Homegrown and Here to Stay
Local companies with a big presence in the Delta

Evelyn Netterville of NTC Transportation Inc.

By Becky Gillette
Photography By Matthew Wood

Just like homegrown tomatoes, home-grown companies in the Delta "taste better." They are particularly welcoming and special. Many of these companies started to fill local needs and have grown into making sales across the country. One company, Viking Range Corp. in Greenwood, has become a household name.

Angela Curry, executive director of the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation, says there are certainly advantages to homegrown industries.

"After all, Greenwood/Leflore County is not only Viking's home but it is Fred Carl's home first and foremost," Curry says, referring to the founder and chief creator of Viking Range. "Fred has a genuine interest in the wellbeing of our community."

Fred Carl, Jr., a fourth generation building contractor, started the company in 1984 in order to provide the first commercial-type range specifically designed and certified for home use. Today the company is well known across the country. Another unique benefit from the company is the 70,000 visitors per year attracted to the Viking Cooking School. That has a major impact on the local economy.

"Not only does this company produce world class products, it also contributes to the marketability and attractiveness of our community with its world renowned hotel, The Alluvian and other hospitality services," Curry says. "Greenwood/Leflore County is very fortunate to have Viking Range as Viking is a wonderful corporate citizen and major employer."

Similar sentiments are echoed about Cleveland's Jimmy Sanders Inc., one of the largest agricultural input supply and distribution businesses in the Mid-South. The company launched in 1953 and has grown to currently serve growers through 68 locations in eight states. Sanders' operations include seed production and sales, agricultural chemical distribution, bulk handling of fertilizer and its OptiGro® program, which is variable rate technology and other precision agriculture services.

(From left) Kimbol Jones, Taylor Cauthen, Lonnie Williams and Tim Tenhet of KBH Corporation in Clarksdale.

"Sanders Seeds has been around for as long as I can remember," says Judson Thigpen, executive director of the Cleveland-Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce. "They are from here, and obviously their loyalty is to Cleveland. They could have moved off to others places, but they have chosen to stay here. They have spread out in the past few years and acquired a lot of other businesses that have helped grow their businesses. They have tremendously increased their sales."

While not all of the employees are based in Cleveland, Thigpen says every time the company grows, it adds more jobs in their home office.

"Their workers at the Cleveland headquarters mostly live in Cleveland," Thigpen says. "They shop here, eat here, and are a great asset to the community. I knew Jimmy Sanders, and now know his son and grandson, Mike and Michael Sanders. They are all involved, good community people."

Ag-related companies are common in the Delta because agriculture is what drives the economy, and those closest to the farm best understand the needs of farmers. KBH in Clarksdale is one example of such a company. The family owned and operated agriculture equipment company, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, manufactures, markets and sells a diverse agricultural equipment product line for seed, liquid and dry fertilizer, grain and cotton harvest.

"Dealing with farmers and dealers across the cotton belt from Virginia to California, being based in the Mississippi Delta gives KBH immediate credibility," says Tim Tenhet, national sales and marketing manager for KBH. "You would be surprised at how much respect and regard is given to our region's farmers by their peers across the nation, and we get to benefit from this fine reputation."

Cotton acreages were declining in recent years in the South because of low prices, but recent improvements in cotton prices have led to gains in planting cotton. While the growth of cotton acreage has helped KBH, it isn't as important as you might think because the company decided to diversify out of the cotton equipment market as more grains started being planted several years ago.

"Throughout our history we have adapted as ag changes," says KBH CEO Buddy Bass. "The ag equipment market has evolved fairly quickly, and the reaction time has to be pretty quick. We're fortunate that we are centrally located in the U.S. and can ship with a good deal of economy to most of the domestic markets."

Ron Hudson, executive director of the Clarksdale-Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce, says KBH is one of the linchpins of their economy.

"It is great to see them doing well," Hudson says. "I like to see home-grown industries because they are generally stable and have ties in the community. They do a lot of things for this community. Manufacturing jobs pay better, and we need to have them."
Another family-owned business success story is NTC Transportation Inc. in Greenville. After returning home to Mississippi, Evelyn and Jackie Netterville Sr., started the business with one passenger cab in 1997 before the official opening of NTC in 1998.

"We found that rural and urban transportation accommodations were practically non-existent throughout most of the Delta," Jackie Netterville says. "We began to fill this transportation void by offering taxi cab services in and around Greenville. As time passed and the demand for our services increased, we expanded."

In 1999 NTC received its first state contract with the Division of Medicaid Services to provide transportation for patients in a 16-county area. In 2000, the company started to diversify service by adding package delivery, airport shuttle services and group transports.

Today the company has 70 employees statewide in Greenville, McComb and Natchez. Most of their drivers have been driving for NTC Inc. for at least five years and have gone through extensive defensive driver training classes, as well as supervised behind the wheel driver training.

"Our drivers are well trained in defensive driving, CPR/first aid and passenger sensitivity," he said.

Other family members involved now include their son, Jackie Jr., Evelyn's sisters, Joyce and Cynthia, nieces Corliss and Marquita, and a great nephew, Travon. NTC Transportation also has a mobility division, NTC\Delta (see www.ntcdelta.com), which manufactures wheelchair vans and shuttle vans with wheelchair lifts. The company has been approved by major mobility limited suppliers as an authorized installer, sales and service company. It is the only company in the Mississippi Delta authorized to make repairs for Braun Corporation, Ricon, Sur Lock, QStraint and other similar companies.

Homegrown companies have a big presence in the Delta. Because of hard-working employees, loyal customers, and local support, they are hopefully here to stay.

