Franchise Offer:
The sales history of Steel Silhouettes in the Pacific Northwest has been 4 cents per person of the sales area's population. Based on this, I am offering franchises for a 2.5% annual fee calculated on the 4 cent gross sales potential per licensed sales territory. This is one tenth of one cent, or $.001 per person. For the state of Florida, for example, this franchise / royalty fee would be roughly 18,000,000 x .001 = $18,000 per year. Franchises are per state or states to be sold in. The most recent census figure will be used to calculate the population.
This fee gives the purchaser - Trade name use, art reproduction royalty and business and 100 hours of technical and business consultation with the Steel Silhouettes founder and artist. For sales to organizations that cross territory lines, such as national companies, the fee is based on actual sales to the company, and the license is for the life of the purchase orders from the company, and is 5% of the actual receipts from the purchases by the organization for delivery or sale outside the franchisee's sales territory.
Company Purchase Offer:
Company history and ownership:
Steel Silhouettes was established in 1992. It is a business operation of GLE, Inc. GLE, Inc., a Washington State corporation, is wholly owned by me, Tim Dunn and my wife, Merry-Rae Dunn. Steel Silhouettes has sold to Costco, Sam's Club (a division of Wal-Mart,) Wal-Mart, various small business, and retail, both in shopping malls and on the internet.
Steel Silhouettes has grossed as much as $500,000 a year, and netted about 25%, but I haven't been able to do it justice in recent years. The company is inactive, and it's time for me to turn it over to someone with the health and energy to make use of the opportunity that the company provides.
Location: Arlington, Washington (near Seattle.) The business is movable, and would gross far more in a region of higher population, such as the Eastern seaboard.
Reason for selling the company:
Owner's poor health. I have gout, anklyosing spondylitis, a fused ankle, high blood pressure, traumatic arthritis, bursitis, psoriasis, and hypoglycaemia. Recently, I had a colovesical fistula, which required my spending months with a colostomy, since repaired. It's definitely time for a desk job.
Steel Silhouettes' Assets:
Equipment:
An industrial-grade plasma cutting table with two 50 amp plasma torches that make it possible to cut two identical patterns at the same time, a computer and all necessary items to interface with the table control system, a 30" Timesaver widebelt sander, a 50 amp mig welder, a couple of spot welders, an oxyacetelyne torch, a hand slip roll, a finger brake (hand, a 2000# electric forklift (walkie style,) some big steel racks and other warehousing storage units, 2 pallet jacks, two compressors, 1-5hp. rotary and 1-10 hp. reciprocal, a phase adder (makes 3 phase out of one phase power,) a couple of bench sanders, and programs to create and translate patterns. Also included, a 30" x 24" skin packing machine, a 30" polybag sealer, a 14' box cube van with lift gate, and several sets of displays used for Costco shows. All equipment is industrial grade. Most of our products are powdercoated, and this is the only process that we outsource, and the only process for which we do not have equipment. This *equipment is valued at $100,000 or more, based on cost minus depreciation. This equipment is not to be confused with light duty / hobbyists equipment such as PlasmaCam. This industrial grade equipment can be run several shifts a day, all year long, year after year, with about a week's worth of maintenance / repair a year.
Good Will:
Steel Silhouettes' biggest customer is Costco, and that business relationship is among the company's most valuable assets. We have also done business with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, which of course are both part of the same company.
Copyrights:
We also have thousands of patterns on disc, which can be automatically converted to .dxf format with included software, and records about their relative popularity, based on geography. These patterns consist of actual instructions for the machine to cut, already translated into instructions for the cutting machine to follow. These patterns are copyright Tim Dunn, 1992 through the present, and a license to use these patterns is included with the business.
Training:
Offer includes complete training in all aspects of running the business, including running the equipment, using the software, and in dealing with Costco and Wal-Mart.
Inventory:
Steel Silhouettes has about $150,000 of inventory, valued at cost.
Contact:
If you would like details, please e-mail me, Tim Dunn, or call me at 360-474-7899.
