Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ANNE LARANCE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The Bacova Guild Ltd. wanted a way to thank Bath County for helping the business grow. The company came up with the perfect idea around the same time it opened a new plant in Millboro in the late 1980s.
Co-owners Pat Haynes and Ben Johns offered a free mailbox to any county resident with a rural delivery address. "It gives the county a certain character - you know when you've crossed the county line," Haynes says.
Almost every one of the roughly 1,200 rural delivery address in the county has one of Bacova's mailboxes - the personalized fiberglass box, screen printed with ducks, geese, cardinals and dogs.
It gives the community a signature look, from the country farmhouses to the well-manicured mobile-home lots. "That was just one small way in which we could give something back to the county," Johns says. "The response has been phenomenal. ... The people here have enjoyed it."
It's no small gift; Johns says the boxes are a $100 value, and the company replaces damaged boxes free. "I don't know how much we've spent over the years," he says.
The investment also turned out to be a countywide advertisement for the company. "We had not anticipated the marketing plus," Haynes says. Visitors to The Homestead resort in Hot Springs took notice, making a point to visit the company's retail store there.
"People are amazed," Johns said. "In some ways, it's sort of a symbol, and because of the name" - Bacova draws its name from Bath County, Va. - "it all fits."
by CNB