ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: KATHY LU STAFF WRITER
When Don Beverly started making his own church furniture in 1984, it was a side business to a gymnasium he had opened in Dublin. Twelve years later, the gym has been sold and the church furniture business is hauling in about $2.75 million in sales a year.
"When I started out, I had no idea we'd get this big," Beverly said of his Pulaski-based Virginia Church Furniture. "It's a little different now. I started out working myself; now I'm sitting in an office making sure that [work] gets done."
In his showroom, the converted first floor of the town's former municipal building, small pews stand strewn on the red carpet. It's hard to believe that he has had 3,266 customers.
Beverly has more than $1 million in backlogged orders and has had to ask his staff of about 40 employees to work overtime. He is also preparing to expand his 27,000-square-foot factory, next door to the showroom in downtown Pulaski, by converting two wings that serve as sheds into workspace.
"Our best month so far was June - we made over $500,000," he said. "It shocked us."
Beverly's handmade pews, chairs and chancel furniture can be found in churches from Maine to Florida. He has five trucks that deliver the furniture, and salesmen in almost every state along the East Coast. Though he doesn't like to deliver beyond the Mississippi River, Beverly has filled orders in California, the Bahamas and is working on an order from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.
"One of the most interesting parts of this job is the traveling and getting to meet people," he said. "I have to go out and check that the sizes work with a church and do a layout with every order. I have friends all over the U.S."
Beverly, 53, began making furniture when he was 19. He worked for a company that manufactured bedroom furniture and constantly changed jobs to learn different aspects of furniture making, such as framing and upholstery.
He was introduced to making church furniture at Floyd Industries in 1980, but the company soon closed because the owners didn't think it was a feasible business. Beverly, however, saw a profit in the industry and in 1982 went to work for a church furniture business at Floyd's Serenity House, an alcoholic recovery center. After two years, he left to start his own business.
"We've had setbacks. We sold $200,000 worth of furniture our first year and we lost $135,000 our second year," he recalled. "Now we've just finished a $90,000 job and we're filling average orders of $20,000. Our biggest order was for $135,000."
Beverly, who has been Christian for 24 years, attributes his success to God. He said he almost had to give up his business after the second year, but he hung on and things changed overnight. He had paid back his losses within a year.
Another turn of fortune came when the Wine Barger Church Furniture Co., with annual sales of $12 million, closed about five years ago. It left Beverly to pick up former Barger customers, but he needed to expand his operations to handle the new business. He turned to Pulaski Town Council in 1991 for a loan and it came through with a package that included a $17,500 loan of federal funds from the town and $37,500 from the Western Virginia Revolving Loan Fund.
The town helped again in 1994, when it approved a five-year revolving loan from Urban Development Action Grant funds - designated for industrial development only - to Virginia Church Furniture. Tim Thompson, Virginia Church Furniture vice president, said the loan - which amounted to less than $500,000 - is being used to buy equipment as well as for working capital.
Beverly added that he had not expected the town to come through with the loans.
Virginia Church Furniture has also helped spawn two other businesses - Virginia Wood Products, which supplies Beverly with the oak for his pews, and Indian Ridge Woodcrafts, which fills Beverly's chancel furniture orders. Both business owners had worked for Beverly, and he believed that each would be better off with their own businesses.
As well as he's doing, Beverly does not recommend the church furniture business to everyone. He thinks a person should know about the administrative as well as physical aspects of the trade before opening shop.
"Unless you know all the parts of this business, I wouldn't get into it," he said. "The hardest part of this business is scheduling. Churches are never ready when they say, and it throws us off because we're the last thing that goes into a church. I've had furniture wait over a year on churches and since they pay on delivery, it makes it rough on us."
In March, Virginia Church Furniture was the first winner of the Client of the Year award from the Virginia Department of Economic Development. Beverly's company was chosen from 3,920 clients statewide in part for its close work with the New River Valley Small Business Development Commission, which helped the company find the loans it needed to expand.
"Virginia Church Furniture is a perfect example of the type of client that our centers assist on a regular basis," Robert Smith, former director of the state's Business Development Network, said in March. "However, Virginia Church Furniture added that most important element to any counseling relationship - determination to succeed."
Beverly said he has received calls from church furniture salesmen who have seen his truck on the road. He has turned down offers from two salesmen willing to sell for him who pull in $3 million to $7 million in sales a year.
"We could turn this into a $10 million business, but I don't want to take such a big jump at one time," said Beverly. "I think the way we're going is the best way. We'll get there."
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Virginia Church Furniture employee Michelle Wardby CNB(right) sprays a finish on a piece of church furniture. color
2. Owner Don Beverly (below) has more than $1 million in backlogged
orders and has had to ask his staff of about 40 employees to work
overtime. color GENE DALTON STAFF