You’ve heard time and time again that the US dollar is at an all-time low, but did you know that the purchase of domestic assets by non-US buyers is at a seven-year high? There might as well be a sign on both US coasts that reads, “World’s Largest Red Tag Sale: 30% off!”
If you have idle or under-utilized Capital Assets and want to free up some operating capital, now is the time to react.
Foreign purchases of US companies topped $200 billion in 2007. Our appraisal division has been busy providing FLV and OLV market value appraisals for US banks that fund foreign purchases. “We are seeing overseas buyers make inroads to establish a permanent place within the US economy by purchasing operations with the intent of a continued US presence,” says John Hagist, Vice President of Appraisal Services at Loeb.
In February, Loeb provided auction coordination as well as marketing and logistical assistance to Rabin Worldwide in the sale of Jay’s Snack Foods in Chicago. Loeb helped coordinate two long term clients, LaSalle Bank, now Bank of America, and Snyder’s of Hanover sell assets from Jay’s Chicago facility. Almost 50% of the value of assets sold went to foreign buyers in nine countries: UAE, Russia, Egypt, Lebanon, Costa Rica, Poland, Argentina, Canada and Mexico.
The sale of Jay’s assets to foreign buyers continues the trend that we have seen first hand from the sale of assets from our inventory to foreign buyers; it also sets a new record that will be short-lived. If you have idle machinery, now is the time to either consign it or sell it to Loeb. The current high demand for US pre-owned industrial assets allows Loeb to pay or provide net consignment residuals higher then we have in the past. We have the knowledge and marketing ability to get your assets prime exposure around the world.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Building Bridges to China - Chinese Engineering Intern Helps Loeb
Selling equipment to more than 10 overseas countries sets a new record for Loeb this year. When I was young, I remember listening to my father talk about selling machinery to Central and South America as if these were far-away places—what with all of the shipping challenges. Today, it’s commonplace for Loeb to sell equipment to these countries. Overseas markets have become our new frontier—from selling aseptic packaging equipment to Ghana through the African Development Foundation to sending a baking oven to Papua New Guinea (which took six months to get there!). Yes, the world is becoming smaller and smaller each passing year.
This past summer, we took on an intern from China named Yunguang Chen. A student at Purdue University majoring in Packaging and Food Sciences, Yunguang quickly became know as “YG” in our office as he helped us build our growing overseas customer base. YG came to Purdue University to study because the quality of equipment and environmental standards are so low in his hometown of Nanjing, China. He hopes to take what he’s learned about capitalizing on pre-owned machinery back to his country to help them boost their understanding of quality food production under safer conditions.
All of us at Loeb have enjoyed learning from YG, as well as sharing our knowledge of the industry. Of course, we’re still wondering how he came to love country music so quickly, but that is another story…
This past summer, we took on an intern from China named Yunguang Chen. A student at Purdue University majoring in Packaging and Food Sciences, Yunguang quickly became know as “YG” in our office as he helped us build our growing overseas customer base. YG came to Purdue University to study because the quality of equipment and environmental standards are so low in his hometown of Nanjing, China. He hopes to take what he’s learned about capitalizing on pre-owned machinery back to his country to help them boost their understanding of quality food production under safer conditions.
All of us at Loeb have enjoyed learning from YG, as well as sharing our knowledge of the industry. Of course, we’re still wondering how he came to love country music so quickly, but that is another story…
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Capitalizing on Your Network
I am proud to be a member of the business organization EO (Entrepreneurial Organization) www.eonetwork.org which provides opportunities for principles of non public companies to share experiences, including sharing best practices, lessons learned, coordinate seminars, hire speakers etc. In Chicago we have some of our current and hopefully future clients that are also are members. If you do not know the following companies please review their websites, there might be a benefit to you to know them.
The really interesting part of this is how often I am having a conversation with someone that I barely know about a situation that either they or I are dealing with as business owners and then one of us refers someone that might be able to help either directly or through experience sharing. The power of this is that we are helping each other with no direct benefit to ourselves or our bottom lines. Net net…we are all members of this organization knowing that we have valuable information for other people and that we will receive it in return, thus the ideal networking scenario.
This experience has made me think about our network of contacts here at Loeb and what a powerful team of people we have in that network. From Bankers, Bankruptcy trustees, lawyers, leasing companies, Real Estate brokers, Co-Packers, manufactures, logistics companies, equipment movers, Engineers or highly talented people that unfortunately have been laid off, the list goes on and on.
Since I have seen the power of capitalizing on your network first hand, I wanted to make sure that it was clear to you that our network here at Loeb is open for your use, please do not hesitate to use us as a resource, we might be able to help you fill that vacant position, solve a logistics problem or many other situations that have nothing to do with pre-owned equipment or financial services, you will be surprised at who we know. So if there is a situation that you or your team is dealing with if we cannot help, it will be our pleasure to introduce you to someone that you should meet from our network and the only benefit to Loeb is helping us strengthen that network.