* I have been asked to supply more information about Steel Silhouettes' equipment: One spot welder is a heavy duty one that we don't use. I doubt if it has any application in finish work. It has a provision for water cooling, but no pump is attached to it currently. The other is a light duty one that is adequate to weld what we used it on, 22 gauge steel parts. Both are foot operated.
The Timesaver is ancient, vintage 1970 something, but it just keeps on going. There is nothing expensive in it to break-it has no electronic parts at all in the control system that keeps the belt tracking. It has 30" wide belts, and it can grind all of our stock items that are no wider than that in their least dimension. It can de-slag our 23" x 46" parts, for example. It has a 20 hp three phase motor for grinding, and a small motor for the conveyor. I use 24 grit Zirconium belts to remove the slag from my 16 gauge products. Most of my producs are made of 16 gauge cold-rolled mild steel.
The Lockformer Vulcan table is first rate, vintage 2001 or so, with two Hypertherm 50 amp torches. Any old Windows computer, such as a 386, or any computer that can run DOS programs will interact with the table. The bending brake and slip roll are hand powered, and I think Lockformer brand.
My CAD-CAM software is no longer made, but I have plenty of backups. It is by ScanVek. My files are in their proprietary format, but can be easily converted to .DXF. I have done so and seen my files cut on other cutting systems.
The Phase-Adder produces plenty of three phase power from single phase power to run the Timesaver, which has a 30" belt width. The Timesaver and the forklift charger are the only equipment that requires three phase power. The Hypertherm torches run on single phase 220v, and the table control system is 110v. The compressors are a 10hp Champion reciprocal with a large tank, and a 5 hp. Champion rotary screw with a medium size tank. Either one alone is adequate to run the table and the Timesaver. The Hypertherms use air rather than gas, and the air is dried with two Speedaire refrigeration systems-one with a built in precooler. The other doesn't need a precooler because there is one on the reciprocal compressor.
I'd be happy to keep the compressors, air drying systems, and forklift, as I am using them in a boatbuilding project. If you client have three phase power on tap, you wouldn't need a Phase Adder, which consists of a bank of condensers and an electric generator. If you don't have one, he will need it to power the (or a) Timesaver, which is necessary to remove the slag from the cut parts. I also have a couple of hand grinding tables, using six inch wide belts for hand finishing some parts. One is a Jet, and the other is a more expensive American brand.
The truck is the ubiquitous Mitsubishi with a 14' long high-cube box, capable of carrying 7000 pounds. It has a turbo, an automatic tranny, and power steering. It should be good for another 100,000 miles or so. It has a lift gate, but I prefer to use forklifts to load and unload it. I wouldn't mind keeping it, either. It is pretty eye-catching, as I have bolted oval plaques blown up from my 23" x 46" designs, to almost 4' x 8' to the sides of the box, and my website url in letters about a foot high to each side of the box.
I have many hundreds of design files for making hundreds of products: Moose, elk, wolf, grizzly bear, black bear, deer, cowboy, rodeo, Indian, NW Indian, SW Indian, petroglyph, Kokopelli, Gecko, horse, mare, stallion, colt, bull, steer, pine tree, fir tree, sun, moon, stars, mountain, lake, stream, humming bird, heron, orca, salmon, trout, fisherman, trawlers, trollers, sailboats, schooners, sailing ships, eagles, ducks, geese, dog, cat, squirrel, robin, bucking bronco, bull rider, coffe cup, campfire, log cabins, dragon, dragonfly, cattails, craftsman MacIntosh rose, honey bee, iris, Japanese crests, Japanese kanji, Hawaiian and Polynesian, tropical fish, whales, thunderbird, raven, Sissiutl, classic art nudes, Santa Claus, sleigh, reindeer, Christmas, angels, Halloween, patriotic, Western, wildlife, and much more.
The product patterns include all of these designs in wall / fence art, welcome signs, light switch plates, coat hooks, coat racks, wall sconces, hanging lighting fixtures, table top lamps, chandeliers, fireplace screens, candle holders, and many more products.
My equipment can cut any metal, including iron, steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, bronze, and copper, but aluminum dust must never be mixed with iron or steel dust, because that creates a significant fire hazard - so the sanding and grinding equipment must never be used with aluminum.
