Last Thursday on WBRY’s After 8 program it was announced that the retail space in Woodbury Center on South McCrary Street has been leased by Potter’s Ace Home Center.
Work on preparing the space is underway. The store should be open in about 60 days. All jobs in the center are expected to be filled locally.
The news department of WBRY thought you might want to know more about one of our newest businesses. The Cumberland Business Journal published an executive profile on company founder, Bill Potter. A reprint of this profile from October 2007 follows.
Bill Potter’s favorite morning is Monday morning. That’s because he wants to see what the new week holds.
“Later on it may be Friday,” he joked, but the youthful enthusiasm of the 76-year-old owner of 17 Potter’s Ace Home Center stores suggests that there are plenty more Monday mornings to come.
Potter’s roots are in Fentress County, but he spent the first 16 years of his life in Muncie, Ind., where his parents worked in the defense plants. In 1946 the Potter family returned home and started a dry grocery store on the Jamestown square, living on the second floor of the commercial building. Potter returned to Jamestown after a stint in the U.S. Air Force.
“I wasn’t that crazy about the grocery business,” Potter recalled, explaining why he moved the company toward building supply and hardware after his father’s death in 1961. “Hardware was more exciting.”
It’s been a steady, mostly smooth ride for Potter, whose business investments have extended to discount and furniture stores and real estate.
“I never wanted to work for money,” he said. “I wanted to be successful. What follows success? Money.”
His family-owned company produced $41 million in sales last year, with a $45 million year projected for 2007. Three new stores have been opened since Jan. 1. But he is measuring success with his own ruler.
Potter’s company provides jobs for 260 people. Among those employees are his wife, daughter, son-in-law and several grandchildren. Potter’s wife, Jean, worked six days a week right alongside him throughout his career except for the years she was raising their three children. Daughter Teresa Smith, trained as a teacher, came onboard three decades ago and is corporate controller. Her husband, Jeff, also a 30-year leader in the company, “has put in many long hours,” according to Potter. As new stores where launched, Jeff often assumed the role of manager until he was comfortable that it was running smoothly with reliable employees in place.
The Smiths’ son, Brandon, 32, is corporate operations manager, but he has worked in many capacities for Potter’s since childhood. He entered Tennessee Tech University with the goal of learning what was necessary to help his grandfather achieve his vision of keeping the stores up-to-date, which they agree is necessary for survival in the competitive area created by big box building suppliers.
“In every class I would think, ‘how can I apply this at our business?’” he said.
Like dozens of former TTU students, Brandon worked at the Cookeville Potter’s as a student, graduating in 1997 with a degree in management information systems. “After converting to a new Y2K-compliant corporate computer system, I installed the first point-of-sale system at the individual store level.”
“Brandon has made a big difference,” Potter said proudly, adding, “He is a very unusual young person.”
Potter is also proud his stores have provided a “classroom” for several student employees who joined the company after TTU gradation, including the current store managers in Cookeville, Sparta, Harriman and Algood.
Potter recognizes the value of good employees, even entrusting key corporate positions to five highly respected non-family employees. All employees, Potter said, can be guaranteed a “good Christian work environment and a competitive wage.”
“All we ask them is to do their best, be honest, be dependable, try hard and think,” he said.
Brandon said his grandfather “never wanted to flaunt his success” but has used it to help local schools and churches, the Boys and Girls Club and other organizations that needed money or materials. For instance, Brandon said Potter’s got “a deal” on playground equipment, which the company offered free of charge to non-profits.
Potter and his grandson believe their company has been successful, in part, because it is family-owned and debt-free.
“Bill has been conservative with profit and looked to reinvest in the business,” Brandon said, noting that Potter was recently coerced into “upgrading” his vehicle with a low-mileage used one and has lived in the same house since 1954. “My grandparents’ personal conservative nature has kept the cash flow in the business.”
The company has continued to “keep up with the times” regarding equipment, shelving and product selection.
“People who do not change are overrun with change,” Potter said. “We upgrade as we go along.”
Central to the Potter family’s life is their commitment to home and God. They all attend church at Allardt First Baptist Church and usually congregate at Jeff and Teresa Smith’s for lunch, since the stores are always closed on Sunday.
Brandon believes his grandfather is a visionary, explaining why Potter is so excited about recent investments in easy access “community stores” in rural or suburban areas (like Baxter), providing a competitively priced alternative for both the weekend handyman or the general contractor. Supported by Potter’s warehouse, the stores are filling a niche Potter has identified in the building supply market, and he can’t wait to see if he’s gauged it correctly.
“It’s a long way from nothing to something,” Brandon quoted his grandfather’s favorite saying.
“I like to see things move,” Bill said.
“It’s up to us to keep it going,” Brandon added.
Sure sounds like Monday morning at Potter’s.
Story and photo by Claudia Johnson-Nichols, Editor-In-Chief, Cumberland Business Journal