Reshaping Specialty Shutter Manufacturing
As published in Window Fashions magazine—July 2003

Opportunities spawn growth and development. They are best recognized or realized by innovative people whose minds (and doors) are always open to the possibility of improvement and change. Ted Morse, creator of North American Sunburst™ shutters and blind bursts and the technology that makes them, is one such gem.

The great-great grandson of inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, creator of the Morse code, Ted is naturally inquisitive and creative. His own idea of running some type of wood manufacturing plant began to take shape in his Rhode Island high school, where he excelled in woodworking and cabinetmaking. But at graduation, he could not resist the pull of the family business, commercial fishing. "My father was a fisherman," reflects Morse. "I grew up sitting on the sea wall, waiting for my dad to come in."

Pearls of Wisdom
At age 19, Morse followed his father's lead and went to work catching shellfish for Campbell's Soup and Snow's Clam Chowder. He started out as a deckhand and swabbie. After four years of apprenticeship, he earned a 100-ton Coast Guard license and was promoted to run a 100-foot boat, harvesting 2000 bushels a day.

It was during his decade as ship's captain that his ingenuity first surfaced. He automated the boat, learning to weld and fabricate in the process. "We used to just drop the clams on the deck and then shovel them—it was the way it had always been done," Morse explains. "With the automation I put into place, we could bring in 2,000 bushels of clams a day with two guys, compared to the six guys it used to take to get the job done."

Despite the increased efficiencies, after 14 years, Morse grew tired of the long weeks on the water; he decided to try something new. He migrated from New England to Florida, where he developed a strong interest in the plantation shutters that were common to the area. He visited a shop to see how they were made, and his passion for woodworking was re-ignited. In 1995, Morse started his own manufacturing company: Northern Edge Shutters Corporation, with one employee.

He made some machines and bought some more. Within two short years, business was booming and he had 20 people working for him making square-panel shutters. After four years in the business he sold it—agreeing to stay on-board for one year to facilitate a merger with the buyer's own shutter company. While leading the transition team, he began to shape a new niche business plan for himself.

"I had an idea to simplify the specialty work performed in shutter manufacturing," says Morse. "My own company had been in the same rut as everyone else's in the industry—making square panels was easy; the hard part was making specialty-shape shutters to go with them. It really slowed things down." Built by superior craftsmen, one sunburst typically took an entire day to produce by hand.

"I thought, there has to be a better way," says Morse. "There's got to be some technology out there that could be adapted to do this. I asked questions, made connections, formulated a solution, and went for it." Morse began investing mental and financial capital in proprietary programming and computerized equipment.


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Ted Morse