Community Profile

Bureaus & Biotech
Furniture built High Point into a regional powerhouse;
now the arrival of some tech titans leaves it sitting pretty

Left: A striking sculpture adds 
a pleasing touch to the landscaping at 
Piedmont Centre, High Point's showcase business park.

By Jerry Blackwelder

As Adnan Mjalli surveys the manicured landscaping around his pharmaceutical research company in High Point’s Piedmont Centre, he describes the area as “the undiscovered land that scientists dream of.”

In fact, more and more scientific researchers as well as national corporate executives and entrepreneurs are discovering the attractiveness of this city of 90,000 in the North Carolina heartland.

Throughout its long history, High Point has been a magnet for commerce. The town sprang up at the intersection of two main transportation arteries of the 1800s — the Old Plank Road tracing an Indian trail from the mountains to the coast and the North Carolina Railroad. The railroad accounted for the city’s name, situated as it was on the highest point of the rail route.

The area’s dense hardwood forests provided the raw material for an industry that would dominate the region’s economy for a century and earn the city the undisputed title of Home Furnishings Capital of the World. Even today, with American furniture manufacturing decreasing and offshore production on the rise, more than half the country’s home furnishings still are made within a 200-mile radius of High Point.

The 20th century gave rise to a number of other successful manufacturing interests, from apparel and hosiery to school buses. From this firm foundation in High Point they grew into industry giants with products sold around the globe.

High Point is a city where tradition is honored and respected. At the same time, entrepreneurship and ingenuity are rewarded and encouraged. Earlier this year, the High Point Economic Development Corp. adopted a new slogan to reflect those realities: “High Point USA — Where Technology and Tradition Thrive.”

For evidence, look no further than some of the city’s landmark buildings that have taken on new lives as times change. A massive factory originally built to manufacture furniture was transformed into Market Square, a major furniture showroom destination during the semi-annual International Home Furnishings Markets. A movie theater, public library, clothing store and Adams-Millis Hosiery plant also have reemerged as homes for furniture exhibitors. Investors are now spending more than $20 million to convert a shopping mall into a multi-purpose residential, retail and religious center.


Rising to the Challenge
Right: High Point Regional Medical Center 
recently added a $28 million heart center.
Clearly High Point has not been focused on the cyclical fortunes of its pioneer industries, but rather has risen to the challenge of changing times. Today, manufacturers represent eight of the 20 largest High Point employers. The city’s biggest businesses are diverse, topped by High Point Regional Health System, a Bank of America call center and Thomas Built Buses. These major employers are flourishing.

Work that’s under way at High Point Regional attracted the attention of President Bush, who visited and met with the medical staff this summer. In 2001 alone the hospital added 300 employees and completed a comprehensive $28 million regional heart center.

Founded in 1904, the 369-bed community hospital and regional medical center provides comprehensive cardiology services, neuroscience, chemical dependency treatment, psychiatric care, women’s health services, pain management and restorative care. Situated on 30 acres near downtown, the facility employs 1,950 full-time healthcare workers, with an active medical staff of 250 physicians and dentists representing 30 medical specialties. 

In June, Thomas Built Buses, a division of Freightliner (a DaimlerChrysler company), rejected strong overtures from neighboring South Carolina and other southeastern states and announced it will locate a new $40 million bus manufacturing plant in its hometown. Now in its 86th year of operation, Thomas is a national leader in the production of school bus equipment, accounting for more than a third of all the school buses in use across America.

Explosive commercial growth is evident throughout the state’s ninth largest city, unlike other cities whose progress has been stymied by the uncertain economy. Commercial capital investment amounted to more than $160 million last year, and residential capital investment came to more than $169 million, a record combined total. New developments ranged from furniture exhibition buildings downtown to senior residential complexes and office facilities in business parks north of town. Five of the major projects were distribution centers, including a new 345,000-square-foot facility to store and ship Universal Furniture products.

Construction of new, distinctive furniture showroom buildings has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2001, capital investment in new exhibition buildings equaled that of building 1,000 new homes, and increased the city’s property tax base by nearly 10 percent.

Local businessman Coy Williard launched a painting company to serve the furniture industry in 1974. With four million square feet of showroom space in use at that time, there was plenty of work to be done. Two years later, he partnered with Jim Stewart and they began constructing showroom interiors in High Point, Dallas and Atlanta.

