Greater Charlotte Biz 2014.05 May/June 2014

may/june 2014

Chase Saunders

BigThinker CHARLOTTE’S

Resurgent Destiny as a Crossroads of Commerce

featuring....

Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway GreerWalker LLP Tucker-Kirby Co.

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2014 Speaker Lineup Herm Edwards

Michele Gay

ESPN NFL Analyst

Sandy Hook Parent

January 10, 2014

August 8, 2014

Martha Raddatz ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent March 14, 2014

Chad Knaus Crew Chief for NASCAR Driver Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports April 9, 2014

Education Summit

• September 12, 2014

Dr. Ronald L. Carter

Pamela Davies, Ph.D.

President, Johnson C. Smith University

President, Queens University of Charlotte

Dr. Heath Morrison

Dr. Tony Zeiss President, Central Piedmont Community College

Superintendent, Charlotte Mecklengurg Schools

Nick Faldo

Lindsey Graham

CBS Sports Golf Analyst

United States Senator, South Carolina

May 2, 2014

October, 2014

Hood Hargett Breakfast Club is a “category exclusive” organization that develops and hosts some 36 events throughout the year for its members and guests. Members include men and women from more

Leif Babin Former Navy SEAL and Co-Founder of Echelon Front

than 50 local and regional businesses who have built their companies to become leaders in their respective fields. For more information,

November 14, 2014

contact Jenn Snyder at 704.602.9529 or jenn@hoodhargett.com.

Accepting New Members Call Jenn Snyder at 704-602-9529 • jenn@hoodhargett.com

w w w.h o odharge t tbre akfas tclub.c om

BUSINESS FORUM SERIES

2014

THE AMERICAS

Join the U.S. Commercial Service and the North Carolina District Export Council for DISCOVER GLOBAL MARKETS: The Americas and transform market potential to market success.

Private Consultations with U.S. Commercial Diplomats Whether for market opportunities, help in overcoming challenges, or general questions, meet with U.S. commercial diplomats from 14 countries: • Argentina • Brazil • Canada

• Chile • Colombia • Costa Rica

• Dominican Republic • Ecuador

• El Salvador • Guatemala • Honduras

• Mexico • Panama • Peru

Exploring the Markets of the Americas • • • •

How are the markets of the Americas performing today?

How will the markets be performing in five years?

What are today’s and tomorrow’s opportunities?

What challenges do these dynamic markets present to U.S. companies?

Panels featuring economists, industry professionals, trade experts, and U.S. commercial diplomats will explore these questions and others to help you define your competitive strategy for the Americas.

Intensive Breakout Sessions on Refining Your Export Strategy

Register Now! Details/Registration:

http://go.usa.gov/BtKV Event Dates October 29–31, 2014 Location The Westin Charlotte 601 South College Street Charlotte, NC 28202 (704) 375-2600 Participation Fee $295 if registered by June 16 $350 after June 16 Benefits of Registering • Access to all conference sessions.

• Private consultations with commercial diplomats.

• Networking lunches, breaks, and receptions.

• Conference materials.

For More Information Greg Sizemore (704) 333-4886

greg.sizemore@trade.gov

Market success needs a winning strategy. Learn from experts and business leaders through in-depth, hands-on sessions covering: • The impact of free trade agreements (FTAs) and how they can contribute to your success.

• Strategies for due diligence and risk mitigation.

• Latin America’s credit markets and how they affect potential customers.

• Your marketing strategy: the mix of technology and personal contact.

• Contract considerations and dispute resolution in challenging business climates.

1311-03-08-02

f e a t u r i n g Big Thinker: Chase Saunders

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Polymath Chase Saunders is one of a growing number of Charlotteans championing Charlotte as the global hub for international trade on the East coast of the United States, advocating that increased commerce means greater prosperity for the region— more business, more jobs, more wealth, more innovation, more opportunities for all.

“We have the opportunity to build a new city—and that happens rarely in someone’s lifetime,” he emphasizes. “We’ve got to have a strategy to leverage all business sectors with these assets because we are in a global competition for jobs and opportunity.”

Connecting NC Freight to the Global Economy

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Robert Menzies says he acted on his “gut feeling to get in the game,” 27 years ago when he purchased the forerunner of Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway. At a time when most thought the best days for the railroad transportation industry were past, he’s always seen it differently. Today, the 150-mile Carolina Route is the largest privately owned short line in the state, extending across the heartland of North Carolina connecting to both CSX and Norfolk Southern, and encompassing several major industrial parks and sites alongside.

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Global Expertise, Local Knowledge

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As managing director of GreerWalker’s exit planning and investment bank affiliate, John Norman revels in unraveling the complex tax laws governing foreign-owned firms doing business in the U.S., as well as U.S. firms doing business in foreign countries. “The U.S. international tax law is really written for the old multinationals in the ’60s, and it hasn’t really been upgraded,” comments Norman. “For privately-held businesses, there are some really unfortunate hoops and quirks that can result in seriously negative effects.”

chase saunders cover photo by jimmcguire.com

Concrete Reputation

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Family-owned Tucker-Kirby Co. has been a recognized provider of concrete, masonry, waterproofing and geotextiles for the residential, commercial and industrial building markets for almost a century now. Although they don’t sell ready mix concrete or brick and block, they sell everything to make them work. “When you see a concrete or masonry building, it’s not just a box,” explains company president Bill McKinnell IV, “there’s quite an infrastructure to it. On a typical project, we could have $100,000 in materials in a building and none of it would be visible once the building is finished.”

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Home Lending Done Right

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American Mortgage Security Corp. President Phil Mahoney thinks they are at the top of their game. Having survived the 2008 mortgage crisis, he says, “We understood that the world was changing and we had better be able to work within government regulations. We never ran our ship ashore. We’re smaller, more nimble, and we adapted quickly.” As the firm celebrates 15 years of successful mortgage banking, Mahoney credits much of their success to a purposeful vision, a strong work ethic, and the loyalty and longevity of their employees. Oh, and hugs.

o f i n t e re s t …

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The Succession (and Exit) Planning Process: Part IV

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Cost/Price Model: Use Your Income Statement to Check Your Prices

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

44

publisher’spost First Step – Implementing the Affordable Care Act Second Step – Health Care Cost Containment

It’s a new chapter in health care Health care reform is here. It also continues to evolve. But there’s one thing you can count on. We’re ready. To respond. To help.

To inform. And we remain committed to providing North Carolinians with the best care and service possible. For updates and information on how health care reform may affect you, whether you’re an individual or employer, visit us at NCHealthReform.com.

® Marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. U9765b, 3/14

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OF INTEREST: Transforming the Business of Law to Meet the Needs of Business

THE SUCCESSION (AND EXIT) PLANNING PROCESS: PART IV

T

his article deals with Step 4 of our firm’s Six Step Planning Process: Determine whether to transfer your business to “insiders” (family members, co-owners or key employees) or “outsiders” (outside third parties).

Steve Smith was no different than millions of other baby boomer business owners. He daydreamed about transferring the business to his oldest daughter and perhaps to a member of his management team, yet he couldn’t gauge their passion for owning a business and hadn’t tested their management skills.

And, of course, they had no money.

Steve’s company was his economic and financial lifeline. Without its income, without his ability to use the business to accumulate wealth, without the ability to sell his interest to a buyer who had cash, and without a plan, Steve’s wishes would remain wishes.

To Steve, it was obvious that if he ever wanted to exit his business in style, he needed to wait for a white knight buyer to appear on his doorstep bearing saddlebags full of cash. So, Steve did what many, many other owners in his position do: nothing.

If you think that transferring your business to your children or to your management team (insiders) is inherently risky, you are right.

Insider transfers are risky because: 1. Insiders typically have no money.

2. Successors’ management / ownership skills and commitment to ownership may be untested.

3. You lose control of the business if you make the transfer before you are completely cashed out.

On the other hand, the possible benefits to this type of transfer include: 1. Keeping the business in your family or extending your legacy through your hand-picked management group.

2. Motivating, retaining and rewarding key employees.

3. Reaping more after-tax money than a third party transfer.

4. Retaining control until all of the purchase price is received.

5. Remaining active in the business while gradually reducing your day-to-day responsibilities.

6. Providing time for you to build up personal assets (via distributions of cash) before your exit.

The trick is to design a plan that minimizes each risk so you can reap all of the potential benefits. Let’s first look at how that might be done.

Insiders have no money; therefore it is too risky to sell to them. That’s true only if you don’t design a transfer strategy that puts money in their pockets as they increase the value of your company. Years in advance of the transfer, you will have to work steadily

and effectively to build cash flow (the source for all cash out) through the installation of Value Drivers and through careful planning to minimize taxation.

Unless you carefully plan to avoid it, cash flow can be taxed twice. This double tax (sometimes totaling more than 50 percent) can spell disaster for many internal transfers. Through effective tax planning, however, much of this tax burden can be legally avoided.

Finally, you and your advisors should use a modest, but defensible valuation for the company. Because a lower value is used for the Contributed by purchase price, the size of the tax bite is correspondingly reduced.

The difference between what you will receive from the sale of your business, at a lower price, and what you want to be paid to you after you leave the business is “made good” through a number of different techniques to extract cash from the company after you leave it.

Successor’s management/ownership skills are untested.

If that’s the case, create a written plan to systematically transition management and ownership responsibilities to your successor—beginning today. The transition period, during which you test both your assumptions and your successors’ skills, usually takes several years to complete.

You lose control before being cashed out. This is only true if you (and your advisors) fail to implement a transfer strategy designed to accomplish the opposite: you should be cashed out before you lose control. In such a plan, you keep control, in part through a well-designed and incremental sale of the company, over time, based upon improving company cash flow over time. You can also retain control with much less than a 51 percent ownership by recapitalizing the company into voting and non-voting stock and selling the voting shares last.

The keys to reducing the risks of an insider transfer necessary to achieve success are: 1. Plan the transfer well in advance of your desired exit date.

Executing an insider transfer takes longer than executing a sale to a third party.

2. Value building activities are just as—if not more—important to an insider transfer as they are to a sale to a third party.

3. Plan design must be tax sensitive.

4. The plan must be in writing and make owners (and advisors) accountable.

Article presented by Robert Norris, founder and managing partner of Wishart Norris law firm, a member of Business Enterprise Institute’s International Network of Exit Planning Professionals. © 2014 Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. Reprinted with permission. Wishart Norris law firm partners with owners of closely-held businesses to provide comprehensive legal services in all areas of business, tax, estate planning, exit planning, succession planning, purchases and sales of businesses, real estate, family law, and litigation. For more information, contact Robert Norris at 704-364-0010 or Robert.Norris@wnhplaw.com or visit www.WNHPLaw.com.

Norris

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greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

OF INTEREST: Accounting, Tax and Consulting Solutions

COST/PRICE MODEL:

USE YOUR INCOME STATEMENT TO CHECK YOUR PRICES

S

uccessful businesses set prices and then deliver services or produce goods at costs that are lower than these prices. The difference between the cost and the price creates the profit that the business earns as goods and services are sold. To price correctly, most companies develop some type of Cost/Price Model to estimate their costs, and then they apply a markup to calculate the price.

For a new business owner, estimating accurate costs can be difficult because there may be unexpected expenses not included in the initial Model. As owners and companies mature, cost estimates usually become more accurate. Unfortunately, once the Model is trusted, businesses may not re-evaluate or update the cost estimates in their Models. If actual costs increase above the cost estimates, profits can shrink. The income statement, however, can be used to periodically check a company’s Cost/Price Model.

As an example, let’s assume that a company buys steel shelving units and delivers and installs them in customer warehouses. The company has eight installers, and two installers work together on each team. One leased truck is provided per team (4 trucks) and fuel cards are used to purchase gas. The shelves come in different sizes and shapes, and only a small markup can be added to each shelving unit. Most of the profits are earned from the installation service.

A Cost/Price Model is used to quote jobs which includes material costs based on the shelf sizes and estimated direct labor hours including travel time. The labor estimate is multiplied by $50.00 per hour, another $50.00 is added to each job as a trip charge, and a 25 percent markup is added to the total cost estimate to cover all other costs and provide a profit. Last year, the company completed about 1,200 jobs.

