NEER NAMES DEWEY HUDSON ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
Rocky Mount - B. Mayo Boddie, Sr., Chairman of the NorthEastern Entrepreneurial Roundtable (NEER), has announced that Dewey V. Hudson, founder and CEO of The Joinery in Tarboro, has been named the winner of the 2001 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The Award was presented at the conclusion of the Seventh Annual NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Banquet held at the Carleton House in Rocky Mount on Monday, April 23, 2001. Guest speaker for the evening was Ted Fowler, President and CEO of the Golden Corral Corporation headquartered in Raleigh NC.
Dewey Hudson [far left in photo] was recognized by NEER for his vision and his ingenuity in creating The Joinery Company. A company that specializes in the manufacture of fine wood flooring products including antique pine, fir, spruce and various other rare species. Other award finalists [L-R] were E.L. Daughtridge Jr., owner/founder of Daughtridge Sales Company; Brian James and David Bryant, owners of Chair And Equipment Rentals, Inc.; Larry Gutshall, founder/owner of Basepoint, Inc; and Robbie Davis, founder/owner of Turn-Key Contractors.
The Joinery, located in Tarboro and founded in 1976, reclaims and recycles antique heart pine and other rare and beautiful woods. These are then sold to customers located all over the world. The Joinery was the first wood recycling company in America to develop engineered flooring products from antique wood and it is the only company in the United States holding patents on this process.
Headed by Larry S. Gutshall, Basepoint was founded in 1984 as a general contracting firm and, over the years, developed into its present structure as a full service commercial casework and store fixturing manufacturer. The company is involved in extensive commercial construction projects in North Carolina and Virginia primarily but also works throughout the Southeast. The company has worked extensively with large chains such as Lowe's and Heilig-Meyers but has also become heavily involved with handling interior casework for large office buildings and other similar properties. Basepoint focuses on providing quality manufactured casework products that are delivered on time and installed with an eye to detail and expert craftsmanship.
David Bryant and Brian James are the two partners of Chair and Equipment Rentals. Founded in a home garage in1954, the company has seen itself grow beyond its original rental offerings to become one of the largest event rental centers in the Eastern United States. Chair and Equipment Rentals now operates three separate divisions. Special Event Rental offers everything from the glasses and silverware to the tent to cover the event. The company's new small tool rental store is meeting a growing demand by residential home-owners who are seeking to rent seldom used equipment rather than buy it. The tent washing division began as a way for Chair and Equipment Rentals to clean the tents it rents and has grown into an operation handling the washing of large tents sent to it from all over the country.
E.L. Daughtridge, Jr. started Daughtridge Sales Company in 1974 as a wholesale master distributor of pressure and temperature instruments. By combining a large inventory of gauges and thermometers of all types and sizes with an aggressive telemarketing program, Daugtridge Sales Company has grown to serve a customer base of 8,200 located throughout the United States. Daughtridge Sales Company has achieved its success by ensuring that any order received by 4:45PM is shipped from its million plus inventory of instruments that same day. And the shipment arrives within two days anywhere in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Turn-Key Contractors, Inc. was started by Robbie B. Davis in 1985 after he had worked with another area general contractor and the City of Rocky Mount. Today Turn-Key is a commercial contracting company heavily involved in non-residential building construction and in the development of Northside Business Park on Hwy. 301 North in Rocky Mount. Turn-Key has seen its Business Park venture grow to 19 businesses in only three years and plans call for its continued aggressive development in the current year. The Northside Business Park was developed by Turn-Key with full utility services, curbed and guttered streets and 40 lots ranging from 1 to 9.2 acres in size.
"NEER's goal is to foster a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the northeastern sector of our state," noted Boddie. "I think everyone will agree that Dewey Hudson and The Joinery Company exemplify the finest attributes of an entrepreneur. But our other finalists also made our selection of a winner this year very challenging. All of the companies we recognized are involved in a variety of entrepreneurial efforts and everyone of them is a winner." Those interested in joining NEER can contact Sherry Johnson at the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce at 252-973-1212.
