US Joiner Company Profile

In December 2003, certain assets of Hopeman Brothers Marine Interior were purchased and organized into US Joiner LLC.  The Hopeman Brothers legacy stretches back to 1916, when they outfitted their first vessel. In July 2011, JF Lehman and Company purchased the stock of US Joiner and deployed its considerable talent, capital and customer relationships to augment the efforts of US Joiner management and its team. As the leading domestic provider of marine interior outfitting solutions, US Joiner converted nearly a century of experience into become the largest marine furniture manufacturer in the U.S. and the largest marine joiner subcontractor in the United States.

 

MILESTONES:


HOPEMAN BROTHERS
1916:       Outfit First Vessel

1930’s:    Provide furniture and joiner work for commercial vessels

1941-
1945:      Outfit more than 2500 freighters, tankers, cargo ships during WW II

1945-
1990:      Continue Navy work and diversify into commercial segment—oil rigs and platforms, cruise ships

1990-
2001:      Emphasize Program Management and reduce emphasis on manufacturing

US JOINER LLC


2003:        Purchase certain Hopeman Brothers assets and organize into US Joiner

2008         Acquire Turnbull, the largest marine furniture manufacturer in the U.S.

2011         Sell stock to JF Lehman and Company . . . . Continue the legacy!

US Joiner Organization

 
Chief Executive Officer
David R. Rathburn
President & Chief Operating Officer
Joseph J. Mullen
Executive Vice President
David Madigan
Vice President West Coast Operations
Jay Desai
Vice President Turnbull Manufacturing Operations
Louis V. "Pete" Frank
Vice President Gulf Coast Operations
Mike Miller
Director of Materials
Harold Belsky
Quality/Safety Manager
Glen Hinkle
Human Resources Manager
Laura Bendler
IT Manager
Dave Nice
Controller
Gary Black
Program Managers
Isaac Adolpho
Mike Cash
Steve Coffman
Ken Flint
Mike Hattier
Mike Johnson
Estimating
Judy Amador
Steve Ingram
Charlie Keatts

Health and Safety

US Joiner’s employees have successfully built a powerful safety culture based on the fundamental commitment that all injuries can be prevented. Each day begins with a focus on safety with each employee at every US Joiner worksite. Consequently, US Joiner employees continuously improve our safety performance. In 2009 and in 2010, US Joiner received back to back Industry Leader Safety Awards for Major Shipyards from Signal Mutual. In addition, Signal recognized the US Joiner Safety Manager as the 2010 Safety Professional of the Year. The US Joiner West Coast operations received consecutive Safety Champion Awards and Environmental Star Awards from NASSCO in 2009 and 2010. The Gulf Coast sites operated injury free workplaces for the last three years. The entire company reduced the number of injuries by 60% over prior years, resulting in a frequency rate that is 58% below industry averages. At the same time, the severity rate dropped 25%. This strong safety culture drove worker’s compensation premium rates down 26.5% in the last three years and produced an 83% reduction in the average cost of claims. US Joiner proudly incorporates several programs into our workplace to ensure that employees are properly prepared to conduct their work safely, including the DuPont STOP program, the Near Miss program, Training Within Industry (TWI) program and the Take 5 program. At US Joiner, safety matters!

Training and Education

US Joiner insists on properly training all employees for their jobs. We also offer training to associates seeking improvement and advancement in our business. USJ encourages all associates to pursue continuous learning and offers a tuition reimbursement program to defray accredited school expenses.

Service After The Sail

US Joiner promises to help our customers update, upgrade or replace joiner products or systems. US Joiner has successfully outfitted the interior of more than 3,200 ships. The Virginia office retains engineering and purchasing records that enable you to closely match existing color schemes for furniture, bulkheads, ceilings and other components of your joiner package. If you chose another supplier for your initial construction, consider stepping up to the US Joiner level of quality and service when you are ready to refurbish your marine interior.

Quality

US Joiner provides products and services that meet or exceed our customers' requirements on every job. Our commitment to Quality is achieved by our associates and our participation in the industry’s most current perspective on Quality. We believe continuous improvement will keep us at the forefront of the industry.

US Joiner understands that quality is a never ending journey in search of operational excellence. We also trust that the right approach to quality will reduce defects and rework, and actually result in a better product at a lower price.

Quality Programs

  • Total Quality Management
  • ISO 9001:2008 Certification
  • Lean Pathways
  • Six Sigma
  • Training Within Industry (TWI)

Experience

Program Management and Engineering Staff

Our program management, design, engineering, and estimating departments have more than 225 years of collective experience in marine accommodation design.

The program management team facilitates communication and coordination between the various stakeholders in a project. The stakeholders are both internal and external to US Joiner. They include, but are not limited to: customer purchasing/contracts departments, customer engineering, regulatory bodies, USJ engineering, estimating, materials, yard installation and accounting. The engineering and estimating staff deploy with the latest computerized drafting equipment including 3-D modeling capabilities to meet your needs. The staff has a thorough knowledge of the requirements for the US Navy as well as SOLAS, U.S.C.G., Lloyds, UK Marine Safety Agency and other Flag Administration Regulations; they apply this deep understanding to our work on the public spaces and accommodation areas of passenger carrying vessels.

Materials Team

The materials team includes a director, a sub-contract administrator and buyers with more than 72 years experience managing Navy, Offshore, Commercial, and Government contracts worldwide.

Areas of Expertise Include:

  • Global Sourcing
  • Strategic Alliances
  • Supplier Certification
  • Cross-functional Training
  • Material Tracking/Movement

Production Team

You will benefit from working with the capable, seasoned US Joiner on site leadership. We proudly employ professional, experienced onsite superintendents and supervisors. Our customers reap the benefit of Hull Managers and Supervisors with over 450 years of experience in the field. This proficient production team supports our customers, by delivering solutions to the most challenging tasks.