To check the Cost/Price Model, we identify those costs on the income statement that we believe are included in the Model, and we calculate average component costs based on some quantity (quantity produced, hours worked, days, etc.). In this example, we know that the company completed 1,200 jobs last year, so we divide the income statement expenses by 1,200 to calculate average costs per job and compare these to the Model. Each number below matches and explains a red circle on the table:

Revenue

$ 41,639 $ 1,800,000

Materials

$

1,080,000

Labor Benefits

$ $

Truck leases Fuel Insurance

$ $ $

job

cost per job in 2013 was $900, so the material estimate seems reasonable.

Contributed by

 All labor and benefit costs are totaled and

divided by 1,200 jobs. The Model could be under-valuing labor costs per hour and job, so more research may be needed.

 Truck, fuel and insurance costs are added

and divided by 1,200 jobs. The $100 trip charge in the Model seems adequate.

 There are Cost of Sales expenses on the

income statement that are not specifically estimated in the Cost/Price Model. These costs must be covered by the markup, or there will be an income loss on the job.

 In this example, the job will be profitable if

a price of $1,687.50 is charged. Unfortunately, the average price per job in 2013 was $1,500, so the company had a year-end loss.

Cost / Price Model

/

1200 jobs

=

$ 1,500.00

$ 1,080,000

/

1200 jobs

=

$

900.00

Cost of shelves

332,800 58,240

$

391,040

/

1200 jobs

=

$

325.87



Labor (hrs) Hourly wage

18,000 7,583 20,000

$

45,583

/

1200 jobs

=

$

Tools Repairs Cost of Sales Gross Profit

$ $ $ $

2,500 7,000 1,526,123 273,877

Utilities Rent Telephone Bank Cost Office & Owners Salary General & Admin. Costs

$ $ $ $ $ $

7,200 12,000 6,000 1,200 250,000 276,400

$

 Based on 1,200 jobs, the average material

Average per

Income Statement

Operating Profit



An average Cost/Price Model appears on the right. The material cost is estimated at $1,000, installation will take 5 hours, and a $1,687.50 price is calculated.



(2,523)

Costs in Model $

$

9,500

276,400



/

/

1200 jobs

1200 jobs





37.99

$ 1,263.85 =

$

 5 $ 50.00

$ 1,000.00

$

250.00

Truck charge

$

100.00

Estimates in Model

$ 1,350.00

7.92

$

230.33

Costs not in Model

$

238.25

Total 2013 Costs

$ 1,502.10

Profit per job

$

(2.10)

Mark up Calculated Price

25%

$

337.50

$ 1,687.50

By using the year-end income statement as one large Cost/Price Model, you can identify cost estimates that might be inaccurate. In our example, the company might decide to increase its labor rate charged, or add some additional costs to the Model, or increase its markup to increase 2014 profits.

Content contributed by Potter & Company, a local certified public accounting firm with four locations around Charlotte—Charlotte, Concord, Monroe and Mooresville—offering core services of audit, tax, business consulting and financial analysis. Content written by Michael Waddell, MBA, Financial and Management Consultant. For more information, contact Michael or Sam Leder, CPA, Partner, at 704926-3300 or visit www.GoToPotter.com.

Waddell

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greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

g i B photo by jimmcguire.com

“We have the opportunity to build a new city—and that happens rarely in someone’s lifetime.”

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r e k n i h T A

Saunders

polymath, derived from the Greek polumathēs “having learned much,” from polu- “much” + the stem of manthanein “learn,” is a person of wide knowledge or learning, whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas.

Such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems or, as here, to bring broad perspective to the interpretation of historical events.

While the term is most often used to describe great thinkers whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas, in less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who knows a lot about many different things.

In either case, it would aptly describe Chase Boone Saunders. A Charlotte native and a fifth generation North Carolinian, Saunders is an attorney with the McNair Law Firm and experienced mediator, a retired N.C. Superior Court judge, a savant of many subjects, and an accomplished artist.

He graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, where he studied history and English, obtained his law degree from UNC as well, and has taken various financial planning and real estate courses at local universities and business schools.

In addition to practicing law, Saunders is a volunteer or otherwise involved in a number of professional, historical, business, civic and charitable activities, and has been widely recognized for his achievements in his profession and in the community. In his “spare time,” the passionate historian watercolors “the changing face of the two Carolinas.”

He is one of a growing number of Charlotteans heralding the zeitgeist to position Charlotte as the global hub for international trade on the East coast of the United States, advocating that increased commerce means greater prosperity for the region—more business, more jobs, more wealth, more innovation, more opportunities for all.

“We have the opportunity to build a new city—and that happens rarely in someone’s lifetime,” Saunders says straightforwardly and profoundly.

by barbara fagan

CHARLOTTE’S Resurgent Destiny as a Crossroads of Commerce

TRADE STREET

9 TRYON STREET

greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

PRICE’S CHICKEN COOP

A Rare Opportunity

“So if you think about the people who settled here, they were oftentimes run out of their countries. They had to travel across the sea, and then they had to travel down a wagon path with whatever they could carry. Only the toughest of people who had no other choice would do that.”

Create It, Make It, Move It

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may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

In his series of watercolors titled UPTOWN FROM, Saunders describes the city thusly: “Charlotte is a work-in-progress, Information Age City ever creating its future by coupling a mid-East location astride pre-Columbian, Indian trade routes to the energy of her people. Named by her founders for the English Queen Charlotte, and later called the Queen City, her towers of commercial power are visible over a verdant forest canopy as the center of a region with significant business activity.

“Charlotte is a city built on hard red clay which only the value of hard work made productive. And it is no different today! Charlotte continues to welcome and acknowledge the successes of those who come here to work hard, live, and play.”

This Renaissance man has a clear vision and enthusiasm for Charlotte that is as evident as the sparkles in his eyes—and contagious.

“Charlotte is on the threshold of another boom driven by its strength as a logistics center. Representative of that is the new intermodal facility at the airport which makes Charlotte a ‘city of ports’ rather than a singular port city.

“And we have the opportunity to build that new city,” he maintains.

Saunders is a member of the Charlotte World Affairs Council and Charlotte World Trade Association, and a presenter and promoter of Regional Development Initiatives and the Charlotte 2030 vision theme: Create It, Make It, Move It with Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) President Tony Zeiss and nationally-recognized urban planner Michael Gallis. He is founding member of the global vision leaders group, community and civic leaders who believe that time is of the essence.

He characterizes the group as a “21st century, open-source entity”—a collaborative forum linked by a common goals, common interests, and digital communications. Described more from the wealth of materials amassed at www.CLTglobal.com, and referenced with respect thereto, various group leaders have made and can be scheduled to make presentations of CLTglobal materials and updates can be requested and resources shared at the website.

This grassroots group is aptly named. Its goal is to

advocate, promote and stimulate Charlotte and its surrounding region as a global hub of international trade— a great inland port that’s an economic powerhouse.

In the Create It, Make It, Move It initiative, the group highlights three key components of that goal: innovation and entrepreneurialism; manufacturing, especially advanced manufacturing; and a distribution infrastructure that moves goods efficiently and for a lower cost around the world.

While the goal may seem a stretch to some, there are real indicators that support the global vision for Charlotte. Charlotte is already a growing center of energy, finance and health care, and its standing as a transportation and distribution hub has been elevated exponentially with the merger of American and US Airways, the improvements to the airport and the new intermodal distribution facility.

Charlotte has also been recognized for its global competitiveness in an IBM and Site Selection magazine report which named Charlotte as one of only 12 U.S. cities to make its Top 100 Global Cities.

The seed of the global vision leaders group began simply enough two years ago, when Saunders shared his visualization of Charlotte through four distinct booms and busts with Zeiss at a Rotary Club meeting. Together, they decided that the time was right for Charlotte to be proactive and create a model for the city’s next 50 years—a vision for a new city. But what would that new city look like?

“To determine that, you first need to pull back and say where has Charlotte been? What is its history?” explains Saunders, a former president of the Mecklenburg Historical Association.

A Perspective on Charlotte “Charlotte is a story of place and people,” Saunders starts out.

“At its most fundamental, Charlotte exists because of its location. It’s located at a crossroads of trading paths which were Indian paths, and before that, most likely, animal migratory paths.

“Charlotte was built on the high ground between two creeks. In Europe, castles would have been built on the location, but in America, we built towns. The crossroads of what is now Trade and Tryon was situated on a trading path called the Great Wagon Road that ran along the Piedmont from Philadelphia through Lancaster County on the east side of the Appalachians.

HEZEKIAH ALEXANDER HOUSE

“The trading path, about 745 miles long, ran through Charlotte on its way to Augusta.

In the early 1700s, it was the path that the new immigrants took south after they arrived in either New York or Philadelphia.

“In the 1740s and 1750s, the British had worked out a peace with the Cherokees so that the path could be enlarged into a road.

And relations were friendly with the Catawba Indians, so the area around Charlotte and South Carolina was available for settlement.”

Saunders points out that the people who settled in the Charlotte area were independent and self-reliant—a defining force for its future.

“In the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the Scots were wiped out as a power in England,” Saunders explains, “and 40,000, 50,000, maybe even 60,000 Scots immigrated into America, settling in western Pennsylvania.

JAMES K. POLK HOUSE

“Other settlers in the Colonies were the Scots-Irish, driven from Northern Ireland because of wool tariffs and other economic privation. They were Scots and Presbyterians. America was the place where everyone who wasn’t an Anglican was sent or was encouraged to go, and that included Puritans, Anabaptists and many different sects. All the religious dissenters—the people who thought differently—came here.

When all the land in Pennsylvania had been acquired, they migrated south along the Great Wagon Road and settled our region.

All you have to do is look at the names of present-day South Carolina counties: York, Chester and Lancaster. All of those counties were named after western Pennsylvania counties.

“So if you think about the people who settled here, they were oftentimes run out of their countries. They had to travel across the sea, and then they had to travel down a wagon path with whatever they could carry.

Only the toughest of people who had no other choice would do that,” remarks Saunders.

“That gave rise to a highly independent, fairly well-educated, self-reliant group of religious dissenters. And they also had no great love for the English. The end result was

the Mecklenburg Declaration and Resolves in 1775 when Charlottetown left the Crown.

“This dislike of the English and the control the Crown exerted over the colonies led to widespread tensions and gave rise to the Regulators in Alamance County who rebelled against excessive taxes, dishonest officials and the building of the Royal Governor’s palace in New Bern. Locally, the major source of contention was the Vestry Act. “That was a damnable piece of legislation,” asserts Saunders. “The Vestry Act required all landowners to pay money to the Anglican Church to support local Anglican preachers who were basically reporting back to the Crown on the status of things. Presbyterians were paying preachers from another faith to impose their practices on the Presbyterians— spying on them, performing their marriage and death ceremonies, and educating their children to be good little Anglicans.

“That didn’t sit well with the people. They decided they should create a town that would allow them to have a charter and be a political entity which could negotiate with the Crown.

So in 1768 they created Charlottetown.

“By this time the Regulators were in open revolt and Governor Tryon needed a military force, provisions, and guns to fight them. So the people of Charlottetown struck a deal and provided troops and provisions with the agreement that the Royal Governor wouldn’t enforce the Vestry Act—and the people of Charlottetown could educate their children and have religious freedom.

“But afterwards, the English Parliament, who had to approve the agreement, refused to honor the deal. So the people decided they couldn’t trust the British.

By 1775, concurrent with the Battle of Lexington, Charlotte declared itself independent through a declaration and a number of resolves; the event was called The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Boom No. 1: Gold!

“Charlotte’s location along the Great Wagon Road made it an important supply center throughout the Revolutionary War, but its first real economic boom came in the 1790s as gold was discovered in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties. The largest deposits of gold were found in rock from which it had to be extracted. That took skill. That brought in miners, financiers, and mining engineers and a mining industry began.

“There was enough gold here that it became the local specie and until the California Gold Rush, Charlotte was

the leading gold producer in the nation.

