Success Stories

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• Bankruptcy, bathtubs and a booming business: One dreamer’s story – Clean Control

   

  When you walk into the new 130,000-square-foot manufacturing, distribution and corporate headquarters of Clean Control in Warner Robins, you would never conceive of the primitive bathtub experiments that were the humble beginnings of this 10-year-old international company. But after meeting and talking with its founder and president, Steve Davison, you realize that he is where he always envisioned he would be.

  
  

  Clean Control and its phenomenal success is Davison’s dream and vision, which began 21 years ago in a basement bathtub mixing cleaning supplies with his friend Cory Hammock of Macon. Hammock is now vice president of research and is one of four degreed chemists and one microbiologist that are part of a 150-employee staff.

  

  
  In the beginning, making their own cleaning supplies was a way to save money for Davison’s then-janitorial contracting company. “We spent many a night and weekend perfecting our first product, OdoBan, which we used on our kids’ dirty diapers in our first product tests – it killed the smell,” said Davison. OdoBan is now the best-selling product in the line.
  
  “I learned quickly from Cory, after many mishaps, that there’s an exact order to mixing chemicals. You don’t just pour everything in together and get results,” Davison said. He was not a student who enjoyed chemistry class when he was growing up in Warner Robins and attending Northside High School. His worst subjects, English and math, are now the very ones he uses the most. “This business is about formulas, and products sold by weight and not volume. I also make presentations to presidents of other companies, so I tell students if you think you’ll never use something in the future – you will!” said Davison.
  
  Once OdoBan was perfected, Davison had two masters – his company, Mobile Wash of America (MWA), and his vision for these new products and the company they could be. In 1990, he sold the contracts from MWA and founded Clean Control Corporation.
  
  In 1989, one of his employees was injured on the job and Davison discovered his insurance had lapsed, which forced him into bankruptcy. With a new company and OdoBan in hand he began knocking on the door of Sam’s Club for coveted shelf space. After much persistence by Davison, Sam’s Club said, “If we buy one pallet and put it in the Macon store, will you leave us alone?” That one pallet was gone in three days and by the fifth day, a second pallet was gone. Then they were selling a pallet per week. That was December of 1991, and by spring 1992, OdoBan was in more than 30 Sam’s Clubs, and by 1995, it was in every Sam’s Club across the country. Now Clean Control products are distributed nationwide in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.
  
  The company’s product offerings have grown to include Grease Control, Stan Control, Glass Control, and now Citrus Control, which was launched this October. Within six weeks, Stain Control became the top-selling cleaner of its type in Ingles grocery stores across the country and in the top three sellers for Food lion’s chains.
  
  Clean Control sells mainly to master distributors like Sysco, which at $21 billion in annual sales is the nation’s leading food service distributor. Clean Control is also focusing on growing the automotive and grocery sales markets for its products. They also manufacture 12 more of Sysco’s products.
  
  “Our products do what the labels say they’ll do, and we receive numerous testimonials from customers telling us so,” says Davison. It’s one of the ways he measures the company’s success. His favorite letter is from a lady whose little housedog had a chance encounter with a skunk while outside. When she let him back inside, the dog began dashing through the house rubbing up against anything he could find to try and rid himself of the stench. By the time she realized what was happening, everything from one end of the house to the other reeked of skunk. Her letter told of how she’d tried many products and home remedies, including tomato juice, to nix the smell with no luck. But when she tried OdoBan, it did the trick.
  
  Davison credits his entrepreneurial spirit to growing up overseas in England, Spain, Japan and Germany, and a “Mom that made us stay outside to play – there was no sitting in front of the television set,” he said. “We live in the best country in the world and have so many more advantages and opportunities,” he added.
  
  At 45 years old, Davison already has a proven message for young people: “Be persistent – don’t ever let anyone talk you into giving up your dream. Go with your gut feeling – opportunity doesn’t knock one, as the saying goes, it knocks all the time, but you’ve got to have the courage to answer it and go with it – I did!”
  
  Published February 2002 in GEORGIA Magazine.

• Sandman sculpts South’s homes and playgrounds

   

  In Butler, you’ll find the sandman – a job he’ll admit he came to gradually. Mike Watson, general manager of Butler Sand Co. and middle Georgia’s sandman, is carrying on a family tradition as a third-generation hydraulic sand miner at the now-merged companies started by his grandfather, Joe Brown, in 1954, and his father Lewis Watson, in 1958.