Below are some web sites that discus networks if you are interested in learning more on how to capitalize on your network visit: www.Linkedin.com or www.Koolse.com.
- www.brucepackaging.com
- www.foodevolution.com
- www.goldenwalnut.com
- www.kernalseasons.com
- www.popocrnpalace.com
- www.senortamale.com
The really interesting part of this is how often I am having a conversation with someone that I barely know about a situation that either they or I are dealing with as business owners and then one of us refers someone that might be able to help either directly or through experience sharing. The power of this is that we are helping each other with no direct benefit to ourselves or our bottom lines. Net net…we are all members of this organization knowing that we have valuable information for other people and that we will receive it in return, thus the ideal networking scenario.
This experience has made me think about our network of contacts here at Loeb and what a powerful team of people we have in that network. From Bankers, Bankruptcy trustees, lawyers, leasing companies, Real Estate brokers, Co-Packers, manufactures, logistics companies, equipment movers, Engineers or highly talented people that unfortunately have been laid off, the list goes on and on.
Since I have seen the power of capitalizing on your network first hand, I wanted to make sure that it was clear to you that our network here at Loeb is open for your use, please do not hesitate to use us as a resource, we might be able to help you fill that vacant position, solve a logistics problem or many other situations that have nothing to do with pre-owned equipment or financial services, you will be surprised at who we know. So if there is a situation that you or your team is dealing with if we cannot help, it will be our pleasure to introduce you to someone that you should meet from our network and the only benefit to Loeb is helping us strengthen that network.
Below are some web sites that discus networks if you are interested in learning more on how to capitalize on your network visit: www.Linkedin.com or www.Koolse.com.
Saturday, July 8, 2006
36 Year Perspective on Changes in the Used Machinery World
36 YEAR PROSPECTIVE ON CHANGES IN THE USED MACHINERY WORLD
As I sit here celebrating 36 years of buying, selling, appraising and financing used machinery, I started thinking about all of the changes that have occurred in our industry during my career.
WARRANTIES – What a great success this program has been. 36 years ago, the buzz word was “as is – where is”. Today every machine offered from our and most of our competitor’s warehouse inventories has a guarantee associated with it. These guarantees are posted on everyone’s website and provide comfort for used machinery buyers so that whether they buy a machine “as is”, running or rebuilt, they have a complete understanding that the dealer is standing behind what it sells.
As an example, I often hear our salesmen saying to customers “if you get the machine from Loeb and have not inspected it, and decide you don’t like the color it is, you have the right to return the machine”.
36 years ago, the Used machinery business was a rough and tumble industry and through my association with the Machinery Dealers National Association, I am proud to be a part of this change.
QUALITY - 36 years ago, there was a market for just about any machine in any type of condition. Many customers had mechanics that were happy to work on Saturday to try to rebuild the machine and bring it back from “the dead”. As long as they could buy a used machine cheaply, they were happy to put this type of labor into the machine to bring it back to their standards. Today, that type of sale is non-existent. It is non-existent because the marketplace has said that there is no market for that type of machinery and over the last 25 years, most used machinery dealers have improved the quality of its inventory significantly so that it is almost 100% of the time possible to show a customer a machine under power running in our rebuilding facilities during their inspection.
TECHNOLOGY – The changes in technology are too numerous to mention but during this episode of reminiscing, I realize that what has really changed the most is our ability to keep track of machinery that is coming up for sale in the future so that well equipped dealers can start looking for customers today for a future delivery date. Early on in the beginning of the machinery business, I remember stories about my grandfather and great-grandfather sitting at the kitchen table at night sorting 3x5 cards keeping track of what customer wanted what and what customer had what for sale. Times have definitely changed!
In closing, it is hard to imagine what the future holds. As the technology improves, relying on reputable middlemen will become more and more important to customers in my opinion. The margins in our industry of course will be pressured and the reputable dealers with a quality reputation and quality machine in their inventory in my opinion will always survive.
The proof of this in my opinion falls back to the original Star Wars movie where the Jawas, in their brown robes, traveled the world and sold used Robots like R2D2 and 3CPO.
As I sit here celebrating 36 years of buying, selling, appraising and financing used machinery, I started thinking about all of the changes that have occurred in our industry during my career.
WARRANTIES – What a great success this program has been. 36 years ago, the buzz word was “as is – where is”. Today every machine offered from our and most of our competitor’s warehouse inventories has a guarantee associated with it. These guarantees are posted on everyone’s website and provide comfort for used machinery buyers so that whether they buy a machine “as is”, running or rebuilt, they have a complete understanding that the dealer is standing behind what it sells.