Charlotte petitioned for and received a branch of the U.S. Mint in 1838.”

TRADE & TRYON PROSPECTOR STATUE

At the turn of the century, the economy also depended upon the movement of raw materials and produce along the rivers where they could enter the Landsford Canal.

Saunders cites canals as the area’s way to transport goods in the early 1800s but by the 1840s high technology was carriage by rail…the new transportation of the day.

“So forget canals,” Saunders says.

“Charlotte had to have a railroad. Eastern North Carolina already had a railroad.

Initially they didn’t want to extend it all the way to Charlotte, so folks from Charlotte started talking to people in Upstate South Carolina. Camden, which was the richest part of the Upstate, didn’t like the idea but Columbia was just getting started and they said it looked good to them.

“That caused the businessmen in eastern North Carolina to rethink running a railroad to Charlotte and, by 1856, Charlotte became the intersection of both a NorthSouth and an East-West railroad—each of a different gauge—but we were nevertheless at the crossroads. Salisbury, the largest city in western North Carolina at that time, missed out on that important opportunity. It made Charlotte part of the East Coast supply chain and reinforced our logistical position.

“Cotton had been a significant crop in Charlotte, as it was in the rest of the South,” Saunders continues. “In the 1850s, cotton factors sprung up to handle the financial transactions, warehouses were built and

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greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

“We’ve got to leverage these assets to attract new domestic and international businesses. We’ve got to educate everyone and explain to them the opportunities which they present.

This needs to be in the consciousness of our business and civic leaders.”

“We’ve got to have a strategy to leverage all business sectors with these assets because we are in a global competition for jobs and opportunity. Other cities are aggressively positioning themselves for the future. We have to realize we’re in a global competition.”

the population of Charlotte doubled between 1850 and 1860. This was the real beginning of Charlotte as a center of commerce.

“The existence of two railroad lines meant that a factor could sell his goods—primarily cotton—either to the North or to the South, wherever the price was better.”

Charlotte’s railroads also featured prominently in the Civil War. “The North blockaded all of the Southern ports on the East and Gulf coasts,” Saunders explains, “and they could bombard any of the factories in the coastal cities, so the Confederacy had no safe place to make engine shafts for their blockade runners, or cannon balls or gun shells.

“Charlotte was inland but it was on the railroad, so the naval arms industry with its engineers set up the naval works for the Confederacy in Charlotte. After the war, Charlotte had some assets to restart its economy. Charlotte wasn’t burned down by Sherman’s troops like Columbia, S.C., and other southern cities, so we had a leg up on growth and the emerging new technology—electricity.

“Electricity allowed you to build and power cotton mills wherever there was a decent body of running water, but you needed engineers to set them up.

Because of the Confederate Naval Yard, the engineers were already here.

“J.P. Morgan had the monopoly on electricity in New York and the Middle Atlantic States. In the South, James B. Duke, who made his first fortune in tobacco, decided that he would invest in the same technology and build a regional economy with it. Electricity powered mills, lighted buildings, lighted streets, and powered street cars and electric trains.

“As events unfolded, he was helped in this effort by the governor.” Saunders explains, “In 1916, North Carolina was hit by two Category 4 hurricanes causing more than three days of downpours. Tremendous flooding destroyed most of the bridges on the East Coast and in the mountains and flushed any of the towns along rivers. Just west of Charlotte, the Catawba River crested 47 feet above flood level.

“It was so bad that food had to be brought in by railroad to keep people from starving. As a result, the governor determined that couldn’t happen again and proposed to Duke that if he dammed up all those rivers, he could develop steam plants at the dams to help pay off the expense.

“So that’s how Duke came to control the authority of the dams from the mountains to the county line and ultimately down into South Carolina. It was the beginning of the energy business in the Carolinas. It was a wonderful stroke of luck for Charlotte. It gave us an energy business which is critical to our regional economy.”

DUKE POWER

Booms No. 2, 3 and 4: Military Base, Textiles and Banking World War I brought Charlotte’s second economic boom. “With war clouds inevitably coming,” Saunders says, “Charlotte sensed an opportunity, sent a delegation to Washington and persuaded Congress to give Charlotte a military base.”

Camp Greene is built in just a few months on the acreage of the Dowd Farm and 60,000 men from all over the country arrived by train into Charlotte. “Each one of these soldiers,” says Saunders, “was getting $8.00 a month and $4.00 had to go home, but he had $4.00 he could spend here.

CAMP GREENE

“The military base was a real boon to Charlotte.

It brought in a lot of cash and all the support businesses associated with it but it also, importantly, brought awareness to the rest of the nation. Now there was a place called ‘Charlotte,’ and it was where their sons were.

“Because of the base and the growth of the local textile businesses, local banks thrived and a branch of the Federal Reserve was established in Charlotte in 1927. This meant that Charlotte was a financial player and was able to affect the flow of money through its branch of the Fed throughout the region.”

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

So by the 1930s Charlotte had regional roads, trains, electricity, telephones, radio, automobiles, and trucks. Commercial aircraft were the next technology.

“In the early 1930s,” Saunders continues, “planes are the ‘the next new thing’ and Mayor Ben Douglas decided that Charlotte was a growing city and needed an airport. By this time Charlotte was in the Great Depression and Douglas had to figure out how to put people to work. He got a grant from the Works Progress Administration and put the word out that Charlotte was going to build an airport and anybody who wanted a job should show up. People walked, thumbed and drove to the west side of Charlotte and built an airport.

“In the beginning there wasn’t much traffic at the airport, but it was important because of its location.

Airmail and travelers moving between Florida and New York were the primary source of business. The airport would expand during World War II when it was taken over by the U.S. Army and made an essential part of the war effort. After the war, it would service a number of traveling salesmen selling goods manufactured in Northern companies and abroad throughout the region. By the 1950s, the airport joined the list of logistical resources which would contribute to the economy. Mayor Belk led efforts to expand it.”

“By the 1950s Charlotte was in its third economic boom as a leading regional textile center,” Saunders continues. “Threads, elastic, fibers, and fabric were being produced. Some of the materials were sent to Michigan to be put in automobiles. Some were used in North Carolina cities for the furniture upholstery. And much of it was used to make articles of clothing ranging from socks to pants to sweaters.

WBT & WBTV AT INDEPENDENCE SQUARE

“The expansion of the textile industry led to growth in the area’s trucking. Charlotte’s location, which allows access to half the U.S. population within a day’s drive, gave Charlotte a tremendous advantage in distribution…another logistical, supply chain asset.

“You overlay that with the development of the interstate highway system in the 1950s and Charlotte gets I-85 and then I-77 with its easy to access I-40.

About the same time, WBT led the way in building a huge transmitter with East Coast range and WBTV later came on to make Charlotte the broadcasting center for the region.

“Because of good transportation, a favorable labor environment and the airport, foreign companies start

to make Charlotte their home. Especially German companies, which produced machinery and chemicals used in the textile industry, located in Charlotte and all of the surrounding counties in North and South Carolina.

“The task is doable.

All we have to do is look how we got here. We started a city. We started a gold mining industry.

We started a military base. We started a manufacturing and textile powerhouse.

We started a banking center. We started an energy hub. These and other things were started by the people of this community who had a dream, who had a vision. All of it was the result of individual and collective creative energy!”

AMERICAN TRUST COMPANY

“Charlotte’s fourth and most recent economic boom resulted in the city becoming the second largest banking center in the country. But it all started because some very entrepreneurial bankers decide they had to get bigger, and to do that they had to cross state lines.

“Hugh McColl smartly took advantage of a Florida loophole at a time when interstate banking not the law of the land, acquiring a trust company in Florida.

Thereafter, he was instrumental in getting federal laws changed to permit interstate banking and began to aggressively acquire bank after bank in the Southeast and then, nationally. He led local bankers in perfecting this expansionary model. The Charlotte banking community grabbed market share and surprised the nation by becoming a huge force in the industry.

DOUGLAS MUNICIPAL AIRPORT

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“There’s synergy to banks,” Saunders says. “Once you have banks, people and businesses start moving to where the money is. And they could do this by air.” greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

In 1979, the airport became a hub servicing many cities. Another piece of the logistics story fell into place.

“But the airport still had a modest model,” explains Saunders, “so in 1997, Airport Director Jerry Orr and transportation and logistics expert Michael Gallis started thinking of ways to grow the airport and increase freight flow to build revenue. They met with Norfolk Southern executives and decided, with city support, to build a stateof-the-art, 21st century intermodal facility… the most efficient location for the exchange of cargo among trains, trucks and planes.

Norfolk Southern agreed, invested $92 million, and the intermodal facility opened at Charlotte Douglas International in 2013.

“With this intermodal facility, Charlotte has a unique asset for moving goods faster. This means the city is now a player in the global logistics supply chain. Outside of Long Beach, California, the three largest intermodal facilities are Chicago, Houston, and now, Charlotte, North Carolina. The new intermodal facility is a logistical Lamborghini. It is designed to race. It is designed to compete. Now it just needs a driver to realize its potential.”

fenix fotography

The Age of Fulfillment “The next big age is going to be the Age of Fulfillment driven by logistics,” asserts Saunders. “It’s the age of ‘I want it,’ ‘I want it now,’ and not only that, ‘I want it to spec.’

Silicon Valley is designing the software that will allow the customization of mass to make this a reality.

“Ford today can make a million variations of its F-150 truck because it can design and test all those variations on a computer. They want to let you determine the features you want and the computer sends the instructions to the machines that make the truck customized to your needs. And once it is made, today’s consumer wants it delivered tomorrow so that he or she is fulfilled!

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“Creative energy, making things and moving things is what we have done in Charlotte since the beginning. Our tradition is summarized in the phrase “Create It, Make It, Move It.” It is the elevator pitch that sums it all up. We can use it to attract business and investment capital to the region and aggressively pursue domestic and international trade and business opportunities.”

“What’s also important about this customization revolution is that it is part of another movement, that of the end of inventory. Inventory has costs associated with handling, spoilage, deterioration, damage and storage. Ideally, a manufacturer wants to make it and move it to the end user without delay. That places a premium on locations where you can do that.”

“All of this is part of the re-shoring and next-shoring of American industry. That is what the new industrial revolution is all about. ‘Real nations make things,’ says Chris Anderson in his cutting edge text Makers.

And it matters where you are located.

“The driver of Charlotte’s this next boom will center on logistics. Logistics means flow.

The faster and less expensive the flow of anything, the more successful a business or a city can become. To do an inventory of local ‘flow’ assets, we need only consider our regional crossroads location and the companies involved in the ‘flow business’ using highways, planes, rail to Eastern, Gulf and West Coast ports, oil and gas pipelines, communications platforms, financial data pipelines, and big data pipelines moving all of the information supporting the cloud and streaming content to our smart phones. (This is why Google, Apple, Amazon, and Disney are in the region.)

“Add to that a critical, human resource pipeline, a ‘workforce pipeline’ to provide a trained workforce, which is being built by Heath Morrison of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Tony Zeiss of Central Piedmont Community College, Bill Anderson of MeckEd, and Phil Dubois of UNC Charlotte,” confirms Saunders.

“Access to these pipelines means businesses can operate smarter, faster and cheaper. Successful 21st century businesses, manufacturers and distributors must locate where they can get their stuff to the largest markets the fastest and the cheapest without inventory. Charlotte is one of those singular locations on the planet with all essential pipelines.

“It is time for Charlotte to envision how she will become a new regional city in a global marketplace. It is all about thinking BIG. Charlotte—a place where we create it, make it, and move it better and faster than anyone else. Why not here and why not now?”

fenix fotography

“Remember cities like Tyre, Athens, Corinth, Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Carthage? All of those places used their logistical assets to grow as acknowledged by the history books.

Logistics matters.

“The country has been divided into seven economic megaregions. Not only is Charlotte in the center of one of them (the PAM or Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion), but she is also the only major distribution location midway between the North and South and the East and Midwest.

“We’ve got to leverage these assets to attract new domestic and international businesses. We’ve got to educate everyone and explain to them the opportunities which they present. This needs to be in the consciousness

HEZEKIAH ALEXANDER HOUSE

of our business and civic leaders,” says Saunders, clearly a man on a mission.