  
  “When I was young I dreamed of becoming a doctor…I soon realized I didn’t like being around hospitals,” says Watson. “And when it came time for my first major science class, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.” So he turned to what was familiar and began working literally from the ground up. He spent his summers cleaning tanks at Butler Sand, performing hard, manual labor, and then he worked his way up to sales. Halfway through college he realized coming home to the family business was where he wanted to be. He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in business at Georgia Southwestern University in Americus.
  
  Now his sand makes its way across the state to build homes and businesses and provide athletes (and those of us who’d like to be) firm foundations for the state’s playgrounds. That takes more than your average sand pile. Compare the company’s sand production to the average sand pail, which can hold 3.5 billion grains of sand. Butler Sand fills 100 to 300 25-ton tractor-trailer dump trucks a day.
  
  “Sales have doubled, and the last eight years have been successful for us,” says Watson. “I give the credit to our employees, many of whom have been here 10-20 years, and who are versatile and offer great input.” In fact, the Carreker brothers, J.C. and Charlie, from Junction City, have been dedicated employees for nearly 40 years. Both started when they were 16 years old.
  
  Watson points to his company’s willingness to remember its customers, from the independent truck drivers who haul the loads to the end users. “We assure quality and proper specifications in our sand products prior to shipping,” says Assistant General Manager Dennis Swearingen. Drivers who arrive at Butler Sand will find that workers are on duty 24 hours a day for truck loading.
  
  Their success is also due to the investments they’ve made to expand and upgrade equipment to meet demand. Butler Sand built a new facility five years ago, their third expansion since 1958. “We would not have been able to keep up with production had we not expanded,” remarks Watson. Georgia is growing and Butler Sand and its 32 employees are helping sculpt it. Approximately 90 percent of their sand goes into masonry and concrete that is shipped primarily to the Atlanta area and north Georgia. Another 10 percent goes to a specialty niche called “greens mix” that finds its way onto many of the state’s premier golf courses such as the Atlanta Country Club, TPC at Sugar Loaf in Atlanta, and Green Island in Columbus.
  
  The company’s sand has helped shape some pretty famous playgrounds: Turner Field, Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium at Grant Field, University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, and the 1996 Olympic soccer and softball fields.
  
  Butler Sand is one of nearly 3,900 U.S. sand mining companies, which as a whole are expected to produce 1.15 billion metric tons of construction sand and gravel in 2002, with a value of $5.5 billion. Georgia’s contribution to that is about 7.3 million metric tons at $31 million. Georgia’s mining industry as a whole ranks sixth nationally in total, nonfuel mineral production value, employs 8,100 people, and has an economic impact of approximately $13 billion.
  
  It may be hard to believe that we humans consume that much, but according to the Mineral Information Institute, each baby born today will require 3.6 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels over the course of its lifetime. Of that total, each one will require 1.65 million pounds of stone, sand and gravel. These elements make their way into many of the products we use every day in every aspect of our life.
  
  With statistics like this, Butler Sand seems well positioned to meet the production demands of our economy. Watson is already grooming the fourth generation to enter the family business. His 14-year-old daughter, Haylee, has taken a keen interest in the company and began working alongside her father this summer.
  
  Published November 2002 in GEORGIA Magazine.

• Arriscraft: From Canada to Crawford County

  What attracts industry to Georgia? Ask a developer or officials from a chamber of commerce, development authority or local government and the answer will be skilled labor, tax incentives or infrastructure. However, sometimes it’s things that can’t be man-made, such as natural resources. A company’s livelihood may depend on discovering a location with resources found no other place in the world.
  
  Crawford County has just such a story. Canada’s fore-most masonry producer, Arriscraft International, found its gold mine with a plentiful Georgia resource, sand. But for North America’s only manufacturer of true, not imitation, stone, not just any sand would do. After months of searching, Arriscraft’s chemists found that Crawford County had the state’s only deposit of sand that matched the exact chemical makeup they needed.
  
  The new plant, one of the company’s three facilities, opened in spring 2002, but to appreciate this success, you have to go back to fall 1998, when statewide developers Joe Riley of Georgia Electric Membership Corp. and Bill Dobbs of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism first met Arriscraft representatives at a Council of American States in Canada (CASC) meeting in Toronto. CASC is a group of U.S. states that has offices that promote economic development.
  
  What began as basic information-gathering quickly moved to seeking Georgia sites by early 1999. “Bill and I looked for the state’s sand deposits, matched those areas to Arriscraft’s market and transportation needs, then began looking for specific locations,” says Riley.
  
