MCS Industries
Leading wall and poster frame provider MCS Industries prides itself on a low turnover rate that is the result of it creating a flexible and empowering culture for its employees.
By Jim Harris
There are a number of reasons why MCS Industries has grown to become a market leader. In the eyes of its owner and top executives, the main explanation for the company’s success is simple.
“We have a very tenured, solid and hardworking base of employees who’ve been with us a long time, understand this business and are very caring and conscientious about what they do,” President Josh MacNeel says.
MCS enjoys extremely low turnover. “We don’t have people leaving us for other jobs – that’s almost unheard of here,” he adds. “We do add new talent – principally in engineering and design – each year, but for us it’s about building and developing the people and experience we have here.”
The company builds its positive culture by empowering all level of its staff. “Our people become akin to small business owners of whatever their jobs are,” MacNeel says. “Their sense of fulfillment in what they do is important to us.”
MCS also offers its staff perks including flexible hours and a relaxed dress code. “Our owner, Richard Master, believes the morale of the company is No. 1,” MacNeel says.
Employees are also offered a benefits package that includes a 401(k) with company contribution, and college scholarships for their children. “Benefits are important to us,” he adds.
The company believes strongly in keeping healthcare costs down for its employees, so it makes a large contribution toward its staff’s costs. Healthcare in general is an extremely important topic for Master, a national advocate for health cost reform.
Master produced the documentary film “Fix It,” which makes a business case for replacing the current multi-payer system with a single-payer system. The film is available at www.fixithealthcare.com. “We want to use our influence to be able to help our company and others attain healthcare more affordably in the United States,” MacNeel says.
Dedicated Service
MCS’s staff has enabled the company to become a U.S. market leader for wall and poster frames, as well as a major player in those categories globally. The company supplies a full line of wall and tabletop frames, photo albums, scrapbooks, mirrors, wall décor and art-print products to a wide variety of retail customers.
The company’s products can be found in brick-and-mortar stores of all sizes, as well as through major online merchants. “We have tremendous retail partnerships with the bulk of nearly all major retailers, as well as a very solid base of independent to mid-size retailers,” MacNeel says. “Part of our success is our girth and the knowledge we are able to cultivate from having this broad base of business.”
The company organizes its staff into teams dedicated to each of its major customers. These teams include salespeople as well as analysts, designers and planning forecasters. “Our people get intimate at the customer level; we believe in taking care of our retailers,” he adds. “Retailers know who each of the team members are. When they call us, they’re not just calling the salesperson, they’re calling the team.”
Connecting with Consumers
MCS believes in offering products that connect directly with consumers. “We and our retailers have to ebb and flow to meet our customers’ needs, or we are gone,” MacNeel says.
The company’s latest product is a fog-resistant mirror that is available in more than 1,200 Home Depot locations under the retailer’s Home Decorators Collection brand. “This is a truly innovative product that is generating a lot of excitement,” he adds. “If you go Google how to keep a mirror from fogging you will find hundreds of articles – this is a serious consumer issue no one has really solved, until now.”
MCS follows a vertical integrated manufacturing format and maintains two large manufacturing sites: The Frame Manufacturing Co. (TFM), in Mexico;and TFC, located in China.
“We have a manufacturing infrastructure that is different from the rest of the industry, starting with very basic commodities and controlling the manufacturing process through a broad array of technologies,” MacNeel says. “We have a global footprint in regards to supply and also who we sell to. Our products are manufactured with great care and quality, in environments controlled by us for quality, on-time service and integrity.”
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Leading wall and poster frame provider MCS Industries prides itself on a low turnover rate that is the result of it creating a flexible and empowering culture for its employees. By Jim Harris
There are a number of reasons why MCS Industries has grown to become a market leader. In the eyes of its owner and top executives, the main explanation for the company’s success is simple.
“We have a very tenured, solid and hardworking base of employees who’ve been with us a long time, understand this business and are very caring and conscientious about what they do,” President Josh MacNeel says.
MCS enjoys extremely low turnover. “We don’t have people leaving us for other jobs – that’s almost unheard of here,” he adds. “We do add new talent – principally in engineering and design – each year, but for us its about building and developing the people and experience we have here.”
The company builds its positive culture by empowering all level of its staff. “Our people become akin to small business owners of whatever their jobs are,” MacNeel says. “Their sense of fulfillment in what they do is important to us.”
MCS also offers its staff perks including flexible hours and a relaxed dress code. “Our owner, Richard Master, believes the morale of the company is No. 1,” MacNeel says.
Employees are also offered a benefits package that includes a 401(k) with company contribution, and college scholarships for their children. “Benefits are important to us,” he adds.
The company believes strongly in keeping healthcare costs down for its employees, so it makes a large contribution toward its staff’s costs. Healthcare in general is an extremely important topic for Master, a national advocate for health cost reform.
Master produced the documentary film “Fix It,” which makes a business case for replacing the current multi-payer system with a single-payer system. The film is available at www.fixithealthcare.com. “We want to use our influence to be able to help our company and others attain healthcare more affordably in the United States,” MacNeel says.
Dedicated Service
MCS’s staff has enabled the company to become a U.S. market leader for wall and poster frames as well as a major player in those categories globally. The company supplies a full line of wall and tabletop frames, photo albums, scrapbooks, mirrors, wall décor and art-print products to a wide variety of retail customers.
The company’s products can be found in brick-and-mortar stores of all sizes as well as through major online merchants. “We have tremendous retail partnerships with the bulk of nearly all major retailers as well as a very solid base of independent to mid-size retailers,” MacNeel says. “Part of our success is our girth, and the knowledge we are able to cultivate from having this broad base of business.”
The company organizes its staff into teams dedicated to each of its major customers. These teams include salespeople as well as analysts, designers and planning forecasters. “Our people get intimate at the customer level; we believe in taking care of our retailers,” he adds. “Retailers know who each of the team members are. When they call us, they’re not just calling the salesperson, they’re calling the team.”
Connecting with Consumers
MCS believes in offering products that connect directly with consumers. “We and our retailers have to ebb and flow to meet our customers’ needs, or we are gone,” MacNeel says.
The company’s latest product is a fog-resistant mirror that is available in more than 1,200 Home Depot locations under the retailer’s Home Decorators Collection brand. “This is a truly innovative product that is generating a lot of excitement,” he adds. “If you go Google how to keep a mirror from fogging you will find hundreds of articles – this is a serious consumer issue no one has really solved, until now.”
MCS follows a vertical integrated manufacturing format and maintains two large manufacturing sites: The Frame Manufacturing Co. (TFM), in Mexico;and TFC, located in China.
“We have a manufacturing infrastructure that is different from the rest of the industry, starting with very basic commodities and controlling the manufacturing process through a broad array of technologies,” MacNeel says. “We have a global footprint in regards to supply and also who we sell to. Our products are manufactured with great care and quality, in environments controlled by us for quality, on-time service and integrity.”