“We’ve got to have a strategy to leverage all business sectors with these assets because we are in a global competition for jobs and opportunity. Other cities are aggressively positioning themselves for the future.

We have to realize we’re in a global competition,” Saunders emphasizes.

“And we need leadership with local solutions, because we can’t count on anybody to do this for us. We can’t count on Raleigh or on Washington to solve all of our problems. Charlotte’s going to have to come up with its own solutions. Business people have done it before.

“The task is doable. All we have to do is look how we got here. We started a city. We started a gold mining industry. We started a military base. We started a manufacturing and textile powerhouse. We started a banking center. We started an energy hub. These and other things were started by the people of this community who had a dream, who had a vision. All of it was the result of individual and collective creative energy!”

Creating a Global Crossroads of Commerce As part of this focus on global commerce, the U.S. Commercial Service and the North Carolina District Export Council are gathering the U.S. Commercial diplomats from 14 countries in North and South America here in Charlotte in October to provide information about access to world trade.

From Saunders’ perspective, this is a propitious time in the history of this community because we now have the opportunity to

play on a global scale. This has never happened before. The event in the fall will more formally introduce the foreign trade community to Charlotte, to be followed next year by the completion of the Panama Canal expansion allowing transit by the huge postPanamax cargo ships.

They will deliver the commerce of the world to the ports (in most cases the newly expanding Port of Charleston) where it will transit by rail to Charlotte’s intermodal facility for further distribution. That will help make Charlotte a true inland port city in the center of a thriving global commercial marketplace.

“Creative energy, making things and moving things is what we have done in Charlotte since the beginning. Our tradition is summarized in the phrase “Create It, Make It, Move It.” It is the elevator pitch that sums it all up. We can use it to attract business and investment capital to the region and aggressively pursue domestic and international trade and business opportunities.

“There is no reason we cannot build a 21st century economic city-state with our assets to create a new city with new trade routes, using new technology and new energy to become a major player in this new age.

“It is time for Charlotte to envision how she will become a new regional city in a global marketplace. It is all about thinking BIG,” emphasizes Saunders. “Charlotte—a place where we create it, make it, and move it better and faster than anyone else. Why not here and why not now?”

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Barbara Fagan is a Greater Charlotte Biz freelance writer.

Charlotte images courtesy of the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room – Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

NC Freight to the Global Economy

T

oday, there are seven Class I freight railroads in the U.S. that account for 69 percent of freight rail mileage, 94 percent of revenue, and 90 percent of rail employment. The remainder of the rail activity is undertaken by over 550 Class II and Class III regional and short line railroads.

These regional and short line railroads, often feeding traffic and receiving

traffic from Class I railroads for final delivery, account for 33 percent of U.S. freight rail mileage and 11 percent of employees. They serve nearly every industrial, wholesale, retail, and resourcebased sector of our economy, and range in size from tiny operations handling a few carloads to multi-state operators. Many Class III railroads were once branch lines of larger railroads that were spun off, or portions of mainlines that had been abandoned.

Railroads transformed American life. They opened vast new areas of the American interior to settlement while stimulating resource use, commercial farming, and manufacturing. There is no doubt that they were particularly important to economic development in the South.

While the growth of the rail industry through much of the 20th century was robust, it took

ABERDEEN CAROLINA & WESTERN RAILWAY EXTENDS REACH OF NC COMMERCE

a decidedly different turn in the latter part as the trucking industry, interstate highway system, and commercial airlines began to compete for the same revenues. Competition spurred railroad consolidations as well as bankruptcies. In 1980, Congress passed the Staggers Rail Act, easing regulations and encouraging the sales of lines—that would otherwise have been abandoned—to regionals and short lines.

Class I carriers became more focused on the wholesale type of business—running high speed unit and intermodal trains longer distances—leaving the regional and short line carriers with the less profitable, more labor-intensive retail business dealing with smaller customers requiring intensive switching and slow speed operations.

chris auman

Strategically Located ACWR

Connecting with Strength

chris auman

chris auman

ACWR is the largest privately held Class III short line or regional freight railroad in North Carolina, with multiple connections to both CSX and Norfolk Southern rail networks.

The 150-mile Carolina Route rail corridor crosses six counties, and is logistically centrally located between all major metropolitan areas in N.C. as well as near population centers in South Carolina such as Columbia, Rock Hill, Greenville, and Spartanburg.

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

It provided business opportunities for the regionals and short lines. With less expensive labor, less capital-intensive operations, and more management attention to the customer, the short lines could potentially operate a profitable business on lines where Class I carriers lost money; it was a situation complementary to both parties.

Taking On a Challenge That is precisely what brought about the opportunity in 1987 for Robert Menzies to purchase the Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway Company, a short line railroad from Aberdeen to Star, and bring it into the 21st century.

Today, the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway (ACWR) extends across the heartland of North Carolina from Charlotte towards Raleigh and south toward Pinehurst, connecting to both CSX and Norfolk Southern rail lines. In responding to the classified ad for sale, he says he acted on his “gut feeling to get in the game.” Defying conventional wisdom (who says you can’t run a railroad when you’ve never even worked on a railroad?); he relocated to Star, N.C., to bring it back to life.

At a time when most thought the best days for the railroad transportation industry were past, Menzies has always seen it differently. “I always figured that Americans couldn’t ignore the most efficient form of transportation forever,” he says assuredly.

He means “efficient” as in more accommodating to the concept of green energy, fuel prices, population growth, and commercial expansion—factors that were not considered or nowhere near as meaningful in the ’80s.

Menzies has had a lifelong interest in the transportation industry. He received his bachelor’s in transportation from Arizona State University and a graduate degree in transportation and logistics from Michigan State University. He taught transportation at Murray State University in Kentucky as well as Tri-State University in Indiana. In addition, he has owned businesses in other service industries across the U.S. He knew taking on the short line would be challenging and very capital-intensive. But believing that quality people produce quality outcomes, Menzies says he was purposeful about surrounding himself with an accomplished team. He has been fortunate in employee retention over the years, and credits that to

finding and empowering the right talent to produce the right outcome.

Revitalization of a Railroad One of his first recollections upon arrival in Star, Menzies says, was looking at 30-some miles of dilapidated track that were pretty much scrap metal, abandoned years earlier.

“Just moving the freight car alone, the tracks would literally move or spread. That’s how run down they were,” he describes.

Russ Smitley, vice president of marketing, describes it back then as “a railroad falling into the sand.”

Undaunted, Menzies and his team have rebuilt the railway over the years, converting the 70 lb. rail into 141 lb. continuouswelded rail on many sections of the railroad and upgrading the bridges along the routes to handle larger capacity freight cars. He says the company has spent over $30 million in the last decade alone improving the corridor. ACWR now has over 150 miles of quality rail infrastructure.

“Because of these upgrades,” says Menzies, “our rail infrastructure can handle 90 car unit trains at 286,000 pounds per car. This is the kind of infrastructure you’ll find on the Class I railroads, which translates to dependability and safe handling for our customer’s freight.”

Smitley, who has worked for a number of Class I carriers including CSX and BNSF says that what Menzies has accomplished with the failing short rail company in the last 27 years has been nothing short of remarkable. For his part, Menzies credits it to his Scottish heritage, asserting that he is just stubborn enough to keep at it until it’s right. He remarks that the early years especially required an inordinate amount of frugality and hard work.

In addition to its infrastructure, ACWR also offers railcar transloading services— moving liquid and dry bulk commodities between rail and truck for the efficiency of rail for the long-haul and truck for the shorthaul. For those looking to set up a rail distribution center in North Carolina, Smitley confirms they have strategic partnerships with trucking companies for transloading to get the freight to where it needs to be.

Interchange infrastructure determines the capacity with which a railroad can send/ receive freight from other railroads. Smitley points out that ACWR has long sidings at its interchanges, allowing it to handle the longest trains: “For our customers handling 90 car unit trains spanning over a mile long, this capacity is essential for the smooth

transfer of freight. Small interchanges require additional handling that often results in congestion in the yard or at the interchange, making it more challenging to get customers their freight quickly.”

Menzies proudly says, “We have 20 fully operable locomotives that are used to serve most of our freight customers. In addition, we have run through locomotive agreements to use CSX locomotives when handling dedicated unit trains for larger customers. Finally, we also lease locomotive capacity for those customers wanting to do their own railcar handling within their plant site.

“We have heavy machinery to deal with all the day to day maintenance and upgrades. From installing ties and rail to tamping and regulating the ballast, we have the equipment to keep our track profile looking like the big railroads. We maintain all track, bridges, and sidings. We give customers the option of using us to maintain their sidings.

“We even have passenger cars and business cars for holding economic development events, political fundraisers, social functions, etc. While we are a freight railroad, we hope to be able to use these assets to promote new business on our railroad.”

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chris auman

“Our rail infrastructure can handle 90 car unit trains at 286,000 pounds per car.

This is the kind of infrastructure you’ll find on the Class I railroads, which translates to dependability and safe handling for our customer’s freight.”

Meet Robert Menzies

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

Current Operations With roots going back to an 1887 logging railroad, and its transition through many owners and operators, one might expect this short line to be neglected and outdated. It isn’t. In fact, it is a model of how to run a modern, efficient, profitable railroad in the 21st century.

Today, ACWR is the largest privately held Class III short line or regional freight railroad in North Carolina, with multiple connections to both CSX and Norfolk Southern rail networks.

“With lines that run from Charlotte towards Raleigh, and extend south towards Pinehurst, the 150mile Carolina Route rail corridor crosses six counties,” Smitley points out, “and is logistically centrally located between all major metropolitan areas in N.C. as well as near population centers in South Carolina such as Columbia, Rock Hill, Greenville, and Spartanburg.”

The ACWR serves approximately 18 industries, moving plastics, grain, dimensional lumber, wood chips, aggregate, brick, butane, ethanol, propane, among other products. Customers include Mountaire Farms, Perdue Farms, Locust Lumber, KAG Logistics and Texon.

Known for its distinctive hunter green color with cream and magenta accents, the short line visage is as regal and dignified as its Carolina Route logo. Rail fans can catch the 90-car, 4-6 engine, 10,000-ton unit corn train as it winds through the Sandhills through Aberdeen, up the 2.8 percent hill beyond, and then through the countryside and curves to the ACWR headquarters in Candor.

Carl Hollowell, vice president of operations and general manager, describes usual operations: “Most weekdays, we’ve got a ‘miscellaneous’ freight between

Aberdeen and Candor and often up to Star, or the reverse.

The big draws, and the most important financial impact on the railroad, however, are the 90-car unit grain trains that come from the Midwest via CSX at Hamlet to Aberdeen. These trains supply the major poultry feed processing plants in Candor: Perdue and Mountaire.”

Short Line Goes Long Last spring, ACWR located and acquired an existing building in Candor, just eight miles away from is Star location, and began retrofitting the 91,000-square-foot warehouse facility to turn it into a locomotive repair shop facility, installing 4,600 feet of track leading to the building and a locomotive pit which allows access to the underside of engines for repairs.

Last fall, the company also moved its headquarters there. It maintains refueling and locomotive repair operations at its Star location.

The company has also formed a new division to repair and retrofit locomotives as well as passenger and freight cars.

“It’s common for us to take a locomotive worth $30,000 in scrap and turn it into something worth $300,000,” attests Dale Parks, vice president of mechanical and chief mechanical officer.

“Dale has been building the locomotive, freight, and passenger railcar repair business for years now,” says Menzies. “In fact, Dale and his team have built the business to the point where we had greatly exceeded our capacity in Star to keep up with it. Interest has only increased since we’ve located to our new facility and we expect this to be a key part of our future business.”

Parks says the repair facility is the only one of its kind in the state and one of the few on the East Coast.

He firmly believes that he and the team are tasked with saving an important part of Americana by restoring vintage railcars such as the “Roamer.”

ACWR’s longer term goal in Candor is to develop the rest of the 78-acre rail-served industrial site that will offer manufacturers easy access to rail and bring jobs and a stronger tax base to Montgomery County, says Smitley.

