Callaway Industrial cleans up
Owner didn't let layoff put him in the dumps
°Charlotte Business Journal - by Lee Howard Senior Staff Writer
Everyone knows the economy could stand improvement. But Paul Callaway knows better than most how to survive a downturn.
Looking around Callaway's homey office in Mooresville, it's hard to imagine that 26 years ago he was the victim of a corporate layoff and had to go on unemployment for two months.
"For someone who had worked every day of his life since he was 11, it was hard," he says.
Callaway is the 56-year-old founder of Callaway Industrial Services, an industrial cleaning and painting company he has built into a $3 million business, starting from the back of a pickup truck.
Clients now include some of the more recognizable names in the industrial markets, including Siemens USA, Freightliner and Kimberly-Clark Corp. He also does cleaning for customers as diverse as International Business Machines Corp., Philip Morris Cos. Inc. and Roush Racing.
"You've heard the story of Chicken Little," Callaway says. "The sky really fell when I lost my job. I had three children under 6 years old. I had to figure out what I was going to do to support my family."
Callaway had been a personnel manager at Burlington Industries Inc. for eight years when, in 1974, he joined Bibb Textiles in a similar capacity. He moved his family from Mooresville to Macon, Ga. But the economy of the mid-1970s was in a slump. Callaway had been at Bibb only one year when the company slashed its management by 20%.
"And I was one of them," Callaway recalls.
He brought his family back to Mooresville and started knocking on doors. He quickly found that his two-year business degree from what's now Wingate University couldn't compete against other, more lettered applicants.
A friend eventually introduced Callaway to a dealer at Hotsy Carolinas, a pressure-washer sales company. Callaway was offered a job, though it was straight commission. He accepted, but the uneven nature of commission pay spurred his entrepreneurial spirit.
In 1975, Callaway borrowed $1,800 from a local bank and bought a 1967 Ford pickup and a used pressure-cleaning machine. Callaway Industrial Services was born.
When he wasn't trying to sell pressure washers for Hotsy, Callaway was using his own washer to clean tractor trucks and trailers.
Early jobs were small and included such odd assignments as pressure-cleaning ice cream delivery trucks and refurbished rotary telephones. But Callaway continued building his business. Though he would sell pressure-washing equipment for Hotsy for 13 years, Callaway Industrial Services began to occupy more and more of his time.
"It finally came to the point where I couldn't do both, so I decided to stay with the cleaning business," Callaway says.
The risk paid off. Callaway hired his first full-time employee in 1982 and by 1985 was employing 10.
About that time, the company was hired to clean the interior walls at the Westinghouse Electric Corp. turbine plant on Westinghouse Boulevard.
Callaway's relationship with the turbine manufacturer -- now Siemens Westinghouse -- remains strong to this day.
Bill Karriker, Siemens facilities manager, has known Callaway 15 years and employs the company about once a quarter to clean Siemens' 500,000-square-foot plant.
"They do a great job," Karriker says. "They're responsive, flexible, and they're a company that understands the needs of industrial customers."
Callaway added another big client, truckmaker Freightliner, in 1988, cleaning the paint booths at its Mount Holly assembly plant.
Through the years, Callaway also has expanded the services he provides. In addition to cleaning, the company now does industrial painting and floor coating, as well as providing finishing services and construction cleanup.
The company has grown from revenue totaling $22,500 in its first year to an anticipated $3 million this year. Its five-year business plan calls for annual sales to top $5 million by 2006.
From his first used pressure washer, Callaway has assembled a warehouse of high-tech equipment he values at more than $750,000.
These days, he reflects somewhat dolefully on the slowing economic times, but from the comfort of a new office filled with golfing trophies and pictures of his five grandchildren. An ultrasound image of one on the way is tacked to his bulletin board.
Callaway's optimism is evident from the twinkle in his ice-blue eyes.
"We've been through three downturns since we've been in business," he says. "But even through downturns somebody is always going to be spending money."
