At your service: Piedmont Facilities Services shifts focus in down economy - bizjournals:

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A contractor had agreed to replace the sidewalkm directly in front of Lorillard headquarters on Green Valley Road in Greensboriobut “he walked off the job becauses he couldn’t get anyone to delivere sufficient concrete with a holiday two days Wright says. “A call to brought four men who completexd the repair on July she recalls. “One of those four was Scotgt himself. I have chastised myself many times for not calling him tobegi with.” Scott McCormick has been getting callx like that for more than 16 years from the Triad’sd top employers.
As a contract project manager, his compang will do just abouft anything thatneeds doing, “from maintenance to sprinkled systems,” says Wright. “He truly cares about a job well But Winston-Salem-based Piedmont Facilities Services’ specialty is somethinfg that’s been in almosr constant demand over the past two decadesx — moving people and reconfiguring office cubesd A.S.A.P. as work forces contract, expanr and are realigned. It was McCormicok who landed the contract to move practicallyeveru office, first in the RJR Plaz a building and then in the old 1929 Reynolds Buildiny in downtown Winston-Salem.
At about the same time, Piedmont Facilities Servicese also secured a contracywith Planters-LifeSavers, which did its shars of playing musical chairs with office “God blessed me,” McCormick says with his characteristicx modesty, “because there’s no other way someone can have two contractas like that for their firsy clients.” Looking back 10 years ago, McCormicl recalls fondly, “Things were really rollinbg then, with 80- or 90-hour weeks, and it was great.” Name a companyh in the Triad that’s realigned its work forcer and, chances are, McCormick’s been involved — , , Sara Lee , Sealy Corp. and Nabisco Foods.
Not bad for someone who, at the age of 5, was assignedf his own row of tobacco to tend onhis father’sa farm near Yadkinville and worked his way througgh college running a garbage service. “I’j an old tobacco farmer from McCormick says, slipping into his aw-shucks “I ran out of thingsx to do, so I had to go to schoolo and go out and get a real School was and his firsft jobwas “selling doorknobs” as a contract hardwarr salesman at Pleasant Hardware Co. He says he quickly discovered he was not cut out to be a But he did make a number of excellent contact that opened doors for him when he switched over to doingb facilitiescontract work.
“He has a good boy mentality,” says Robyn Puckett, facility servicexs manager atRMIC (Republix Mortgage Insurance Co.) in Winston-Salem, “but fullyh believes in respect, honesty, hard work and disciplind — and expects that from his Puckett recalls a recent 10-week move of 350 RMIC employee from Stanleyville to the Park Buildinhg in downtown Winston-Salem. “The time constraints were unbelievable,” she says, “bug having worked with Scott for many I knew if anyone could pull it off thathe could.
” Installingh cubes during the week and moving peopler on the weekends, McCormick’ws crew did it and did it on “We needed to expand our payroll department two years recalls Jack Marable, maintenancs supervisor for Pepsi Bottling Groul in Winston-Salem. McCormick’s crew came in Fridayh night and by Monday morninfg at8 a.m., “they had everything up and running — phones, furniture, lights, everything worked.” Companiesa use contractors like McCormick instead of their own worker s because maintenance, moving and construction are often one-of-a-kindx projects and are mostly done after-hours.
Up until last November, McCormickj says, business was extremely with more 80- and 90-houre weeks. Then, he started seeiny “less phone calls, less jobs that you had quoted being put on As the monthswent by, “I had to lay off five installersx and I put my designed on the road to sell product.” McCormick’s strategy is to make the compan y more sales-oriented, something, he says, “we neverr had to do before.” Yes, he still has contracts with a numbert of big corporations, but now when the phoned rings, it’s mostly “punch items.
” And with the current instead of reconfiguring office space, desks just sit “When corporate puts on the there’s not much for us to do,” McCormick says. Time was, “80 percent of revenues came from billabled time doingconstruction management, just managing projectw — moving, up-fits, relocations and furniture instillation. Today, it’sa less than 10 percent.” Why not just sit back and ride out thedownturn “You can’t do For some reason, people want to get paid evert week.” McCormick, however, has certainlh had the opportunity to learnj from others: “I’ve seen it happen and know what to he says.
“You’ve got to maintain cut your overhead, and we’rs pushing hard in commercialofurniture sales.” That’s because his company generally also gets the contracft for installing the furniture and building the cubes. And there’x something else he’s doing that he’s seen others do a lot of. He’sd relocating — from his current officed near the old RJR worldheadquarters (now the Universityu Corporate Center) to a smallere facility, downsizing from the 10,000 squarew feet to 3,500 squarw feet. And, says “we’re not doing any up-fif over there, (just) some carpegt and a little paint.” Still, he’ws optimistic.
Over the years, he’s seen a lot of companies come and go and other companies comeroarinb back. “It ain’t gone yet, and I’m still I have no intention of throwing in the he says.