Just across the parking lot from our Corporate Headquarters, you’ll find a group of 35 creative minds brainstorming, storyboarding, and each day delivering solutions to their customers. This is Creative Services, Leggett’s in-house marketing team.

By offering assistance within design, websites, writing, photography, videography, printing, and tradeshows, the Creative Services team completes a remarkable 1,400 projects per year!

Keeping Up with Demand

Creative Services has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1966, when it was a one-man shop devoted to providing logo and design services to Leggett’s customers. “Although it was overhead for Leggett, the initial strategy was to help our customers sell more so they’d buy more Leggett components,” says Susan Chapman, Operations Manager, who joined the department in its early years.

As Leggett began to acquire new businesses, the staff slowly increased as well, but the team was still mostly dedicated to serving clients’ needs, leaving little time for our own branches. In 2008, Creative Services began to focus on creating strategic marketing for our branches, offering them everything from product sheet design to entire ad campaigns composed of videos, websites, and print and web ads.

The many minds of Creative Services. According to Zack Minor, Graphic Designer: “We’ve cultivated a culture of caring for each other, which allows us to have fun together and establishes the trust necessary to collaborate and make bold suggestions in the work we do.”

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As you shop the aisle of the local grocery or relax on the back patio of your house, hydraulic cylinders are probably the last thing on your mind – but this critical component is working behind the scenes in a variety of ways to make these things, and much more, possible.

“From construction applications to materials handling, we’re making people’s lives easier on a global basis,” explains Chris Barclay, President of Precision Hydraulic Cylinders (PHC).

Leggett & Platt’s acquisition of PHC this past January resulted in a natural fit between company cultures and methods of operation. Like many L&P products, PHC’s hydraulic cylinders comprise a small but vital piece in several end products. They are essential to the functionality of equipment like dump trucks, forklifts, truck mounted cranes, and aerial platforms.

Always Right, Always on Time

Hydraulic cylinders are used for many applications, including critical movement functions in forklifts and dump trucks.

With over 45 years of experience, PHC has proven design and technical support capabilities. But the hydraulic cylinder market also requires highly flexible manufacturing capabilities. Given the large number of configurations available on just one single forklift model, it’s not surprising that PHC’s customers require short lead times on a large product line that are usually built to order.

“PHC is selling a lot more than a high-quality hydraulic cylinder at a good price – we’re offering complete integration with our customer’s manufacturing process,” says Chris.

Providing just-in-time delivery for customers’ assembly-line style manufacturing requires a lot of coordination and sequencing within PHC’s own manufacturing process. But PHC’s commitment to provide the right product on time has enabled them to continue to capture and dominate within the market.

Platform for Growth

The recent boom in e-commerce, and the resulting increase in distribution centers, is driving higher demand for hydraulic cylinders for materials handling equipment. The rest of the hydraulic cylinder market is equally rife with opportunity and PHC is poised to benefit. With manufacturing locations in North Carolina, the United Kingdom, and India servicing mostly regional customers, PHC has a lot of room to grow in other regions of the world.

“Not only is there potential for geographic expansion, but PHC has a breadth of capabilities that enable it to further penetrate adjacent growing markets, including construction equipment, cranes and aerial work platforms,” explains Ryan Kleiboeker, Director of Business Development for Specialized Products. “L&P has the global operating expertise to help guide PHC’s expansion into these areas, as well as a willingness to invest in the technical manufacturing capabilities to make PHC even more competitive.”

Chris adds, “Being a part of L&P affords us an opportunity to grow the business in a more aggressive way and with confidence that we can effectively support that growth globally.”