THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512230451
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANET DUNPHY, BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines
Ronald Reagan was in the White House. The prime rate had just come down out of the double-digit range where it had spent most of the previous six years. And in Tidewater, Hampton Roads Business Weekly made its debut.
The year, of course, was 1985. Since then, Business Weekly has profiled hundreds of Tidewater companies. And today we go back to look at what happened to a few of the firms profiled in the first issues.
Willie McCadden is keeping his family's name in the construction business.
Ten years ago McCadden, then a vice president of G&V General Contractors Inc., was featured with his father and G&V founder George McCadden, in an article that explored the difficulties faced by black-owned businesses in Hampton Roads.
Today, the senior McCadden is semi-retired and his son has started Capital General Construction Inc. of Norfolk.
While G&V mainly handles masonry, Capital General focuses on both residential and commercial construction. The younger company has about $1 million in annual revenues.
``This was a plan my dad and I had for several years,'' said McCadden of the formation of his company, which is located in the same building as G&V. Another son who was involved in G&V, Keith, died three years ago.
Government programs that helped get G&V start 23 years ago have also benefited Willie McCadden.
``The prejudices are definitely still out there. The race climate in America isn't changing,'' said the younger McCadden. ``I believe it's rising, but our working relationship with the public has been real good locally.''
Another firm to benefit from government contract work during the last 10 years has been Cruise International of Norfolk.
Headed by Richard O'Leary, long ago the second officer of the passenger ship S.S. United States, Cruise International once operated its own fleet of small cruise ships and employed 2,400 people.
Today the company is considerably smaller - the Harbor Cruise division was sold to France's Sodexho about eight years ago - but revenues have climbed. While the company still charters cruise ships, O'Leary said, its travel agency, C.I. Travel, has swelled in size.
``We decided to focus on a business where we could dominate the market,'' O'Leary said.
C.I. Travel has a leading market share in Hampton Roads, O'Leary said, and through acquisitions and start-ups in presently engaged in an aggressive expansion on Florida's West Coast. It's also pushed into the government travel market.
``I would say that mostly the business has gotten more competitive with the deregulation of the airlines and the price wars and spurts of travel,'' said Mickey Hawks, C.I. Travel's vice president of retail operations, an employee of 18 years.
``We have gotten more aggressive in our marketing because of that.''
Hawks said 10 years ago the travel business consisted of corporate and leisure travel. The decision to get into government travel has resulted in contracts with five U.S. Air Force bases, from Patrick Air Force Base in Melbourne, Fla., to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
``That has really doubled the size of our company'' to annual gross sales of $100 million, said Hawks.
C.I. Travel has 240 employees in Hampton Roads as well as 38 offices in four states.
A third Hampton Roads business has also profited from government sales during the last 10 years, although this one mushroomed when it branched from federal contracting to state and local contracting.
JL Associates Inc. was formed in 1979 by James Gourley and Linda Watkins; Watkins bought Gourley out in 1988 and is now the sole owner.
``We started out strictly as a defense department contractor,'' explains Watkins, ``and then in the late '80s I took the same privatization idea to state and local governments.''
JL has since contracted with the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, to name a few.
``Oh, yes, it was successful,'' added Watkins, who puts her experience at 18 years. ``We got our name out there five or six years before other companies started coming in. The state and locals are pleased to have someone with that experience. They are looking at alternative ways of doing business with their budgets getting tighter and tighter.''
But the transition wasn't easy. ``I would never want to go through redirecting of the company again. It was harder to redirect it than it was to start it from scratch,'' said Watkins.
JL Associates, with annual revenues of about $20 million, is now evenly split between federal and state and local work, said Watkins.
Malcolm G. Fries, who owns a financial planning firm of the same name in Newport News, said he's seen one big change in the last decade.
``The individual, the consumer, has become more aware that they need to do more for themselves. They can't rely on their companies to take care of them. They see time as their biggest ally,'' said Fries.
``People still have the same problems and the same goals,'' said Fries. ``They want to be financially independent and retire at 55. If they want to work for it, it's easily attainable.''
The most common obstacles are lack of financial planning and raising a family, as well as procrastination.
``This business is very boring, very slow. Everyone wants to win the lottery. It doesn't happen that way,'' said Fries. ``You have to be dedicated to a goal. Think about how you are going to retire and is your money working for you.''
Fries had a stroke one year ago and decided to close his Virginia Beach office. He pared his staff down to his wife, his son and two administrative assistants.
The company still has many of the clients it had 10 years ago.
``We decided to get better, not bigger,'' said Fries.
``We don't try to compete with Merrill Lynch or Crestar Bank but we do get to know people personally and face to face.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
LOOKING BACK
Willie McCadden
[Color Photos]
BETH BERGMAN
The Virginia-Pilot
Mickey Hawks, C.I. Travel
BETH BERGMAN
The Virginia-Pilot
Linda Watkins, JL Associates Inc.
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Willie McCadden, Capital General COnstruction Inc.
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
The Virginian-Pilot
Malcolm G. Fries, Malcolm G. Fries & Associates Inc.
by CNB