  The pair dug quite a few holes for sand samples, with no luck matching their needs, at first. “Bill and I kept digging and sending 5-pound samples of Georgia sand to Canada by UPS,” recalls Riley. “Who know how many we dug, but our sand bags wrapped in white paper attracted suspicious eyes whenever we opened the truck of the car,” he laughs. Locals and Canadian customs were both a little curious. In fact, several shipments never made it pas customs and had to be re-shipped. After analyzing hundreds of pounds of sand, the Crawford County samples alone proved to be the match.
  
  Local leaders, like the late County Commission Chairman Freddie Tidwell, Crawford County Development Authority member Charlie Westberry, State Rep. Robert Ray and Flint Energies’ Key Accounts Manager Dan Stone, began working with Arriscraft leaders. In fact, Flint Energies sponsored a trip to Canada for Crawford County leaders to see Arriscraft’s operations and finalize location plans. “Mr. Tidwell was a driving force in bringing Arriscraft here,” says Stone. “I don’t think they would have located here had it not been for his involvement. It’s a shame he never saw the project completed.”
  
  Arriscraft had planned to mine its own sand for manufacturing, but another feature made Crawford County even more appealing. A local sand-mining company, Atlanta Sand, could supply their needs for hundreds of years to come, so Arriscraft built their manufacturing plant less than a quarter of a mile away from the supplier.
  
  Arriscraft’s product has the consistency, durability and nearly identical makeup as real sandstone, except their process takes 24 hours instead of billions of years. They are the only manufacturer to perfect this process, and they build their own machinery to protect their trademarked processes.
  
  The high-end masonry product does not contain any cement but, rather, is held together by the sand’s own unique, chemical bond. “So many things have to go right or we’re making an unacceptable product that can’t be sold,” says Larry Johnston, vice president of engineering fro Arriscraft and the person responsible for the plant’s construction and start-up.
  
  One shift of 31 full-time employees makes four different types of stone. Plans are to add extra shifts as sales increase to architectural and commercial markets throughout the Southern states, including Texas, Florida and Georgia, and as far west as California.
  
  The silica in the sand gives the stone its hardness and strength. “With this sand, we are making an even stronger product than we can in Canada,” says Johnston.
  
  The local plant uses diamond-tipped saws to split and chip the sandstone for its custom cuts. This is hard to believe, because making the product is like building a sandcastle. Molds press the sand into shape, yet before it goes through the eight-hour curing cycle, you can crumble it with your finger. Finished stone comes in smooth or rocked faces, rounded or custom cuts, and varying thicknesses, depending on its final use and the specific needs of the architect or builder.
  
  Arriscraft stone is able to withstand high temperatures and the freeze-thaw cycles of colder climates. As a building product, it’s energy efficient and offers a natural insulation that helps keep inside temperatures constant. It’s more cost effective than poorer-quality pre-cast stone or the more expensive natural stone. Arriscraft also uses stable pigments that won’t fade over time.
  
  The company’s founder, Edward Ratcliffe, who started Arriscraft in 1949, would appreciate how the quality of the company he built has continued and the effort it took to find resources for the future. In that post-World War II era, it was the shortage of building supplies, such as brick, that prompted him to develop his own masonry material, using his skills as a chemical engineer and the knowledge he gained from his father, who was a builder.
  
  Visit Arriscraft on the Web at www.arriscraft.com.
  
  Published November 2003 in GEORGIA Magazine.

• Georgia U-Picks A to Z: Farmer Brown’s Zinnia

  With Georgia’s population growing at more than 26 percent a decade and pristine farm land sprouting commercial development rather than cotton, you may get the urge to remind yourself how things grow. And if you want to experience farming without the toil, then “U-Picks” are the answer. Georgia is the nation’s fifth largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables, and you’ll find a “U-pick” for just about every letter of the alphabet – apples, blueberries, cucumbers – if you thought “z” would stump you, add Farmer Brown’s zinnias to the list.
  
  William Brown, known as “Farmer Brown,” and his wife Debra took their daughters’ suggestion and added these colorful annuals to the cornucopia of fresh bounty they grow on the family farm in Macon County. Starting last year they experimented with how to take a garden flower and propagate it like a row crop on three acres of land across from their roadside market. With the beauty that burst forth, you would never believe that the zinnia’s paper-like seeds had posed a challenge to plant. “We learned a great deal last year, and they are a great backdrop to our roadside market,” says Debra Brown.
  
  This flowering fancy of crimson to dark purple draws visitors to their market which has offered up fresh fruits and vegetables like string beans, tomatoes and Elberta and Elberta-type freestone peaches for more than 30 years. The stand is an institution for travelers along Georgia Highway 49 North just outside of Montezuma. “We thought it would be a nice addition to our farm, but we didn’t realize how much fun it would be,” says Debra.
  