Downtown Delta
Deltans in Memphis make their mark on the business world

Louis Baioni

By Becky Gillette
Photography by Jay Adkins

The Memphis business world has a number of high profile business people with roots deep in the Mississippi Delta. In many cases it hasn't been so much that "you can't keep them down on the farm," but that business opportunities beckoned from the large metropolitan area of Memphis. Memphis also has the advantage of being close to family and friends from the Delta.

"I did not want to stray too far from my family, so I sought employment in Memphis when I got out of architecture school at the University of Virginia and was fortunate enough to get a job offer," says architect Kirk Bobo, who grew up in the small farming community of Bobo, just south of Clarksdale. His Hnedak Bobo Group Inc. is now one of the largest architecture firms in Memphis. Bobo's parents and two of his three brothers still live in Clarksdale. Being based in Memphis allows him to stay close to his family. Memphis was like their "downtown" when Bobo was growing up. It is the same for many people who live in north Mississippi. "It was a very familiar place for me," Bobo says.

One of the firm's highest profile projects is the FedEx World Headquarters at Southwind. The Westin Memphis Beale Street is probably their most recognizable project in Memphis. Outside of Memphis, the most noted is the Gaylord Palms resort in Orlando and the Gaylord Texan resort in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Kirk Bobo stands in front of the Westin Memphis Beale Street.

Bobo attributes his success to "some very good clients and our consistent ability as a firm to attract outstanding talent to the firm in the form of employees, and creating an environment that allows them to thrive."

Shaw native Louis Baioni found himself in Memphis after graduating from Delta State University (DSU) in 1956. Unable to find employment in the Delta, he was offered a junior accountant position with a large Memphis CPA firm.

"After ten years with the Memphis firm I accepted an executive position with The Memphis Aero Corporation, an aviation company that was in an expansion mode," Baioni says. "I served as its executive vice president (EVP) and chief financial officer (CFO) for three years during which time Memphis Aero was purchased by Dunavant Enterprises Inc. Dunavant was also in an expansion mode, and I was given an opportunity to acquire an equity position and become its EVP and a director of the company."

During his 33 years there, the company became the world's largest cotton merchant and formed or purchased some twenty subsidiaries in businesses such as coalmines, warehouses, aircraft sales, cotton gins, and real estate. When he retired from Dunavant, the companies' combined annual sales totaled $1.5 billion.

While at Dunavant, Baioni was involved with the development of about 6,000 acres of land south of Jacksonville, FL, that became known as St. Johns Harbour. Its centerpiece was The World Golf Hall of Fame. After retiring from Dunavant in 2001, he was asked by the major cotton merchants and a cotton cooperative to play a leading role in the formation of an Internet cotton trading company named The SEAM. He eventually retired as CEO of that company, and today has his own investment company for startup and early-formed companies.

"I still enjoy the excitement in the formation or involvement in a new entity," says Baioni, who served as president of the DSU Foundation during its first and successful fund raising campaign. "When I am not traveling I can be found in my office no later than 7 a.m."

Another prominent Memphis business person from the Delta is Jacqueline Capwell, a director and secretary of National Community Services Inc. (NCS), a magazine agency company that specializes in fulfillment of magazine subscriptions for school fundraising companies and independent agents. NCS has authorization from over 900 publishers to sell their magazines.
Capwell grew up in Louise, got a degree from DSU in elementary education, and taught school for 13 years in Clarksdale, Greenwood and Lake Charles, LA. Capwell and her husband bought NCS in 1986 and moved it from Massachusetts to Memphis.

"We knew the Memphis area and had friends and relatives close," she says. "I helped my husband get this new business started here in Memphis. It has been very successful and rewarding for us. My favorite thing about my job has been watching the company grow."

Her roles at NCS have included communicating with the magazine publishers, customer service, and promoting the company. Capwell likes being close enough to where she grew up to visit often.

"I get back to the Delta every time I have the opportunity," she says. "We have a big interest in Delta State." George Falls is another Deltan-to-Memphis success story. After graduating from Clarksdale High School and then getting a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi, Falls got his "dream job" with Holiday Inns Inc., which was at the time headquartered in Memphis.

"Most of us from the Delta, unless our families are farmers or own a big business, had to migrate to big cities like Memphis to make our living," Falls says. "That is what I did. I was very fortunate to be able to go to work for Holiday Inns and had a marvelous career there. I traveled all over the U.S. and the world selecting sites for Holiday Inns. It was a dream come true."

He left Holiday Inns in 1984 to become an entrepreneur. He and a partner now operate the River Inn of Harbor Town, and two restaurants there, Paulette's and Tugs. He previously owned the Three Oaks Grill in Germantown, TN, and the Napa Café in Memphis, and he and his partners recently sold the Downtown Grill in Oxford. Falls keeps in touch with friends from the Delta through the annual Delta Conference at the University of Memphis. The conference that has speakers on different aspects of the Delta attracts 300 to 400 participants.

Although these ambitious Deltans have made a name for themselves in Memphis, they still stay true to their Delta roots. No matter how far they may go, the Delta will always be their home.

Regional NewsBriefs CLARKSDALE: The creative team behind the award-winning 2008 blues movie "M For Mississippi" have reunited for a new film celebrating the Delta's down-home blues tradition. The new film, "We Juke Up In Here: Mississippi's Juke Joint Culture at the Crossroads," is slated for an April 2012 release but is now available for pre-order at the film's official web site: www.wejukeupinhere.com. "We Juke Up In Here" will be released as a deluxe box set featuring a DVD, a CD soundtrack and a glossy pullout booklet with multiple essays, notes and color photos. The DVD will include the feature-length documentary along with a treasure trove of bonus features including unreleased scenes, production stills, a promotional trailer, closed captioning, French and Italian subtitles and more. The DVD will be region-free and playable on DVD players worldwide. The box set will retail for $25 (US).