Britt Medley with Transtech Energy Named NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner
B. Mayo Boddie, Sr., Chairman of the NorthEastern Entrepreneur Roundtable (NEER), has announced that Britt Medley, founder and principal of TransTech Energy of Rocky Mount, is the recipient of the coveted 2008 NEER Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
The other 2008 finalist entrepreneurs were Bob Babington, Babington Technologies, Rocky Mount; Frank Edwards, Riverside Printing, Rocky Mount; and Patrick Robinette, Harris-Robinette Farms, Pinetops. The winner was announced at the 14th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Banquet sponsored by NEER on Monday, May 12 at the Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville. Richard Johnson, founder of HotJobs.com, was the keynote speaker for the evening's program.
TransTech Energy has become one of the fastest growing and most successful companies of its type in the nation. Sales have doubled each year from 1998 to 2006. The company now offers customers engineering, production, installation and maintenance of propane gas tanks ranging in size from 4,000 to 120,000 gallon capacity.
Medley notes that his company has really evolved from the Medley family business started by his father over 50 years ago. To keep himself close to his family roots, his headquarters is located in his great grandparents Rocky Mount home, which he has fully restored.
His father owned Sun Gas and sold LP propane gas to customers in the Rocky Mount area. By the time he was seven years old, he was helping his father and older brothers refinish and repaint used propane tanks. When his father began Transpo Gas in 1981, Medley began traveling with him installing tanks in three states. In 1994 he joined Suburban LP Gas in Raleigh servicing customers in the Triangle. While there he shared an idea for improving LP Gas service operations with two older managers. The three then formed Metro-Lift Propane in Nashville TN and established 18 locations in markets as diverse as Louisiana, Georgia and Massachusetts. After several years Medley moved for a brief stay to New York before joining United Propane in Annapolis, Maryland.
In January 1998, he returned to Rocky Mount and formed TransTech Energy. The company serves the LP Gas industry by designing, engineering and constructing commercial propane bulk plans and terminals throughout the United States. The company offers a full range of maintenance, service and refurbishing options to companies using propane. Because it is a niche company, TransTech Energy uses its expertise to keep LPG operations operating at peak efficiency, maximum safety and in full compliance with the federal standards.
After Bob Babington graduated from Georgia Tech and served two years in the Air Force, he joined NASA as the youngest member of the Apollo Lunar Landing management team. After 12 years in government service, Babington started his own business based on a unique liquid atomization principle that he invented and patented in the basement of his home. Babington's sprayer device uses a sphere with a hole cut into it. A thin liquid film flows over the exterior surface of the ball, and pressurized air then shoots out of the hole that sprays the liquid into the atmosphere.
Babington's sprayer device solved many aerosol spraying problems because it provides constant uniformity of a spray mist. Its first application was as the Babington Nebulizer, a medical product that revolutionized inhalers for respiratory illness patients, which was followed by its application as the Airtronic Oil Burner. In 1995 the Petroleum Marketers Association recognized and recommended the Babington Airtronic Oil Burner as the most efficient system available to burn oil to heat homes.
Babington has now developed products used in a variety of diversified fields. In the 1990's Babington Technology began developing advanced cooking and heating appliances for the U.S. military. All manufacturing for this new type of field kitchen equipment takes place at the Babington Technologies plant in Rocky Mount.
Frank Edwards grew up near Spring Hope and began his career working for the print shop of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1966 he began his purchase of Walker-Ross Printing Company. Edwards then spent 32 years building his company by developing relationships with businesses opening and expanding in the Rocky Mount area. Over the years sales fueled the growth Edwards needed to purchase the advanced technology printing equipment he needed to compete as well as to allow him to relocate Walker-Ross Printing into a modern facility on Atlantic Avenue.
Edwards sold his company in the mid-1990's to spend more time traveling. However, Hurricane Floyd changed his plans when the printing plant was flooded by the Tar River. After renovating the 60,000 square feet printing plant and installing new equipment, the company's overhead was so high it was no longer profitable and Walker-Ross Printing went into bankruptcy in 2003. Edwards then asked 12 investors to join him in starting a new printing business on the site of the old. Riverside Printing was born on September 1, 2003 and has been successful ever since.
Today Riverside Printing offers customers traditional commercial printing, direct mail and fulfillment services. Part of the company's success has been the result of Edwards' decision to invest in the staff, the equipment and the computer technology his customers demanded for their sophisticated marketing programs. Riverside Printing has 52 staff members working in all phases of its operations and 70% of the personnel were hired by Frank Edwards at the old printing Company.
Harris-Robinette Farm was originally formed in 2001 as a partnership between Patrick and Amy Robinette and Amy's parents, Larry and Dianne Harris. Patrick and Amy Robinette attended North Carolina State University and were married in 1996 with the dream of one day having a farming operation of their own. After college Patrick worked for cattle operations in both the east and the Midwest. With funding provided by RAFI-USA and the Golden Leaf Foundation, Patrick and Amy joined Amy's parents in a partnership to raise grass-fed cattle on their farm.
Harris-Robinette Farm uses no grain or grain supplements to fatten its cattle. Instead they are 100% grass-fed. The foundation herd has both Senepol and Senepol-crossed cattle selected because of their breed's unique characteristics. From the Virgin Islands originally, the large docile animals are disease and insect resistant, are very heat tolerant and, because their coats have slick hair, are not bothered by flies.
Harris-Robinette Farm follows an intensive grazing pattern that requires movement of the cattle from pasture to pasture for grazing on a variety of grasses throughout the year. While the company sold 225,000 pounds of grass fed beef in the past 12-month period, it cannot meet all of the demand for its product. This is why the company is actively seeking additional investors. Also, other farmers in East Carolina are being recruited to join the program by converting their unused acres or acres previously used for less profitable crops to grass pasture land.
Currently the Harris-Robinette Farm grass fed beef is marketed as a niche product. Chefs at many of North Carolina's finer restaurants list the Harris-Robinette beef on their menus at premium prices. The beef was also added to the menus at Duke, UNC - Chapel Hill and Liberty Universities this past year and other universities have asked the company to provide grass fed beef for their dining halls. In addition Harris-Robinette Farm is now offering its grass fed beef online.
"NEER's goal is to foster a spirit of entrepreneurism in the northeastern sector of our state," noted Boddie. "I think everyone will agree that Britt Medley along with our other 2008 finalists exemplify the finest attributes of an entrepreneur."
NEER supports and recognizes entrepreneurs who own businesses in Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash and Wilson Counties. The NEER Advisory Board is also available to mentor with both start-up and established companies about their plans, strategies and tactics. The NEER Advisory Board is comprised of entrepreneurs as well as service professionals who offer a variety of financial, legal, marketing and human resources information that can be used to help new companies succeed.
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