Finding gold in chrome
Oct 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By BRUCE SAUER
Trailer dealer finds profits in the parts that make trucks glitter
PHOTOS: See more pictures from Southern States Utility
The folks at Southern States Utility in Jackson, Mississippi see amazing things in many places. Tornados that damage buildings and spare people. A new home when the company was homeless. Sales that weather an economic downturn. And parts sales that come from chrome.
The company is not a truck dealer. Its new product lines are exclusively trailers -including Utility, Landoll, Clement, Hilbilt, Peerless, and Reitnouer. Yet chro me-plated parts and accessories are helping make sales shine at the company's new location just south of Jackson.
Chrome accessories for trucks and trailers are so popular with Southern States and its customers that the trailer dealer's recently created 5,000-sq-ft showroom is known as “the chrome shop.” And the word is spreading.
Of the 9,500 part numbers that the company keeps in inventory, roughly 4,500 are either chrome plated or made of stainless steel. Of those accessories, the majority go on the tractor, not the trailer.
“We sell bezels, lights, dash items, exhaust systems, and bumpers” says Mike Cauthen, parts manager. “It's amazing how many truck-related chrome parts that we as a trailer dealer can sell.”
But there's more to it than chrome. The company's showroom features other truck-related components, including a large display of eight fully functioning air-ride seats.
“Sure, our customers could get truck-related parts from truck dealers, but they can't get the variety that we offer here,” Cauthen says. “We sell products for all brands of trucks — not just one. Some of our customers are truck dealers. The reason — we have the parts they are looking for. Availability is key.”
Also key is the ability to have a shop that can install the products that customers buy. According to the company, the closest shop that mounts chrome is in central Florida, several hundred miles away.
The chrome shop is just a few months old, but the company has been extremely pleased with its performance so far.
“We are just now getting the word out,” says Percy Thornton, president. “Yet the traffic has been real strong. We have had times when parts customers have occupied all of our designated parking places.”
The product of a tornado
As successful as the chrome shop has been, it would not exist today had a tornado not hit the company's headquarters at 12:30 pm on Friday, April 4 last year.
“I was upstairs at the time,” says Aaron Smith. “I heard the light fixtures fall, and I saw the roof coming off the shop.”
The company receptionist was at the copy machine when the tornado struck. The force of the tornado blew apart the glass entry doors, sending shards of glass into the wall where she had been sitting just moments before.
Out in the shop, employees clung to building support columns to keep from being blown out of the building. Just down the street at Ryder Truck Rental, employees watched as the event unfolded.
“It was like a giant wasp that came down and just kept stinging the building,” a Ryder employee recalls.
“It all happened so quickly,” says Thornton, who was at lunch at the time. “I didn't know why the tornado warning siren was sounding — the sun was shining. Suddenly the sky turned black, and the next thing we knew, it was over.”
The Southern States shop was the only building the tornado struck. But downed power lines around the building had employees trapped inside long after the storm left the shop in shambles.
A survey of the rubble showed that the twister had blown out at least one window of every car in the parking lot. The company's 40,000-sq-ft facility was left with $2 million in damage.
Employees of Southern States gathered along the service road that passes by the front of the location.
“All of our managers came together that evening, and we had a prayer meeting,” Thornton recalls. “We prayed that by 11 am the next day, we would have a plan for how to get back on our feet. Someone later asked me if any of our employees feared that they would not have a job to return to. If that was a concern for anyone, it did not last long. Not only did we have a plan by 11 am Saturday — the day after the tornado — but we were back in business Monday morning.”
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