California Riding Magazine • February, 2012

Happy New Year!
New plant and a new bedding product kick off a great year for CVC Shavings.

The New Year takes on new meaning for CVC Shavings as the family-owned animal bedding supplier opens a new plant in Northern California's Yuba City. The new facility includes a state-of-the-art bagging plant that will enable CVC to bag its various forms of traditional wood shavings and rice hulls. The location is close enough to the shaving and rice hull mills that transportation costs are almost non-existent. And, as has been CVC's tradition for its 14-year existence, when the company can spend less, its customers will see the savings.

CVC Shavings founder and owner Gene Hull is particularly excited about the roll-out of its newest product: The Ultimate Blend. This bagged and bulk bedding product combines their smallest form of wood shavings, The Ultimate Bedding, with rice hulls. The new offering will nicely meet customers' desire for a good stall surface at a great price. Produced by a multi-deck screening process, The Ultimate Bedding's small wood flakes are free of airborne particles, a.k.a. "dust." Mixed with rice hulls for cushion and bulk, the end result is The Ultimate Blend. This is an absorbent bedding material for considerably less money than an all-shavings route.

Left to right, back of photo: Nathan and Matt Hull.
Front of photo: Steve Land, LeeAnn & Gene Hull.

CVC has a full line of bedding types, all available in both bags and bulk. In addition to The Ultimate Bedding and The Ultimate Blend, these include Kiln Dry Shavings, Green Shavings and Rice Hulls.
The new plant enables CVC to package its products in the traditional eight-cubic feet size, as well as fulfilling demand for a larger size with new 12-cubic feet packages. The company has a long history of providing wood shavings, other sawmill by-products and rice hull bedding throughout California in bulk. The bagging plant enables CVC to have its products carried in feed and tack stores and Gene has his sights set on expanding its reach to serve the entire West Coast. CVC's headquarters remain in Fresno, three hours south of Yuba City.

The plant is new and exciting, but everything else about CVC Shavings stays the same—which is a good thing. Established as a subsidiary of Gene Hull Trucking in 1998, CVC Shavings has earned a great reputation for integrity in its business dealings and for great customer service. "I'm an old school guy," Gene reports. "I like to look our customers in the eye and have them know I'll be there." He and his wife LeeAnn started Gene Hull Trucking 26 years ago. She serves as the company's CFO and their two sons, Nathan and Matt, have always been involved in the businesses and are preparing to carry on the family tradition when the time comes.

Spot the CVC Shavings trailers on the road,
call the office with where you spotted them and receive a
$50.00 discount on your next full truckload.

Customer friendly services include carrying a forklift on trucks and delivery of storage vans. The forklifts enable those delivering bagged shavings to put them exactly where the customer wants them, without the help of stable staff. CVC also offers storage van delivery with bulk and bagged products, giving recipients a simple, secure storage solution along with the cost savings of buying large quantities.

CVC's clients include racetracks, public and private boarding stables and large poultry operations. Gene discovered a niche for the business when he saw that contracting truckers to haul shavings from the mill to the end user added a big expense to the price of bedding. With 35 sets of double trailers and 20 trucks that can pick up and deliver bedding throughout the West Coast, Gene was able to cut bedding costs considerably by using his own trucks, equipment and drivers. He holds a Class A drivers license himself and he's not afraid to use it when the need arises. "The niche was having the truck and trailers to pick up the shavings at the saw mill and deliver direct to consumers," he reflects of the company's origins. "So we took the commodities philosophy and married it to a trucking company."

Coupled with family-run management, including Gene's nephew Steve Lane, and an unwavering commitment to customer service, that formula has proved a winner and is sure to be a strong foundation as CVC Shavings undergoes its next phase of growth thanks to the Yuba City plant.

For more information on CVC Shavings, visit www.cvcshavings.com or call 866-511-9292 - ask for Steve, Brady or Gene himself.