The company is marketing a 70-acre business park and multimodal facility dubbed the Midland MultiModal Industrial Park in southern Cabarrus County, just seven miles east of Charlotte, with highway access to I-485, rail access to both Norfolk Southern and CSX, and all utilities.

A STORIED PAST

Richmond Locomotive Works of Virginia built Aberdeen & Asheboro No. 4, seen in this early photograph. The Aberdeen & Asheboro Railway was originally the Aberdeen & West End Railroad until the tracks were extended to Biscoe, N.C. Used mainly to transport lumber products between Aberdeen and points west, it merged with the Norfolk & Southern Railroad in 1912 and began passenger service to Pinehurst and Jackson Springs, N.C. Photo courtesy of John Sloan depicted in Aberdeen (Images of America) by Robert A. Farrell (Arcadia Publishing, 2013).

Like most short line railroads, the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway has a storied past.

After their failed rebellion against the English in 1746 (the Battle of Culloden), many Highland Scots migrated to America, settling in the coastal regions, and expanding into the Sandhills of North Carolina. By the 1760s, settlers inhabited large tracts of land with expansive pine forests in the area that would later be named Aberdeen, for its Scottish heritage.

Settlers harvested timber from the vast tracts of longleaf pines and tapped them for tar, pitch and turpentine. The community grew and began engaging in commerce. By the mid1870s, the Raleigh & Augusta Railroad was built, and carried many of these products to market.

In 1880, a prominent citizen of Aberdeen—Allison Francis Page—and his family began acquiring large tracts of land and established a lumber mill. As business prospered, he constructed a rail line extending west from a junction with the Raleigh & Augusta tracks, and by 1887 it was established as the Aberdeen & West End Railway.

In 1895, the Pages completed a westward extension to Star, N.C. They also were nearing completion of the Asheboro

The industrial park is a piece of a larger development strategy the company calls RailVantage East (Moore, Montgomery) and RailVantageWest (Charlotte, Midland) to develop other available properties as logistics centers along the ACWR short line. Unabashedly, Smitley touts it as “Connecting North Carolina’s freight to the rest of the world.”

Connecting With Strength Menzies views trucking companies as partners more than competitors: “While ultimately dependent on short haul trucking for distribution, railroads are making a

Buffalo

Boston

Detroit

Ports of NY and NJ

Delaware River Ports Pittsburgh Columbus

Indianapolis

Baltimore

Washington, DC

Richmond

Hampton Roads Louisville

Greensboro

Knoxville

Charlotte

Nashville

Raleigh Moore/Montgomery Counties Wilmington

Atlanta

Charleston

Birmingham

Savannah

Montgomery

Jacksonville

Tampa Port Everglades 30

Miami

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Cargo handled in millions of tons (2010) Source: United States Maritime Alliance

M A R K ET A C C E S S I B I L I T Y Access to the Mid-Atlantic marketplace strategically located between New York and Miami.

Positioned as the geographic hub between North Carolina’s population centers as well as major east coast ports.

& Montgomery Railroad, which extended from Asheboro, N.C., southward to Star. In 1897, the two lines merged to form the Aberdeen & Asheboro Railroad.

Following that came a series of consolidations. The line became part of the Norfolk Southern Railway (the original NSRY, not today’s Norfolk Southern Railway) in 1913, and was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1974; in 1982 the Southern merged with the Norfolk & Western Railway to form Norfolk Southern Corporation.

Norfolk Southern abandoned the line because of dwindling business but, in 1983, agreed to operate the section of track as the Aberdeen & Briar Patch (AB&P) under the control of Willard Formyduval, the former president of nearby Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad. The AB&P was in service for just a few years before it was sold in 1987 to Menzies who formed Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway Company.

When Menzies bought the relatively short section of track between Aberdeen and Star (the tracks between Star and Asheboro had been removed many years before), he knew it would be highly dependent on the Norfolk Southern route for survival. So, he leased the section of Norfolk Southern track from Charlotte through Star to Gulf, N.C., a distance of 105 miles. This set up ACWR as a short line railroad that had found a niche hauling traffic once thought too light for the big systems.

comeback in the long hauls. Over the last 15 years, highway congestion, higher fuel costs, driver shortages and pending safety regulations are moving shipping from trucks back to rail.”

Of their relationship with the Class I carriers, he says, “It’s common for short line railroads to have issues with bigger rail companies because the interchanges are often undersized and inadequate, but fortunately with both CSX and NS, ACWR has substantial track at their interchanges with their Class I partners that result in a seamless transfer of customers freight.”

Menzies admits he took a risk by purchasing ACWR knowing that it would require tremendous capital investment, but he says the rewards have far surpassed anything imaginable. They are now focused on keeping up with the projected 30 percent population growth over the next few years.

He says they continue to look for opportunities to collaborate with adjacent landowners as well as communities that seek to attract new industry, jobs and tax base to North Carolina. As a result of these strategic partners and acquisitions, ACWR has sites and partners across its network that position it very well for long-term future growth.

Menzies’ vision for the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway Company was to strengthen and enhance the fabric of American industry. In fact the ACWR’s tagline touts with “Connecting with Strength.”

Menzies has been able to bring together diverse and competing interests that includes trucking, logistics companies, Class

I rail carriers as well as state and local political leaders that has resulted in new industry on his network that not only touches North Carolina but also the global economy.

Aberdeen, Carolina & Western Railway Company dba

Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway 967 NC Highway 211E Candor, N.C. 27229 Phone: 910-974-4219 Principals: Robert M. (Rob) Menzies II, President; Carl Hollowell, V.P. of Operations and General Manager; Russ Smitley, V.P. of Marketing; Dale Parks, V.P of Mechanical and Chief Mechanical Officer Founded: Railway founded in 1887; present ownership and operation since 1987 Employees: 30-40 in Candor, N.C.; 2-5 in Star, N.C. Locations: Headquartered in Candor, N.C., with additional terminal in Star, N.C. Revenues: $10 to $15 million Operations: Over 150 miles of track with lines from Charlotte towards Raleigh and extending south towards Pinehurst; 20 locomotives; moves agriculture, construction, forest products and liquid fuels Business: Privately held Class III short line or regional freight railroad with multiple connections to both CSX and Norfolk Southern rail networks; services include rail freight transportation, transloading, railcar switching, locomotive maintenance, and railcar storage. www.acwr.com

21

greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

by ramona patterson

Global Expertise,

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE GreerWalker Assesses Inbound and Outbound Business Opportunities

J 22

ohn Norman thought he was in college studying to become an engineer, when he realized he had a proclivity for accounting.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in taxation from the University of South Carolina, and joined up with Charlotte’s PricewaterhouseCoopers as a tax consultant. That was the early ’90s and already he was developing a passion for small to mid-sized companies doing business internationally.

Unraveling the complex tax laws governing foreign-owned businesses became his niche. He enjoyed solving problems while developing business relationships. When Norman learned of GreerWalker LLP and its focus on middle-market companies and international affiliations, he realized its business model closely aligned with his interests and joined as a senior associate in 1993.

Today, he has overall responsibility for the firm’s global services and manufacturing and distribution practice, and is managing director of its exit planning and investment bank affiliate, GreerWalker Corporate Finance, LLC. In short, he specializes in resolving international tax issues for foreign firms doing business in the U.S., as well as U.S. firms doing business in foreign countries. He is considered an expert in mergers and acquisitions, transfer pricing, entity selection, entity structure and ownership changes.

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

John M. Norman Partner GreerWalker LLP Managing Director GreerWalker Corporate Finance, LLC

“There’s just so much that’s right about Charlotte. I always question when they don’t choose this region.

I think we will continue to see more direct investment from Asia.”

photos by jimmcguire.com

Growing Global With just a receptionist, Charlie Greer and Kevin Walker started the firm in 1984 primarily to serve manufacturers and distributors. The practice has changed drastically in 35 years. Today, GreerWalker has 12 partners and over 100 associates, and is one of the 10 largest CPA firms in the Charlotte region and considered among the top 200 CPA firms in the nation. It is also the exclusive Charlotte member firm of PKF International, one of the world’s largest networks of independent accountant associations.

“It’s been all organic growth,” says Greer.

“We’ve never had a merger.” About 25 percent of the firm’s clients are international.

When Norman joined GreerWalker 20 years ago, he says, “Everybody was doing total quality management, which is looking at your processes to determine how to become viable and independent.”

That’s when it became evident to Greer and Walker that they needed to delve into international markets, to offer global services, to avoid losing business. “Now we’re on the offense with it,” he asserts.

“Nowadays,” Norman emphasizes, “there’s

no such thing as international business. If you’re in business, you’re going to have to deal globally. But,” he insists, “being effective in a global arena requires team effort.”

Klaus Becker, honorary consul of Germany, has worked with Greer and Walker for over 30 years. “They go out on a limb to be good corporate citizens and to interact with people,” says Becker.

Becker, president of Nirosteel LLC, considers the firm’s close ties with the community instrumental in developing strong business relationships. The three met when both companies operated out of 112 S. Tryon Street.

23

greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

Foreign Firms in the Charlotte Region

FOREIGN FIRMS IN THE CHARLOTTE REGION

The Charlotte area boasts 918 foreign-owned firms that employ more than 68,000 people, and the number of firms continues to increase. More than 60 international companies decided to bring their business into Mecklenburg County over the past two years.

These 918 foreign-owned firms represent 796 different parent companies from 46 different countries. Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and France have the largest number of companies in the Charlotte area, representing 57 percent of all foreign firms.

Number of Companies by Country Country

2013

2003

Germany

189

148

Country

Total Locations

Total Employees

United Kingdom

14,425

120

74

Germany

262

Canada

90

69

United Kingdom

235

6,038

Japan

81

51

Canada

132

4,972

France

57

38

Japan

117

5,176

40

Belgium

113

8,136

94

5,479

Switzerland

24

Company Locations by Country

53

Italy

50

43

France

The Netherlands

47

21

The Netherlands

81

3,463

Switzerland

68

2,864

Italy

62

2,062

Sweden

45

2,482

Sweden

35

32

Australia

20

4

Ireland

17

4

China

15

3

Belgium

14

12

India

12

4

Denmark

12

9

Austria

11

3

Taiwan

10

6

Mexico

9

6

South Korea

7

4

Finland

7

5

Brazil

6

2

Luxembourg

6

2

South Africa

5

6

Israel

5

1

Bermuda

5

5

Spain

4

1

Singapore

4

0

Czech Republic

3

1

Liechtenstein

2

2

Colombia

2

0

Other (16)

20

11

918

606

Total

Australia

28

776

Mexico

23

536

Ireland

22

3,357

China

14

1,094

Denmark

13

1,162

Austria

12

744

India

12

71

Brazil

10

1,429

Taiwan

10

89

Colombia

8

167

South Korea

7

547

Finland

7

243

Israel

6

246

Luxembourg

6

419

Bermuda

6

772

South Africa

5

84

Spain

4

139

Czech Republic

3

23

Saudi Arabia

3

275

Singapore

3

635

Other (16)

22

632

1,433

68,537

Total

Source: Charlotte Chamber of Commerce

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

“They really do an excellent job of supporting the German community,” offers Becker. GreerWalker also supports the consul and the German American Chamber of Commerce. The firm’s generous investments include organizing seminars and supporting German-related speaking events.

“I really admire Kevin and Charlie,” admits Becker. “They’ve worked very hard to become the largest privately-held CPA firm founded in Charlotte.”

Under Norman’s leadership, the firm’s global services have steadily grown. About 80 percent of Norman’s time is dedicated to tax planning, compliance and consulting services for a wide range of international businesses.

While global business is essential to the firm’s continued growth, the company also specializes in real estate, construction and motor sports. Greer says, “It’s a rarity for a firm our size to have such a strong international tax practice.”

Greer credits the firm’s team model with setting it apart from other CPA practices. “Every client is a client of the firm and not the individual partner, so there’s a sharing of clients that you don’t see at other firms,” explains Greer. “Whenever a client gets into an international situation or is going to Germany and Italy,” comments Greer, “we automatically get John involved.”

