NEER ANNOUNCES KANBAN ENTERPRISES AS WINNER OF THE 2002 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD
B. Mayo Boddie, Sr., Chairman of the NorthEastern Entrepreneur Roundtable (NEER), has announced that of the five finalist companies for the 2002 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Kanban Logistics of Tarboro NC was selected as this year's winner.
Left to right, NEER Entrepreneurs of the Year 2002 Dr. Steve Hoard and Bill Wooten of Kanban Logistics in Tarboro are congratulated by NEER Chairman Mayo Boddie and Chamber Chairman Gus Tulloss.
"One of the requirements to be an entrepreneur is your ability to take risks. By having to build its large storage warehouses based 30 day contracts with its customers, Kanban Logistics has certainly exhibited that it is both a risk taker as well as being an extraordinary company," commented Boddie in announcing the winner.
In Japanese the word Kanban means "Just In Time". That's the name that Dr. Steve Hoard, III And William B. Aycock, Jr. gave their company when it was started in 1978 to provide "Just In Time" warehouse leasing to prospective customers in the Tarboro area. But the company really began its growth when Dr. Hoard's son-in-law and daughter, Billy And Margaret Ann Wooten, purchased shares in Kanban Logistics in 1995 and began to take an active management role in the company.
Now Kanban Logistics is a family owned business that focuses on public warehousing, contract services and build-to-suit warehouse real estate. And the company has evolved into being a third party logistics provider offering warehousing, delivery, packaging, sorting, labeling, and light assembly to companies from all around the country as well as all around the world. Today Kanban has three warehouse facilities in Tarboro, Plymouth and on Kingsboro Road east of Rocky Mount. Kanban has over 650,000 square feet of floor space available for lease and it handles 40,000 tractor trailer loads of merchandise a year.
The other four finalist companies for the NEER 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year Award were Bailey's Fine Jewelry, Builder's Discount Center, Chambliss & Rabil Contractors and Daughtridge Oil & Gas Company all of Rocky Mount.
Headed by Clyde C. Bailey, Jr., Bailey's Fine Jewelry was founded in Rocky Mount in 1948 by Bailey's parents. Clyde Bailey grew up working in the Bailey's Discount Jewelry Store on Main Street. Later, after completing watch repair school and becoming a certified gemologist, he changed the direction and focus of Bailey's.
Today it has grown into one of Eastern North Carolina's most prestigious jewelry companies with stores in Rocky Mount, Greenville and Raleigh offering a broad collection of fine jewelry, designer lines and specialty gifts. Bailey's boasts a staff of over 50 including certified gemologists, jewelry designers, jewelry repairmen and professionally trained sales personnel.
Glenn Perry of Rocky Mount and his two sisters, Wanda Ohm of Burlington and Donna Mercer of Goldsboro, are the owners and operators of the Builder's Discount Center chain. BDC is a family business with the Perry, Ohm and Mercer families all joining together to operate the growing chain of eight discount Building supply retail locations in Burlington, Danville, Goldsboro, Henderson, Rocky Mount, Wallace, Wendell and Williamston.
Using huge warehouses with wide aisles, Builder's Discount Centers offer a unique drive-in and load-up building supply operation that began in 1987. Builder's Discount Center attracts a wide range of customer groups including residential and commercial building contractors, rental property owners, farmers, roofers, carpenters, repairmen and do-it-yourselfers.
When Norman Chambliss, III was 12 years old and a boy scout, his scout leader was 22 year old Jimmy Rabil, a recent graduate of Duke University. The two began a friendship that endured ver the years despite their age difference. After working for other companies in Rocky Mount, they opened their own business in 1976.
Today Chambliss & Rabil provides comprehensive construction and real estate services. The Construction Division specializes in medium size commercial projects ranging from office buildings to hotels to convenient stores. This Division also engages in residential home renovations. The Real Estate Division specializes in the sale, leasing and development of commercial real estate properties located in a multi- county area around Rocky Mount.
When Bill Daughtridge, Jr. joined his father in Daughtridge Gas & Oil in 1980, the company had the Rocky Mount Gas and Oil delivery operations, a gas operation in Weldon and the Lakewood truck stop on I-95. Upon his arrival, Bill Daughtridge worked with his father to develop a new growth strategy for the company through acquisitions and the establishment of new operating facilities. Today the company retails residential, commercial, agricultural oil, gasoline and propane. It also sells and services propane appliances, operates a chain of convenience stores, as well as two truck stops, a quick lube oil change and a car wash.
Daughtridge Gas & Oil is the only company in North Carolina to have had its executives as presidents of the NC Petroleum Marketers Association, the NC Propane Gas Association And the NC Association Of Convenience Stores. With three generations of Eagle Scouts in the Daughtridge family, the boy scout motto of "service to others" is part of the company's corporate mission statement and its community involvement including have had executives hold the chairmanships of both the Rocky Mount and Greenville chambers as well as serve as presidents of the Rocky Mount Jaycees, Rocky Mount United Way and the East Carolina Council of Boy Scouts.
Kanban Logistics was announced as the winner of the Eighth Annual NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet held on Tuesday, May 7 at the Carleton House Restaurant in Rocky Mount. Paul J. Rizzo, Chairman & Partner in Franklin Street Partners, Inc. and former Vice Chairman of IBM and dean of the UNC School of Business from Chapel Hill NC was the keynote speaker for the evening's program.
Those interested in joining NEER can contact Sherry Johnson at the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce at 252-973-1212.
