changes in our organization to impact our production time, including the hiring of a high-end Operations Manager. We have also implemented a national Distributor Success Program to increase the availability of our high-end cast stone planters and decorative elements. Those products are much in demand by builders, facility managers, landscapers, and architectural firms nationwide.

"The demand for our products, especially our planters, superseded this madness in buying that's going on, where product prices are just climbing through the roof. We have seen incredible demand and we had not maximized our manufacturing capacity to meet that demand," noted Jackson. "There is an issue with long lead times coming from Asia and other parts of the world. Take handmade Italian pottery, as an example. That's another high-end brand that we bring in for our pottery business, but the lead times are too long, and the shipping is too expensive.

"Our goal is to maintain the product quality. A contemporary style is what we are offering, and we're manufacturing it right here in the United States," Jackson added. "That's like having a goose that's laying the golden egg right now. In this industry, people want durability. They want quality. They're returning to that idea, and away from cheap, throw-away stuff. Our new Distributor Success Program will speed up our supply chain to our end users - the landscaper who needs these planters as soon as possible."

Jackson noted that their business is very much relationship-driven and that the reputation of Jackson Cast Stone for high-quality products has prompted the launch of the Distributor Success Program. With initial partners on board in Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana, Jackson hopes to build a nationwide system of distribution that extends beyond large box stores and garden centers that have worked with the company in the past.

"We are working with some key people geographically who we can support with our current production capacity," Jackson said. "Our plan is to ship each distributor in full truckload quantities so that they can store and display in their facilities and get the product to our customers faster. We see it as a saturation style of marketing where we want to go into an area and then own it, as far as the high-end, commercial grade planters."

Jackson is working with a national agency, MediaMark Spotlight, and their Creative Pod team, based in Dallas, to create and direct the Distributor Success Program and other marketing objectives. The company is also hiring a new Director of Operations with experience with companies including Amazon and Caterpillar.

"We've worked with others who did distribution for us in imported pottery, but we've never really set up our own, full program for cast stone, largely because we were busy supplying the customers we already had," explained Jackson. "Now, we are bringing in a Director of Operations with extensive production and shipping experience, establishing the Distributor Success Program, and we will continue our growth; getting smarter, getting faster; expanding our capacity and our network over the next six to 12 months."

These latest initiatives continue a vision for success Jackson has built upon since he returned to the family business in 2005.

"My history with the company started when I was about nine, carrying flowers and pottery to customers' cars at our family-owned retail garden center," said Jackson. "My dad got the business started in 1983, and as that garden center grew into the 1990s, it developed into a wholesale distributor of pottery.

After graduating from Azusa Pacific University in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, and then earning his master's degree in theology at Fuller Theological Seminar in 2001, Jackson worked in a variety of businesses, including a fast-paced career in real estate. But the siren call of the family business drew him back to Dallas in 2005.

"I began working on the retail side again, and we really grew and developed that business," Jackson noted. "We really understood the garden center world, and kind of all the ins and outs of what it would take to run a successful retail operation. I moved into the wholesale side in 2012 and began with buying products, and overall operations. I've been on a lot of forklifts, had a lot of early and late days - working, shipping, and looking at the cycles of the season of this business. We realized the demand is there for manufacturing concrete planters. Our concrete was in such high demand, we realized it was its own brand and we spun it off from our original company, Jackson Pottery. We decided to lean in, knowing that we make the best concrete planters around.

"Demand for our products has outpaced production over the past five years, and every year we have increased production," Jackson said. "The Jackson Pottery business has always been so popular that we've never paid enough attention to Jackson Cast Stone. Now, with everything that's happened in our world since March 2020, if there's a blessing, it's that a supply chain interruption caused us to retool, refocus, and spend a ton of time, energy, and effort on expanding our production at a more exponential rate."

Jackson Cast Stone's best-selling product at present is the Modern Bowl planter, which is available in five sizes and 10 colors.

"Our sales are outpacing production right now, so our focus is on maximizing and expedited the production to make our sales go up. I don't know where the top is on the sales. Our competition is manufacturing with aluminum molds, wooden molds, and all that kind of stuff, just punching out product, but the quality isn't there," Jackson explained. "Sometimes, I tell people, especially builders, that our product will be with them long enough for their will to be probated. I tell our customers that our Jackson Cast Stone planters maintain their relevance over time. All of our products are hand-batched, hand-finished, and are durable elements of their landscape that are unlike anything they will buy at chain stores. Using our products on their property makes a statement about who they are and what they want."

Additional information about Jackson Cast Stone products, as well as the company's new Distributor Success Program, is available on the company's website at http://www.JacksonCastStone.com.

Jackson Cast Stone LogoJackson Cast Stone is one of the nations premier cast stone manufacturing companiesJackson Cast Stone products are hand crafted and made in the USA

Media Contact

Jim DeLorenzo, Jim DeLorenzo Public Relations


jim@jhdenterprises.com

(215) 266-5943

http://www.jimdelorenzo.com

Source :Jackson Cast Stone

This article was originally published by IssueWire. Read the original article here.

Data & News supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Stock quotes supplied by Barchart
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.