“John’s always focused on what’s best for the client in everything he does,” says David Jones, a fellow partner who specializes in manufacturing, distribution and international business.

“He creates relationships with clients that are more than just

professional and client. They’re friendships,” he says.

“John’s very practical and has dealt with a lot of different businesses over time and not only helps people make tax decisions, but also helps with general business planning,” adds Jones. “There are many professionals that approach taxes and assurance as if they were a product, but have very little interaction with their clients. We as a firm, but John in particular, strive to be a lot more than that—we constantly talk what else we can do to help our clients.”

“John’s always focused on what’s best for the client in everything he does. He creates relationships with clients that are more than just professional and client. They’re friendships.”

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innovative photos video For example, it’s not unusual for GreerWalker advisors to discuss buy-sell agreements with clients, life insurance for owners and other non-tax or assurancerelated business transactions. According to Jones, companies must take into consideration several aspects to succeed in global business, and Norman is extremely thorough in covering all the bases.

Client loyalty has been a key factor in the firm’s steady growth. Repeat business long-term from middle-market companies has been essential. “One Chinese company was about $2 million when they started with us,” says Norman. “Now they’re about $200 million.”

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greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

Relative Level of International Contacts with Charlotte Chamber (First Half 2013)

Source: Charlotte Chamber of Commerce

Transformational Change Over the last decade, changing economic circumstances necessitating doing business outside the country have contributed to growth. A decade ago, East Coast residents viewed California as a foreign country, jokes Norman, a native of Akron, Ohio. Today, his practice has dozens of U.S. privately held middle-market companies that have survived by globalizing.

In the mid-1990s, U.S. textile and apparel companies made up the first big wave of outbound work. “To remain competitive, they had to go south,” Norman says. “To get around intensive labor costs, they produced

in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. Those that didn’t, closed.”

Before setting up shop in another country, small privately-owned firms need someone who understands the impact structures can have on company profits and navigate through complex U.S. international tax laws.

That’s Norman’s specialty.

“The U.S. international tax law is really written for the old multinationals in the ’60s, and it hasn’t really been upgraded,” comments Norman. “For privately-held businesses, there are some really unfortunate hoops and quirks that can result in seriously negative effects.”

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In terms of global markets, the international arena is broken into two categories: Inbound is when companies originating outside the U.S. come here; outbound is when U.S. companies do business in other countries.

When engaged globally, it is important to realize it is not a level playing field. For example, one major mistake businesses make is assuming they’re eligible for indirect foreign tax credits. “If you pay taxes in another country on your income there, that credit does not naturally flow back to you as a U.S. owner,” explains Norman. “So you end up paying twice on that same income unless you do some tax planning.”

That is the type of situation where clients need skilled tax advisors who understand international tax laws, effectively tax planning to ensure clients receive all the credits to which they are entitled. Through market analyses, advisors also help clients avoid setting up facilities in jurisdictions that are heavily taxed.

By staying abreast of international market trends in distribution and manufacturing, the firm helps clients operate more profitably.

For example, in the global apparel manufacturing business, the high fashion industry has 13 seasons, rather than four. Fashion industry colors rotate every month to keep apparel trends fresh. If it takes designers six weeks to finalize color schemes, manufacturers aren’t able to produce apparel in China and get it to U.S. stores in time.

As a result, over the last several years, much of the high fashion production has shifted back to the western hemisphere.

Some has returned to the U.S. while some has gone to nearby Honduras, where there’s only a three-week turnaround. But more of the higher-end products are being made in North and South America.

When engaged globally, it is important to realize it is not a level playing field. For example, one major mistake businesses make is assuming they’re eligible for indirect foreign tax credits.

If you pay taxes in another country on your income there, that credit does not naturally flow back to you as a U.S. owner.

So you end up paying twice on that same income unless you do some tax planning.

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Strategic Advantages While relocations of giant manufacturers like BMW, Siemens and Boeing make headlines, small family-owned foreign businesses bring their share of jobs to the region.

They may create 20 to 30 jobs at a time, but it’s not insignificant.

Norman and his colleagues get a lot of new clients from working with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and the Charlotte Regional Partnership as they bring companies to the area. They also get business referrals from local law firms, bankers and PKF International. When companies express interest in Mecklenburg County, GreerWalker advisors sit down with them to review tax structure, business structure and incentives to come.

Norman points out that Charlotte’s central geographic location makes it extremely marketable. The accessibility to Charleston

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greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

ports, a major airport and the trucking industry make the Charlotte region a prime location. The area’s well-educated, welltrained workforce and openness to diverse groups is another plus, he says.

“When I came to Charlotte, basically what I was told was it didn’t matter where you came from or what you did,” recalls Norman. “Just get involved in some community organization and give back to the community, and you’ll be accepted.” He finds that attitude equally applicable to the community’s broad acceptance of foreign firms.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re from Germany, Japan or China; the expectation is that if you give back to the community, you’re going to be accepted,” says Norman.

International business inevitably depends on relationships at the local level. For example, a foreign manufacturer inbound has to ensure a continuous production cycle for dependable distribution of its product.

That means it has to have local resources readily available—repair parts and service technicians—for its production processes, otherwise production stops.

“So the only way to increase sales and be accepted in the U.S. market is if you have

spare parts and technicians that are available right away, not days away,” says Norman.

Since 2003, the number of German-owned firms has increased by 28 percent, Canadian by 30 percent and French by 50 percent. Indian and Irish firms have also significantly expanded in the area in the same time frame.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re from Germany, Japan or China; the expectation is that if you give back to the community, you’re going to be accepted.”

Norman points to a German machine tool maker for textiles that actually set up sales and service companies in the U.S. The same thing is happening now with Chinese companies. Being local also lowers shipping costs.

One client that makes machines used in

nonwoven textiles noted its customer moved all of its production from the U.S. to China five years ago to save on labor cost, but recently brought it back because the savings in the cost of electricity to run the machines far outweighed the labor savings overseas.

According to Norman, location says it all. Two thirds of the U.S. population is one trucking day away, and Charlotte is half way between New York and Miami. Quick access to U.S. Interstates 85 and 77 running north and south and 26 and 40 running east and west are major sellers.

“We are at the center of the hub to reach U.S. markets from a distribution standpoint,” says Norman. “From the airport, service technicians can get anywhere in the world within 24 hours.

“In the ’60s and ’70s, mostly German and other European companies were drawn to the area. Chinese companies mostly settled on the West Coast. But the West Coast is only a third of the U.S. population,” continues Norman, “and going west to east with transportation doesn’t make sense.

“There’s just so much that’s right about Charlotte. I always question when they don’t choose this region. I think we will continue

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to see more direct investment from Asia.”

Typically, it’s not cost effective for U.S. companies to invest directly in China, but in Hong Kong through Wholly Owned Foreign Entities, known as WOFE’s. Norman says, “It’s a weird thing between China and Hong Kong—same country, but different rules.”

Since Hong Kong has no currency restrictions, U.S. companies can send currency back to the U.S. or anywhere at any time.

China has restrictions on getting money out of the country. But there are no restrictions going between China and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has no tax treaty with the U.S., but China does. Because Hong Kong has a 17 percent tax, U.S. companies have to decide if they want to pay the tax and not get a credit, or set up the business to get a flow-through credit and do the surplus.

That’s the type of tax challenge Norman thrives on helping clients understand the implications. “I love problem-solving and thinking outside the box,” he admits. He likens the necessary acuity to math word problems. “If you’re a word problem person, you belong in tax,” says Norman. “That describes tax people.”

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GreerWalker LLP The Carillon 227 West Trade St., Ste. 1100 Charlotte, N.C. 28202 Phone: 704-377-0239 Partners: Charlie Greer, Co-founder; Kevin Walker, Co-founder; John M. Norman, Partner and Managing Director of GreerWalker Corporate Finance, LLC; Chip Dillman, David Jones, Barry Leasure, Jonathan Mangels, Jonathan McLester, Mike McNamara, Jim Reichard, Tony Smith, and Sandi Thorman, Partners Founded: 1984 Employees: 12 partners, over 100 associates Recognition: “Best of the Best” accounting firms by Inside Public Accounting for consecutive years Affiliates: GreerWalker Corporate Finance, LLC; GreerWalker Wealth Management LLC Business: Certified public accounting firm focusing primarily on the needs of privately held middle-market companies, their owners, and their executive management teams; assurance, accounting, tax, and consulting services; Corporate Finance affiliate combines exit planning with merger and acquisition advisory services for middle market companies and their owners. www.greerwalker.com

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For more than 90 years, Tucker-Kirby Co. has been a recognized provider of concrete, masonry, waterproofing and geotextiles for the residential, commercial and industrial building markets in the Carolinas.

30

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

(l to r) William (Bill) McKinnell IV President Terry D. Ward Vice President Tucker-Kirby Co.

by zenda douglas

concrete

REPUTATION C

harlotte-based building supply company Tucker-Kirby has been a wellknown and respected name in the Charlotte business community for many years now. Founded in 1920 by W. F. Tucker Sr. and Robin S. Kirby Sr. as Tucker-Kirby Hardware Co., it was originally located at the corner of W. Ninth Street and Railroad.

“You can still see a portion of the foundation of the building,” beams Terry Ward, vice

president of Tucker-Kirby, who recently located the exact site.

A couple of years later, the company moved westward to Palmer Street and Railroad, where it remained for over 80 years before eventually losing the property to railroad acquisition. In 2004, it moved to its present location anchoring the Wilkinson Park Business Center. Says Ward, “We’re still on the same route, just farther down.”

Bill McKinnell IV, company president, explains, “We needed to expand, but we need-

ed to still be in the vicinity of uptown. Much of our business is generated by uptown construction, and being close to uptown is good for ‘pickup business’—work that can be

TUCKERKIRBY’S STRONG IN FORM & FUNCTION 31

handled by pickup truck.”

greatercharlottebiz.com | may / june 2014

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Set in Cement

“We don’t sell ready mix concrete, but we sell all the accessories— everything that’s below that concrete—and we don’t sell brick and block, but we sell the accessories to make them work.”

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

For more than 90 years, Tucker-Kirby Co. has been a recognized provider of concrete, masonry, waterproofing and geotextiles for the residential, commercial and industrial building markets in the Carolinas.

It sells to general contractors, subcontractors and top masons involved in the building of high-rise buildings, schools, medical and sports complexes, dormitories, supermarkets, big-box stores such as Wal-Marts and Sam’s Clubs and others.

It has been a supplier for a major Camp LeJeune military project, the largest masonry project in North Carolina’s history, the Apple Data Center in Lincoln County, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway’s zMAX Dragway Complex.

In addition to its headquarter facilities in Charlotte, Tucker-Kirby now has two other branches, one in the Raleigh/Apex area and the other in Columbia, S.C. These expansions have allowed the company to continue to grow its presence in the Carolinas and to follow its contractor clients into other states including

Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.

The products Tucker-Kirby sells represent six divisions of the 16 divisions of construction as defined by the Construction Specifications Institute’s MasterFormat. They are: Site work and Drainage, Concrete, Masonry, Waterproofing, Finishes, and Specialties. The bulk of the company’s multi-milliondollar revenue comes from sales related to the concrete, masonry and waterproofing divisions.

Products include such items as ADA mats, concrete stains, curing and sealing compounds, epoxies, expansion joint material, concrete form materials, reinforcing mesh, rebar, vapor barriers, masonry cement and mortar, reinforcing wall bracing materials, flashing, anchors and ties, silicone and urethane caulk systems, rubberized asphaltic sheet membrane, fire safing insulation and rigid foam insulation.

“We don’t sell ready mix concrete, but we sell all the accessories—everything that’s below that concrete—and we don’t sell brick and block, but we sell the accessories to make them work,” explains Ward.

“When you see a concrete or masonry building, it’s not just a box,” continues McKinnell, “there’s quite an infrastructure to it. You have to tie that masonry in with metal ties and anchors and waterproof it. On a typical project, we could have $100,000 in materials in a building and none of it would be visible once the building is finished.”

