Danville Dad and Two Sons Grow Company Together

June 21, 2010

By Tara Bozick
Danville Register & Bee
Published: June 20, 2010

One local family-operated company found a niche and flourished despite plant closures and a global recession.
And now that the company founder and president raised his sons and brought them on board, the future of FCS, Inc. looks nearly limitless.

Lewis "Buddy" Smith started Floor Care Specialists, Inc. as a side business in 1988 with a pickup truck and a couple buffers because he saw a need. His former employer Kroger, which left Danville in 1985, would be opening stores back up in Danville and he knew someone would have to clean them.

Kroger, which since left Danville again, gave the company its first contract and Buddy worked nights cleaning while working full-time for Diamond Paper Co. By 2000, the business grew and demanded more of his time, so Buddy left Diamond to focus on his venture.

In the next five years, the company grew about 25 percent a year. Yet, FCS really started booming when Buddy's son, Conrad, joined the company as director of operations in 2005 after graduating from Averett University.

"I was doing all I could do running the company," Buddy said. "I was pretty close to being maxed out till Conrad came on. Then we had an explosion."

From 2005 to 2010, the revenues "quintupled," Conrad said. The company grew from 15 employees and 10 customers in 2000 to 72 employees and 43 customers in 2010.

That growth came largely from Conrad's marketing efforts and drive to get contracts with the area's larger companies and facilities. It also took investment in educating employees and developing the company into one that could compete with larger, out-of-town and national janitorial services companies.

FCS is a member of Building Contractors Association International and International Sanitary Supply Association. Conrad furthered his education to get his Registered Building Service Management degree from the trade association in 2007, which he calls the equivalent of an "MBA in cleaning."

In 2009, he studied for a year and was the youngest to pass an eight-hour test to get the Certified Building Services Executive designation. Only seven people in Virginia have that certification and he is the only one with it in the region.

Getting to work

Conrad secured an account with the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in fall 2006. The Institute holds a special place in Conrad's mind because it was one of his first major accounts, a place where leaders met for conferences a symbol of the reinvention of Southside.

The Institute looks to work with local vendors when possible and FCS proved to be reliable, said Frances Pettigrew, manager of executive administrative services at IALR.

"They're willing to adjust their schedules to meet our events that are planned. They are always looking for ways to improve their services to help us out as a client," Pettigrew said. "It is very much appreciated."

References from the Institute showed other large plants and facilities that FCS could handle the large jobs and more large contracts followed.

FCS can clean anything from industrial plants and machinery and office buildings to surgical centers and dentists' offices, Conrad said.

"Our best salesmen will always be the best references our existing customers give us," Buddy said. "That will always be the driving force behind our growth."

The ability to maintain that growth and quality is through employees like Dee Petty of Ringgold, who started with the company as a part-time general cleaner and worked her way up to full-time evening supervisor 10 years later.

Buddy said employees work with the leaders, not for them. They're all on the same team and input from employees is appreciated.

The employees respect Buddy because he's done the work himself and still on occasion enjoys getting out with the floor crew on a big job.

"This is a great company to work for," Petty said. "It's like a big family almost."

The company improved from a human resources and administration standpoint when younger son, Stuart, graduate of William and Mary College, joined the company as director of office administration in December 2009. Stuart worked for a patent firm for a couple years after earning his degree.

Adding jobs

Stuart now sees first-hand what a successful company adding jobs contributes to Danville during a down economy and unemployment rate of 13.6 percent.
He put out ads to hire a few people a month ago and received 150 phone calls in two days.

"So many people just seem really desperate," he said.
One of the new hires, Kenneth Parrish, had worked at Dan River Inc. for 35 years.

"And for all the headlines about plant closings and layoffs, outsourcing and jobless rates, I like to think that our story - that of a company succeeding with the basic principle of hard work that defines so many people in this town - can offer some small gleam of hope," Stuart wrote via news release in a literary style.

FCS keeps track of Danville's efforts to attract new and higher tech businesses to the area. Those businesses and industry will need supporting industry and services like FCS. That in turn helps the community further because FCS uses local suppliers like Diamond and local services like banking, insurance and accounting.

This is what economists mean by the "multiplier effect."

What does the future hold for FCS?

Eventually, Conrad hopes to grow the company to cover the entire state of Virginia with about 300 employees in 10 or 15 years. FCS already expanded to Martinsville, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Yanceyville, N.C., within the past five years.

His dad noted that the company wants growth at a manageable level.

"We always put quality first and growth second, but quality will take care of growth," Buddy said.
Buddy, 56, doesn't plan to leave anytime soon. He couldn't ask for a better job.

"I always thought that being my own boss would be great and it has been, but working with my boys is even better," he said.

For more information, visit http://www.fcsjanitorial.com or call (434) 429-3787.

For more stories in the Danville Register & Bee visit www.godanriver.com.