As an example, I often hear our salesmen saying to customers “if you get the machine from Loeb and have not inspected it, and decide you don’t like the color it is, you have the right to return the machine”.
36 years ago, the Used machinery business was a rough and tumble industry and through my association with the Machinery Dealers National Association, I am proud to be a part of this change.
QUALITY - 36 years ago, there was a market for just about any machine in any type of condition. Many customers had mechanics that were happy to work on Saturday to try to rebuild the machine and bring it back from “the dead”. As long as they could buy a used machine cheaply, they were happy to put this type of labor into the machine to bring it back to their standards. Today, that type of sale is non-existent. It is non-existent because the marketplace has said that there is no market for that type of machinery and over the last 25 years, most used machinery dealers have improved the quality of its inventory significantly so that it is almost 100% of the time possible to show a customer a machine under power running in our rebuilding facilities during their inspection.
TECHNOLOGY – The changes in technology are too numerous to mention but during this episode of reminiscing, I realize that what has really changed the most is our ability to keep track of machinery that is coming up for sale in the future so that well equipped dealers can start looking for customers today for a future delivery date. Early on in the beginning of the machinery business, I remember stories about my grandfather and great-grandfather sitting at the kitchen table at night sorting 3x5 cards keeping track of what customer wanted what and what customer had what for sale. Times have definitely changed!
In closing, it is hard to imagine what the future holds. As the technology improves, relying on reputable middlemen will become more and more important to customers in my opinion. The margins in our industry of course will be pressured and the reputable dealers with a quality reputation and quality machine in their inventory in my opinion will always survive.
The proof of this in my opinion falls back to the original Star Wars movie where the Jawas, in their brown robes, traveled the world and sold used Robots like R2D2 and 3CPO.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!
What a great expression.
It separates the real players from those who merely reference values but are not willing to stand behind them.
Fortunately, Loeb’s values have held up and our appraisal business is strong. We have another saying around here that I think applies to our business: There is no one in the world more loyal than a banker whose collateral turns out to be there when the chips are down.
For years, Loeb has helped financial institutions and other customers with machinery and equipment appraisals in our areas of expertise, and we have delivered appraisals to more than 300 locations annually in the past few years.
On occasion, these appraisals turn into liquidations after the appraisal is complete. Each year for the last few years, we have conducted approximately 20 complete plant auctions or liquidations, some of which also involved purchasing the real estate. Last year, our biggest project was a 650,000 square-foot pharmaceutical plant located on 280 acres near Dallas. Like this one, the majority of our liquidations involve cash purchases, but some are conducted on either a commission or guarantor basis.
Because of our strong liquidity, Loeb has been able to start providing distressed loans on machinery and equipment to those who are unable to obtain normal bank financing. We have not only provided loans directly to clients, but we have purchased bad loans from many of the country’s major financial institutions on more than 50 projects. Most of them were in the U.S., and one was in Mexico.
If you’re interested in distressed loans, please do not hesitate to call me. I would be glad to walk you through the necessary steps to obtain this type of financing or to purchase these types of loans.
As always, we welcome your calls to purchase, sell, or trade excellent used processing and packaging machinery, as well as the opportunity to assist you with market value appraisals, plant liquidations and auctions.
It separates the real players from those who merely reference values but are not willing to stand behind them.
Fortunately, Loeb’s values have held up and our appraisal business is strong. We have another saying around here that I think applies to our business: There is no one in the world more loyal than a banker whose collateral turns out to be there when the chips are down.
For years, Loeb has helped financial institutions and other customers with machinery and equipment appraisals in our areas of expertise, and we have delivered appraisals to more than 300 locations annually in the past few years.
On occasion, these appraisals turn into liquidations after the appraisal is complete. Each year for the last few years, we have conducted approximately 20 complete plant auctions or liquidations, some of which also involved purchasing the real estate. Last year, our biggest project was a 650,000 square-foot pharmaceutical plant located on 280 acres near Dallas. Like this one, the majority of our liquidations involve cash purchases, but some are conducted on either a commission or guarantor basis.
Because of our strong liquidity, Loeb has been able to start providing distressed loans on machinery and equipment to those who are unable to obtain normal bank financing. We have not only provided loans directly to clients, but we have purchased bad loans from many of the country’s major financial institutions on more than 50 projects. Most of them were in the U.S., and one was in Mexico.
If you’re interested in distressed loans, please do not hesitate to call me. I would be glad to walk you through the necessary steps to obtain this type of financing or to purchase these types of loans.
As always, we welcome your calls to purchase, sell, or trade excellent used processing and packaging machinery, as well as the opportunity to assist you with market value appraisals, plant liquidations and auctions.
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