Currently, approximately 60 percent of revenue comes from masonry-related sales and 40 percent concrete-related sales. Tucker-Kirby also sells premixed bag goods, primarily for construction projects in urban areas too tight for the big concrete mixer trucks to get on site. “Ten days out of the month we are sending tractor trailer loads to Wal-Mart construction sites,” says McKinnell.

The bids that Tucker-Kirby prepares and the products it sells are “spec-driven,” or specified by the architectural plans and specifications of a given construction project.

“For this reason, our sales people are well-trained; many are certified in masonry and/or tilt wall casting,” says McKinnell, who credits much of the company’s

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“Our people know the product line, the industry and they can read the plans and specifications. Our customers can feel confident that our quotes reflect the plans.”

“We don’t have order takers,” adds Ward.

“We have true salespeople and we truly want to be a partner to our customers.” He says that Tucker-Kirby works closely with the North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association and participates in its certification programs: “They used to be just for masons; now we send our people to them.”

With regard to competition Ward says, “Everybody’s prices are basically the same.

There’s not a nickel’s worth of difference between our prices. It boils down to us having the knowledge and the service to get the business,” says Ward. “Some of our competitors have tens of branches; others have hundreds, but we—with our three branches—are the workhorse for the masonry and the tilt side of construction in the region.”

A Cohesive Block The Tucker-Kirby sales force starts out in the warehouse. “I came up through that route,” says McKinnell. “It makes a difference. The average person wouldn’t know anything about this business. We have 10,000 different products to learn about.”

Between the three branches, TuckerKirby employs 28 people. “A business is no better than its people and we have great people,” affirms McKinnell Tucker-Kirby is the quintessential family business. While none of the company’s ownership, management or staff have been related to either the Tucker or Kirby families since the McKinnell family bought the business in 1984, a significant number of them are related to the McKinnells as spouses, inlaws, siblings, sons and daughters.

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Founded: 1920; McKinnell ownership as of 1984

“When you see a concrete or masonry building, it’s not just a box. there’s quite an infrastructure to it. You have to tie that masonry in with metal ties and anchors and waterproof it. On a typical project, we could have $100,000 in materials in a building and none of it would be visible once the building is finished.”

34

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

work here, not just our family but multiple members of other families,” says Ward, who is married to McKinnell IV’s sister who also used to work for the company.

“Nepotism laws don’t apply here,” assures Bill McKinnell III, who represents the second generation of McKinnells to own Tucker-Kirby. “We like it this way. We operate as a family and it works smoothly.”

His father, Bill McKinnell Jr., attended The Citadel in Charleston and went to study at Kings Business School in Charlotte. Mr. Tucker and Mr. Kirby approached the school for possible candidates to work in their company.

“The school recommended my father,” says McKinnell III. “He came in 1930 and stayed for 45 years, moving up the ranks from sales to management to part-owner of the company in 1964.”

McKinnell III then came on board in 1966. “My Dad said he would continue to call me Billy but everyone else had to call me Bill and I was expected to carry my own weight. I didn’t want to be just like everybody else; I wanted to do better,” says McKinnell III. Before retiring in 1975, McKinnell Jr. witnessed the sale of the company in 1974 to a Florida-based entity that had a building supply division.

“It was a good marriage for a while but the Florida company got into financial trouble and started draining the cash assets of the former Tucker-Kirby,” says McKinnell III. The company was involved in Florida real estate and went under, forced to turn the business over to the bank in 1984. By this time, Bill McKinnell IV had been on board since 1977. McKinnell III and McKinnell IV, father and son, bought out the company in 1984. Ward started work at Tucker-Kirby in 1985.

“We refer to that time prior to buying the company as ‘the dark days,’” says McKinnell IV. “It was a learning experience and a bump in the road.”

It was more than a decade later, in 1997, that McKinnell IV and Ward describe how they helped

prompted McKinnell III’s retirement in a good-natured way. “He had been talking about it for a number of years, but hadn’t set a date or planned anything,” says Ward. “So, Bill and I got together and threw him a surprise retirement party with 300-400 people in attendance, including customers.”

Nowadays, McKinnell III admits, “I don’t come here much anymore, but I’m always interested in what they’re up to.”

Ward and the McKinnells are all natives of Charlotte. Ward came to the company straight out of high school. McKinnell IV was just 15 credit-hours shy of earning a degree from UNC at Charlotte. “A job opened up that I wanted and I promised my folks that I would go back and finish,” says McKinnell IV. That didn’t happen but the company presidency ultimately did.

“Very few of our employees have four-year degrees but they are highly trained professionals; knowledgeable in their jobs,” affirms McKinnell IV.

Strength in Construction For Tucker-Kirby, the downturn in the economy hasn’t inhibited their growth. In 2008 when the downturn began, the company was able to increase staff in the Charlotte office and expand into the Raleigh/Apex market.

“Luckily for us, we had a good bit of work coming in from projects with Duke University Health System, Durham Bulls Stadium and dormitories and other buildings on the campuses of UNC at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and UNC at Charlotte. Plus, we had branched out to military work,” says Ward. “Federal monies were made available for military and civic work. This pretty much kept us going through the slowdown.”

“Our sales staff had to expand on their core territories to find additional work, but we didn’t suffer any loss of staff due to the downturn,” says McKinnell IV. Importantly, Tucker-Kirby had also begun to get involved with tilt construction projects, here in Charlotte, the Raleigh area and states outside the Carolinas.

Tilt construction is essentially concrete wall casting for large construction projects. Massive walls are built (poured) sideways on top of the building’s concrete floor slab or pad before being tilted (lifted) into place by a crane.

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“The Tucker-Kirby name was so well known when we bought the company, that changing the name would have been a big mistake; it would have required a total rebranding.

It was a case of ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’ We’ve even had the same phone number for decades.

Customers know us.”

jimmcguire.com

“We sell the release agent that is applied so the wall won’t stick to the pad,” explains Tim Stewart, Tucker-Kirby’s tilt specialist.

The walls are built with lifting inserts that enable the crane to erect the walls without breakage. Walls can be stories high or several walls stacked on top of each other.

“One of our vendors has recently come out with an insert capable of supporting 24,000 pounds,” continues Stewart. Only two companies in the nation are authorized to sell these—we are one of them.”

Tucker-Kirby also owns bracing equipment that can be taken to construction sites.

“That also gives us an advantage in the marketplace,” says Ward.

The expansion to Raleigh has paid off.

“Since opening the doors in 2007, the Tucker-Kirby Raleigh location has focused heavily on the service aspect of contractors’ needs along with a great sense of urgency on delivery schedules. Growing the product offering has also been a major focus aligning the company with topranked equipment lines in the industry like EDCO Masonry Saws, EZ Grout Mixers and STIHL,” says Guy Harrigan, operations manager of the Apex office.

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“This, in addition to the material inventory levels in stock, speaks volumes about Tucker-Kirby’s partnership commitment to the contractor and has allowed the company to grow even in a very sluggish economy,” he adds.

Looking down the road, Ward expects the company to expand to other areas.

“We’ll do our research on places and figure out where we need to be.”

A Uniform Mix The masonry industry has its fun and competitive side. One of Tucker-Kirby’s vendors sponsors the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500, an annual fastest bricklaying trial competition between regions. The winner enjoys a trip to Las Vegas for the company’s annual convention, and has the opportunity to compete for the World’s Best Bricklayer title against winning masons from around the globe.

“Last year we were asked to host the trial competitions,” offers McKinnell. “Well over 200 people were in attendance at our facilities. We’ve been honored to be chosen to host the event again this year,” says McKinnell.

Despite the ownership changes from the original lineage, the McKinnells were never tempted to change the name of the company. “The Tucker-Kirby name was so well known when we bought the company,” says McKinnell, “that changing the name would have been a big mistake; it would have required a total rebranding. It was a case of ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’”

“We’ve even had the same phone number for decades,” adds McKinnell III with a chuckle. “Customers know us.”

It’s not surprising that the company has an adage that says, “If people come to work at Tucker-Kirby, they retire at Tucker-Kirby.”

“It’s always been like that,” attests McKinnell. “It’s a good solid company with a good reputation and fair pay. I think that’s what’s made it so successful.”

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Zenda Douglas is a Greater Charlotte Biz freelance writer.

Tucker-Kirby Co. 3825 Wilkinson Blvd.

Charlotte, N.C. 28208 Phone: 704-391-9990; 800-532-0399 Principals: William (Bill) McKinnell IV, President; Terry D. Ward, Vice President; Rick Ramsey, Vice President Locations: Headquartered in Charlotte; additional locations in Raleigh, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. Founded: 1920; McKinnell ownership as of 1984 Employees: 28 Revenue: $10 to 20 million Business: Family-owned and run provider of concrete, masonry, waterproofing and geotextiles for the residential, commercial and industrial building markets in the Carolinas. www.tuckerkirby.com

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Home Lending

D NE RIGHT

W AMERICAN SECURITY MORTGAGE 38

CELEBRATES 15 YEARS OF SUCCESS

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

by kathleen e. conroy

hen the nation found itself in a mortgage nightmare after 2008, American Security Mortgage Corp. held on tight and persevered.

It might have been the Charlotte-based firm’s sense of attitude and excellence.

It might have been the ethics and strong banking reputations of both founders Jim Abbott and Phil Mahoney.

Or it might have been the free hugs.

Yes, employees at the mortgage banker participate in endless hugs when they come to work each morning, all part of an “unwritten” rule of sorts that has done wonders to boost morale and employee support.

“Our employees are the best in the business, and basically most come to American Security Mortgage and stay. We have longevity— people stay and even retire with us,” says Mahoney, the 63-year-old president and CEO of the company.

The difference between American Security Mortgage Corp.

(ASMC) and other mortgage groups is also the fact that they are mortgage bankers as opposed to brokers. Mortgage brokers traditionally receive any number of rate sheets for a vast array of mortgage products from wholesale lenders. However, mortgage bankers issue mortgages from their own bank account.

Employees of ASMC closely watch pricing every day to stay competitive, and, they know their products. That’s what enables ASMC to secure and provide the most favorable mortgage financing products and pricing to meet the unique needs of each borrower customer.

Celebrating 15 years of in the mortgage banking business, Abbott and Mahoney are proud of their book of business and the company’s strong referrals and repeat financing.



photos by jimmcguire.com

Phil Mahoney President and CEO American Security Mortgage Corp.

“In 2008, frankly if you survived, you were lucky.

Only the truly good people made it. We had clean balance sheets, no repurchase risks.

We found our balance quickly.

We understood that the world was changing and we had better be able to work within government regulations. We never ran our ship ashore. We’re smaller, more nimble, and we adapted quickly.”

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(l to r) Bill Stokes Partner and Senior Vice President Jim Abbott Chairman Phil Mahoney President and CEO American Security Mortgage Corp.

They are at the top of their game. As a mid-size mortgage banker they are continually ranked in the top 10 of mortgage companies in the Charlotte metro area. Mahoney says it all began by paying their dues in the Carolinas’ corporate banking world and having a strong work ethic.

A Powerhouse Pairing

“We will continue to expand the business until we hit our ‘sweet spot,’ which is a size that still allows us to know all of our employees and customers.”

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Both Abbott and Mahoney began their mortgage banking careers upon graduating from college. They worked “in the trenches,” they are proud to say, calling on Realtors and homebuilders and assisting customers with mortgage financing.

Chairman Jim Abbott was with First Union Mortgage Corp. for 34 years and from 1980 to 1995 as president and CEO. During his tenure, First Union Mortgage was generally ranked in the top 10 in the United States in home loan originations and loan servicing.

Abbott had hired Mahoney straight after his graduation from East Carolina University in 1974, when inflation reigned and jobs were scarce.

“I graduated on a Friday and was at work on Monday,” remembers Mahoney. “I actually had the job three and a half months before graduation. Just having a job during the recession was very lucky. I’d say 60 to 70 percent of those I graduated with didn’t have a job. My father also helped me with a strong work ethic—he worked 12 to 14 hours a day.”

