CAROLINA CARPORTS A Surry County success story By Michael E.C. Gery
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hen Javier and Adela Herrera came to Surry County from Mexico in the 1970s, they worked on the local tobacco farms and in the textile industry (“the sock plant”). As those jobs began to disappear, they found work installing pre-fabricated metal buildings. Proud of being U.S. citizens, the Herreras worked hard and saved their money while raising a family. Eventually, Javier and Adela had an opportunity to buy into the metal building business they were working in. They ran the business from their Dobson home, with one phone line, one fax line, generating invoices by hand. Today, they own their own manufacturing business, Carolina Carports, established in 1997 with their daughters Monica and Carolina and have established a network of more than 2,500 dealers and sales centers in 28 states. As one of North Carolina’s top 100 privately-held businesses, Carolina Carports now ships more than 110 truckloads of steel buildings from the Dobson plant each week to divisions in Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas,
Carolina Carports, Inc. 187 Cardinal Ridge Trail Dobson, NC 27017 (336) 367-6411 www.carolinacarportsinc.com
Indiana and Pennsylvania. And the corporate office in Dobson now has more than 120 phone lines, more than 20 fax lines, and is fully computerized. Jay Lara, manager of the steel mill production line at the Dobson plant, said, “I remember when we were working out of a single-wide mobile home. Even though we are this big now, it still feels like the place where we worked then. Javier and Adela want it that way. They are very involved in everything that goes on here.” Richard Petty, “The King,” uses Carolina Carports buildings to house vehicles and other operational machinery for both personal use and for Petty Enterprises. He toured the plant in 2007 and was impressed enough to sign on as a supporter. And Carolina Carports is a supporter of Petty’s Victory Junction kids camp, as well as a sponsor for Junior Johnson’s son Robert Johnson’s racing career, and many charitable operations. Beginning with rounded-roof carports, the facility in Dobson now manufactures residential and commercial carports, garages, barns, RV covers, triple-wide units, 40-foot wide units,
Adela and Javier Herrera storage buildings, gazebos and trailers. The Dobson plant includes a steel galvanizing and tubing line that converts raw steel to finished, square-tube materials. It is one of only four of its kind in the U.S. In the garage door line, Carolina Carports hopes to become the only manufacturer to make doors in various colors. Even as the business grew to these amazing proportions, the Herreras insisted on keeping the highest quality standards and holding on to their own processes. The Dobson headquarters performs everything from sales and customer service to engineering and printing. And their trucking is based here. They were outsourcing the trucking, and trucks would come back empty. So they invested in their own trucks. Now, Herrera Transportation is a full-service trucking business with seven long-haul trucks that also are brokered to other companies. Jay Lara, manager of the steel mill production line, says Surry-Yadkin EMC, their Touchstone Energy cooperative, has been a solid partner in all their plans. “They have really accommodated us in every fashion,” he said. “They run new lines from their substation when we need to get more power.” And that’s a lot of power, too. Carolina Carports can use as much as $25,000 in electricity per month. “We have watched them grow through the years,” said Mike Beasley, general manager of Surry-Yadkin EMC. “We really are impressed by what they have done and how they do it.”
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18 AUGUST 2010 Carolina Country