  The zinnia patch, nestled in a few acres across from an endless vista of peach trees, has visitors picking and grinning as they pose for pictures with the blooms. “An older lady from Warner Robins said it brought back memories of her mother’s garden,” says Debra. In addition to the zinnias’ vivid display of color, you’ll enjoy watching the butterflies, as they can’t resist them either.
  
  Zinnias make the perfect “U-pick” flower as they are disease resistant, they thrive in Georgia’s hot, dry summers, and cutting them frequently encourages branching and prolongs blooming. There are more than 20 species of zinnias. The Browns feature seven different long-stemmed, cutting and dahlia-type varieties like “Oklahoma” and “Cut and Come Again.” The vibrant blooms can be cut from mid-June through early September. After testing many different varieties, they’re bringing back the best performers this year along with some rudbeckia, which is a colorful, long-stemmed, daisy-like annual.
  
  Whether you need fresh flowers for an event or to brighten your day, zinnias are a great arrangement solution due to their long-lasting blooms that don’t drop their petals. The Browns’ varieties are 12-40 inches tall with flower diameters of 2-6 inches. “People come and pick zinnias for weddings, parties and even funerals,” said Debra. Area restaurants that feature fresh flowers on their tables will want to make this a regular stop this summer.
  
  Though the zinnias thrive in the hot sun, you may not, so the Browns recommend picking in the early morning or late afternoon. Their roadside market is open from 8:00 a.m. – 7 p.m., but if you arrive earlier or later, a bluebird box at the edge of the patch allows you to pick flowers on the honor system.
  
  Buckets and clippers are available, but bring your own if possible. The cost is 10 cents a stem for zinnias and 25 cents for sunflowers. Yes, in addition to the zinnias you can pick the smaller, floral-type pollen-less sunflowers that are the perfect size for arrangements.
  
  After you pick, walk over to the Browns’ new roadside market building, which features a commercial kitchen, refreshments, restrooms and vegetables, such as tomatoes and peas and butter beans that have already been shelled. You’ll find fresh peaches and sweet delights made fresh daily, like real, home-style peach ice cream – this is the real stuff folks, not soft serve, but the kind that tastes like it was churned on the porch. “When our girls were little, they’d churn fresh peach ice cream, put it in cups and walk it down to the road and sell it out of a cooler,” says Farmer Brown, whose specialty products bare the same name. “Would you believe 20 years later, folks still stop and ask us for that ice cream – we had to make it at the new market,” he laughed.
  
  In addition to this market, travelers along Interstate 75 can stop at Farmer Brown’s at Exit 127. “We have families from as far away as Miami that come to Georgia just to buy two bushels of my peaches,” he says.
  
  The Brown family farm has 2,500 acres that produces traditional Southern Row crops like cotton and peanuts, plus fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, string beans and peaches. Their roadside market opens each year when the first varieties of peaches are ready in mid to late-June and closes as their peach season ends in early to mid-August. The zinnia harvest begins in middle to late-June and continues through early September. Contact Brown’s Farm for more information at 478.472.8767.
  
  Directions: Georgia Highway 49 between Montezuma and Marshallville – one mile north of Montezuma and 10 miles south of Marshallville.
  
  More U-picks?
  

  If you have a U-pick to share, visit Flint’s Web site www.flintenergies.com and post it to the event calendar. Visit this great site http://www.pickyourown.org/GA.htm to find “U-picks” in Georgia and other states, typical harvest dates, weights and yields, picking tips, and canning and freezing tips for all commodities.

  Visit these other roadside markets:

  Big Six Farms
  U.S. Hwy. 341 N
  5 miles past Fort Valley
  (Follow the signs)

  
  Dickey’s Packing House
  3440 Old Highway 341 N
  Musella
  
  Dickey’s at the Hilltop
  U.S. 341 @ Hwy. 74
  Culloden
  
  Elliott Strawberry Farm
  4761 Holley Road
  Lizella
  
  Field of Dreams
  579 Simmons Road
  Warner Robins
  
  Lane Packing
  50 Lane Road @ GA Hwy. 96
  Fort Valley
  
  Kauffman Farms
  1305 Mennonite Church Road
  Montezuma
  
  Pearson Farms
  11022 U.S. Hwy. 341 S
  Fort Valley
  
  Taylor Orchards
  GA Hwy. 96
  Reynolds
  
  Published June 2004 in GEORGIA Magazine.