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You have to look at a furniture pad in terms of what it does for your company.

Pads should be preventive maintenance for a mover's business.’ – George Walters Sr.

Padding the Way

Sandhill Celebrates Four Decades of Serving the Moving and Storage Industry

By Sean Kilcarr

Special to Direction

(This article was in the June, 2002 Direction Magazine)

Four decades of experience with the moving industry makes Sandhill Quilting Company Inc. believe good quality furniture pads can make a difference between winning or losing a customer's business.

The concept seemed pretty simple to George Walters Sr. in 1961. After several years spent producing the cotton batting used to make furniture, he believed the same material could help preserve those same sofas and chairs as they were transported to customers.

As president of Cherokee Batting of Cheraw, S.C., which made cotton batting for the Carolinas’ furniture manufacturing industry, Walters Sr. saw a need for quilted furniture van pads. After researching the raw material and market potential, he founded Sandhill Quilting Company Inc. on February 28, 1962, with the help of his wife, the late Mary Emma Walters, to explore the market potential for his idea.

The rest, as the say, is history -- over 40-years worth now for Wallace, S.C.-based Sandhill, where Walters Sr. now serves as chairman of the board.

Sandhill originally started out in Cheraw, working out of a 5,000-square-foot rented facility with just five employees, one quilting machine, and three sewing machines. In 1973, Sandhill moved to nearby Wallace and built a 30,000-square-foot plant. Eight expansions later, Sandhill has enlarged its original facility to 120,000 square feet.

The company expanded again in 1995 with a 7,500-square-foot retail facility in Atlanta. In 1996, Sandhill was selected by fabric maker Kimberly-Clark to produce 100% polyester, mildew proof, and non-flammable pads for the moving industry.

In 1997, Sandhill opened a 7,500-square-foot facility in Louisville, Ky., to service new trailer sales with van equipment. In 2000, Sandhill opened two satellite warehouses in Los Angeles, and Appleton, Wis.

The key components to quilted van pads, like Gaul, are divided into three parts. George Walters Jr., who joined family-owned and operated Sandhill in 1973 and became its president in 1992, says there are three basic styles of quilted van pads sold today in the moving industry: long-haul household goods, high-value products, and local delivery.

For the Long Haul

With long-haul household goods movers, a super soft blue/blue pad with extra cushioning is critical. High-value product movers, however, want that same protection but at a more economical cost. Local delivery pads, on the other hand, are becoming more price driven due to a shorter pad life, he says.

Three key ingredients go into the making of a good pad, says Walters Jr. -- fabric, filler and quilting. To have a five to seven year-life pad, the finished product has to stress quality in all three ingredients. Because, if the pad cloth does not have good abrasive resistance, if the pad filler is not resilient, and if the quilting lets the filler shift, the pad’s integrity will fail and claims could occur, he says.

"Another issue is moisture," says Walters Jr. "Any pad will break down if enough water is involved. Also, if a pad gets wet and is not dried out immediately, mildew will form. Wrapping a wet pad around furniture will leave a stain and odor."

So while Walters Jr. admits that furniture pads might not be the sexist part of the moving industry -- if they are given more than cursory consideration at all -- they can play a huge role in either helping or hurting a mover's business.

"If you buy cheaper pads and don't take care of them, the pad's life expectancy won't be there and quality problems could arise," he explains.

Today, Walters Jr. says Sandhill is currently supplying the moving industry with two types of pads: standard Sandhill cotton pads and its new 100% Kimberly-Clark polyester pads. All standard Sandhill quilted van pads have 100% resilient cotton fiber filler, he says, with no recycled domestic or imported thread, yarn or apparel cloth used in its pad filler. Also, Sandhill converts all of its standard pad cloth in insure the quality and consistency.

The 100% polyester pad is, by contrast, made using only Kimberly-Clark cloth and filler. “The Kimberly-Clark Utility Pad was designed to offer an economical utility pad with guaranteed specifications of being mildew proof and non-flammable," says Walters Jr. "Warehouses, local delivery, and high-value product movers see it as an economical replacement for a multi-color cotton pad."

Choosing the Right Pad

Pad choices are key to making sure this quality manufacturing and material selection works to best advantage for you. Walters Jr. will tell you that furniture pads are just like the moving companies that use them -- they are not all the same and that quality plays a dramatic yet subtle role in determining which ones are the best.

During these past 40 years, Sandhill has seen the moving industry swing from purchasing price to quality and back several times. "In today’s market, the mover is continually pressured to lower his cost to his customer. Pads are also divided into two life expectancy groups: five to seven years and two to three years," he observes.

"A long-haul driver who is with his vehicle 24 hours a day has the ability to keep track of all of his pads, so those pads will conservatively last five to seven years," Walters Jr. says. "Local delivery and high value product crews, however, are constantly switching from truck to truck. That's why inventory and cleanliness have become major quality problems -- reducing pad life expectancy to between two to three years."

In reviewing their practices and sometimes choosing ways to economize, a number of movers have found that their pads are not lasting the normal five to seven years due to inventory control problems, Walters Jr. notes. "Finding that their actual pad life is closer to three years has forced some movers to consider pad purchases as a short-term investment. That's why we try to educate customers on the assets and liabilities of purchasing pads based on price versus quality."

Walters Jr. says movers should keep a short list of questions when it comes to buying pads.

"Before making a price-based purchase, the mover needs to ask themselves a few things," he says. "Do I only keep my pads two to three years instead of the normal five to seven years? Can I stop my pad inventory control problems? Will the cheaper pad have the same pad cloth abrasion resistance? Will the new pad’s recycled filler offer the same cushioning effect as cotton? Should I purchase American made or imported? Can I deal with the quality issues of most imported pads?

Making the decision about which pads to purchase needs to involve more than just looking at the bottom-line cost, he explains. "It’s about how pads can help you improve your quality, service and competitiveness."

In addition, he stresses, "You have to look at a furniture pad in terms of what it does for your company. Pads should be preventive maintenance for a mover's business. They keep movers from having quality control problems that can result in damage claims and a loss of customer confidence."

He also adds that 'quality' in the moving industry is an intangible -- until the customer experiences a mover's services. "The same is true for pads -- they may all look the same, but it is the differences you can’t see that become crucial when the pads are used," Walters Jr. says.

Over the years Sandhill has evolved to become a one-stop shop that offers almost all the supplies and tools movers need to do their job. This impressive product line includes hand trucks, carpet covers, desk, lifts, panel movers, office moving wood carts and door jamb protectors, as well as inventory tape and piano boards.

For more information on Sandhill Quilting and its wide range of moving supplies, visit www.sandhillquilting.com.

Article reprinted with permission by American Moving and Storage Association.

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