Mahoney’s stint at First Union lasted 10 years with Abbott serving as a strong mentor, good friend and occasional golf partner. Mahoney went on to serve for another 10 years at Wells Fargo as Southeastern U.S. regional loan production manager and later as group head of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.

“At that time,” says Mahoney, “I was flying about

100,000 miles a year. Jim approached me and said, ‘Let’s start a mortgage banking business so you can see your son grow up.’ Frankly, that sounded very appealing. The banking corporate world had given me a great platform and experience, but I was ready for something different.”

So in June 1999, the duo fronted the funding for ASMC and opened their doors in a 4,000-square-foot suite in the same glassy office building in SouthPark on Rexford Road in which they are located today. They had six employees.

Today, the company employs 143 altogether—64 in their Charlotte headquarters and loan office and the rest in their other locations in Fayetteville, Gastonia, Hickory, Indian Trail, Jacksonville, Clayton, and Lake Norman.

They handle residential mortgage lending in South Carolina, in Wilmington and Morehead City, and also have a satellite office in Northern Virginia. ASMC holds licenses in the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. They now occupy 18,000 square feet at their Rexford Road headquarters.

Together, Abbott and Mahoney have been a good match. Both have served as president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of the Carolinas. Abbott also received the Distinguished Service Award in 1990 from the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, its highest honor.

Given their breadth of experience, Mahoney says they are intimately familiar with all the lending and customer service components necessary for all parties in a home sale.

Mahoney is also frequently quoted in area publications about the mortgage industry, and its highs and lows. In December, he served on a panel at UNC

Charlotte about the current stabilization in housing markets across the country and the role played by the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the Federal Reserve’s investment in mortgagebacked securities during the recession.

Finding Their Balance Quickly When U.S. home prices declined steeply after peaking in mid-2006, it became more difficult for borrowers to refinance their loans. As adjustable-rate mortgages began to reset at higher interest rates (causing higher monthly payments), mortgage delinquencies soared. Securities backed with mortgages, including subprime mortgages, widely held by financial firms globally, lost most of their value.

“In 2008, frankly if you survived, you were lucky,” says Mahoney. “Only the truly good people made it. We had clean balance sheets, no repurchase risks. We found our balance quickly.

“We understood that the world was changing and we had better be able to work within government regulations. We never ran our ship ashore. We’re smaller, more nimble, and we adapted quickly.”

“If you look at our company, we have a lot of longevity.

When people come here they tend to stay. We offer an opportunity to move up, good pay and good benefits. They have the kind of jobs where when they wake up they look forward to coming to work. I truly believe that.”

In response to stricter mortgage requirements that stem from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, Mahoney says his company is working hard to, as he says, “figure out the new system and work it.”

“We’re a good size for Carolinas; nationwide we’d be small. We’ve probably added seven people just in compliance areas—just checking the checkers,” he adds. “The rules

innovative photography video

www.jimmcguire.com

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“We’re so grateful to be where we are now. There was a time when American Security Mortgage was an unknown.

Although Jim and I are both fairly well known in the industry now, we still appreciate it when we pick up the phone and people allow us some time.

We are so thankful to the people that have helped make it happen.”

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

are just now being promulgated; the full effects are yet to be determined. It’s made credit more restrictive. But has it made mortgages impossible to get?

No. People have to jump through a few more hoops now.”

After the 2008 financial crisis, many mortgage lenders introduced guidelines that went beyond requirements for mortgages backed by the government. Some now appear to be relaxing those guidelines.

Mahoney says, “The pendulum had swung too far. Now we’re just trying to find that equilibrium. As a matter of fact, we’ve even been able to drop the minimum credit score a number of points for a government-backed loan.”

Loyalty and Longevity Mahoney says loyalty and longevity are the two factors that contribute to employee buy-in to the mortgage banker. ASMC is doing its best to keep customers happy and to keep employee retention high. The principals believe happy employees who can process and approve loans at great rates and good credit scores make for loyal employees.

The tone in the Charlotte headquarters is collegial. Three larger-than-life headshot posters of Mahoney are mounted in the hallway, his contribution to the office for hugs while he is traveling, he says, laughing.

All three of them have been defaced with a red grease pencil. In one he is an angel with halo and feathered wings, in another he is a devil with horns, mustache and pointed chin; in the last one he is a pirate, complete with eye patch and missing tooth.

“I’m not sure which one I like the best, but I hope they like that one,” he says, pointing to the angel. “We have tried to have fun, and when I say that I mean business fun.”

During the real estate turndown last fall, ASMC laid off six employees.

“Then we then went to our top-earning 18 employees and said, ‘Will you take a 10 percent pay cut so we have no more layoffs?’ And they did, and we did.

“Those people were underwriters, supervisors, people in processing, closing, financial,” he says. “We allow people to have the whole story of what is going on here. We are good communicators. They gain real insight into this business.”

And his favorite way to gauge employee success? “We have a litmus test for them. When I put my arm around them and introduce them to a customer, when that employee walks away I don’t have to apologize for them. That’s been very successful for us,” he says.

“In this industry people tend to move around. The ups and downs of real estate finance and trends affect them,” Mahoney adds. “Look at the big banks—they have lost thousands of people in the last five to six months.”

“If you look at our company, we have a lot of longevity. When people come here they tend to stay,” he says. “We offer an opportunity to move up,

good pay and good benefits. They have the kind of jobs where when they wake up they look forward to coming to work. I truly believe that.”

“We’re a good size for Carolinas; nationwide we’d be small. We’ve probably added seven people just in compliance areas—just checking the checkers. The rules are just now being promulgated; the full effects are yet to be determined.

It’s made credit more restrictive. But has it made mortgages impossible to get? No. People have to jump through a few more hoops now.”

Doing It Right American Security Mortgage doesn’t exactly rely on advertising for customers.

Their one brochure for potential residential homebuyers is relatively spare. Web presence? They are everywhere, it seems.

Their message: AMSC was founded on the core belief that home loans need to be handled by a team of in-house professionals and that by controlling each phase of loan processing, underwriting and funding, they are able to provide clients with exceptional customer service and on-time closings.

They are strong words of promise, but they appear to be performing to them.

Customers come to ASMC looking for variety of mortgage products, including conventional, jumbo, FHA, VA and USDA loans.

Customers seem to be as loyal as the group’s employees. Kathy Adair of Charlotte says it was ASMC’s quick work and Mahoney’s attitude that spur on the popularity of the company. “I think Phil’s customers believe he is a fair and reasonable mortgage banker, and that is hard to find in this day and age.

“Customers might not realize this, but

he still uses common sense,” she says. “He is a very caring and compassionate man. His customers are his employees, his borrowers, Realtors, builders, and mortgage peers.”

Abbott is very purposeful about the company’s vision: “To be recognized by our borrower, Realtor, and homebuilder customers, our employees and our competitors as the model of excellence in residential mortgage banking.” He encourages employees to keep that vision in mind at all times. By keeping it top of mind, he believes it helps employees to better participate and act on it.

“We’re so grateful to be where we are now,” Mahoney says humbly. “There was a time when American Security Mortgage was an unknown. Although Jim and I are both fairly well known in the industry now, we still appreciate it when we pick up the phone and people allow us some time. We are so thankful to the people that have helped make it happen.”

Mahoney doesn’t think ASMC will ever make the mistakes so many mortgage bankers made six years ago. “It’s obvious now that some of the Wall Street crowd thought they had they had assessed the risk in different types of lending, and guess what? They were wrong. They didn’t assess different

types of risk,” he says.

Both Abbott and Mahoney, and their hugging employees, see a brighter future in processing and underwriting home loans.

“We will continue to expand the business until we hit our ‘sweet spot,’ which is a size that still allows us to know all of our employees and customers,” says Mahoney.

Kathleen E. Conroy is a Greater Charlotte Biz freelance writer.

A

AMERICAN SECURITY MORTGAGE

American Security Mortgage Corp.

2101 Rexford Road, Suite 100E Charlotte, N.C. 28211 Phone: 704-366-7110 Principals: James A. Abbott, Chairman; Philip R. Mahoney, President and CEO; William Stokes, Partner and Senior Vice President Employees: 143 in 12 locations; 64 employees in Charlotte In Business: Since 1999 Locations: 11 other locations throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and the Washington, D.C. area Business: Mortgage banking for residential real estate. www.americansecuritymortgage.com

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[publisher’spost] FIRST STEP – IMPLEMENTING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT SECOND STEP – HEALTH CARE COST CONTAINMENT

T

John P. Galles Publisher

he latest enrollment data being distributed on Obamacare shows that over 8 million people have signed up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through the federal and state exchanges. And an additional 4.5 million have been added to Medicaid roles. Nearly 28 percent of those enrolled are in the 18-34 age group, whose relative good health is vital to counter rapidly increasing premiums in future years of the program.

In North Carolina, nearly 350,000 people signed up under the ACA giving North Carolina the fourth largest enrollment among the 50 states. Significant progress on implementing the ACA has begun.

It is important to know that the primary goal of the ACA is to get as many people as possible signed into the program through their employer or through the exchanges as individuals. That was the number one requirement of insurance companies and hospital associations before they supported the ACA when it was first passed in March of 2010.

Unfortunately, what is hugely lacking in the ACA are cost containment strategies that go beyond simply raising the number of people covered by insurance. Now that the ACA is being implemented and meeting its core ambitions, the next major step is to confront the actual costs of care. We cannot afford to spend nearly 20 percent of GDP on health care expenditures. It is bankrupting our economy as well as our citizens.

Let’s take a look at how those costs have risen over the last 30 years. In 1980, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, health care expenditures per capita were $1,100 or 9.2 percent of GDP. By 1990, those numbers rose to $2,854 and 12.5 percent of GDP. By 2000, the numbers increased to $4,878 and 13.8 percent of GDP. And in 2010, the numbers became $8,402 and 17.9 percent. With companies and their employees absorbing all those increases, it is no wonder that household income has not advanced similarly over that time period. Money that

National Health Expenditures per Capita, 1960-2010

44 NHE as a Share of GDP

5.2%

7.2% 9.2% 12.5% 13.8% 14.5% 15.4% 15.9% 16.0% 16.1% 16.2% 16.4% 16.8% 17.9% 17.9%

may / june 2014 | greatercharlottebiz.com

Average Annual Worker and Employer Contributions to Premiums and Total Premiums for Family Coverage, 1999-2011 $13,375*

$13,770*

$15,073*

$12,680* $12,106* $11,480* $10,880* $9,950* $9,068* $8,003* $7,061* $6,438* $5,791

* Estimate is statistically different from estimate for the previous year shown (p<.05).

would have gone for payroll increases has been eaten up by the spiraling costs of health care.

Now, examine the employer and employee increases in contributions to pay for health care premiums for family coverage, and the numbers are even more shocking. In the last decade from 2000 to 2010, the total premium for family coverage rose from $6,438 per year to $15,073 per year. Employer contributions have grown from $4,819 to $10,944 over that same span while employee contributions have climbed from $1,619 to $4,129 on average. Those increases are beyond the pale.

It is also interesting to compare U.S. costs with those in other internationally trading countries. Data from the OECD for 2009 show U.S. per capita expenditures at $7,598, compared to those in Italy at $3,020, France at $3,053, the U.K. at $3,311, Germany at $4,072, the Netherlands at $4,585, and Switzerland at $5,128. It is tough to be competitive with those countries when their health care costs are 40 to 68 percent of U.S. health care costs.

The cumulative change in U.S. health care premiums for single and family coverage from 1996 to 2010 has risen 180 percent for family coverage and 148 percent for single coverage.

The Affordable Care Act, implemented Jan. 1 of this year, has not been the cause of these increasing costs. When people complain about the rising disparity of incomes, they seldom look at health care premiums and expenditures as the biggest contributors to that inequality.

While elements of the ACA will diminish the disparity between incomes and premiums through subsidies for those with incomes below 140 percent of the poverty level as well as the capping of co-pays and deductibles, much more needs to be done.

It will take many years to undo the damage of swollen health care spending. We have only taken the first step to bringing these costs down. We have much work to do and the sooner the better!

Source: Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits, 1999-2011.

 I welcome your thoughts at jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com.

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