Today, Williard-Stewart operates its own mill shop and employs carpenters and painters to produce specialty items for furniture companies. The business has enjoyed long-standing relationships with many of their furniture clients. One upholstery manufacturer, Leather Trend, has increased showroom floor space from 2,500 square feet when Williard-Stewart first began working with it in 1990 to 48,000 square feet at the latest International Home Furnishings Market in October. During the same time the company saw sales grow from $2 million to $150 million annually.

Williard-Stewart’s other clients include nationally known brands like Thomasville, Hickory Chair and Highland House. Working with Thomasville, the company even produced furniture galleries to be set up inside retail locations. Furniture showroom construction, Williard says, “is a core High Point business.”


Focused on Entrepreneurship
Encouraging investment in business is a High Point legacy, with one of the city’s major boosters being its hometown bank, the 97-year-old High Point Bank and Trust Co. “Many High Point business executives will tell you they are here today because of High Point Bank,” says David Horney, president of Mirro Products and chair of the bank’s board of directors.

That sentiment is echoed by Charles Myers, who understandably might be biased because he’s CEO of one of the state’s oldest and largest community banks. “Through the years, High Point Bank has focused on the individual,” he says. “Our bank has gladly assisted many start-up companies with seed money.”

That spirit of reinvesting in the community extends beyond High Point’s venerable financial institution to permeate the entire business community. A group of business CEOs — known collectively as the High Point Partners — meets regularly to address issues of concern in the city. “We take pride in the fact that High Point Partners is a good example of how private business and the city can work together,” says James Morgan, its chair and a prominent attorney, civic leader and former state legislator. “High Point Partners helps fund the city’s economic development efforts as well as educational initiatives such as Communities in Schools and Guilford Technical Community College’s literacy program.”

Partnerships are clearly key to the success High Point has enjoyed. Businesses do not hesitate to work with each other — and with local government — to improve the quality of life in the city.

Mayor Arnold Koonce, a retired business executive and longtime chairman of the Piedmont Triad Water Authority, which is building the Randleman dam and reservoir, recognizes the importance of the city doing its part to help High Point flourish. Two previous mayors, Judy Mendenhall and Becky Smothers, were instrumental in the establishment of Piedmont Centre, the city’s premier business park.

And in the last two years, Koonce says the city has budgeted $1.2 million for needed repairs to city streets. “The city is also spending more than $100 million to expand wastewater treatment facilities and replace obsolete sewer lines,” he says.

High Point is fortunate to have enjoyed business-friendly leaders in government positions who anticipate future needs and lay a solid framework before crises hit, according to Loren Hill, who heads the High Point EDC. “While much of the rest of the Triad was running low on water during the drought this summer, High Point had enough in reserve to sell to Archdale, Jamestown and Greensboro and never faced a single day of water restrictions,” he says.

The city of High Point, situated in almost the geographic center of the state, is at the nexus of two major interstate highways with two more scheduled to be completed in coming years. Interstates 40 and 85 border High Point to the north and south, and new Interstate 74 will connect the city with Winston-Salem, Cincinnati and Indianapolis to the north and with Asheboro, Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Charleston, S.C., to the south. The planned Interstate 73 also will serve High Point, making Guilford County the only county in North Carolina with four interstate highways.

In addition to a comprehensive highway system, High Point is served by Piedmont Triad International Airport, located within a half-hour of downtown. Five major airlines offer flights daily from the facility, which boasts one of the longest runways in the Southeast.

The availability of quick access to major U.S. markets is a draw for companies looking to do business in High Point, which is the midway point between Washington and Atlanta. In selecting a site for his pharmaceutical operation, Mjalli says he was impressed with the fact that he could take an early morning flight to New York, conduct his business, and return home the same day. “We have a fantastic airport here,” says Mjalli, “and it makes national and international travel easy.”


An Appreciation for Culture
Support for educational initiatives has been a hallmark of this city, and another area where business leaders have joined forces to provide the best available services. A local Communities in Schools effort is headed by David Miller, a past chairman of the chamber. Myers, of High Point Bank, is one of several company executives who encourage their employees to get involved and volunteer their time through the program.

As for higher education, business leaders have joined forces with High Point University and GTCC to produce some “innovative  educational initiatives,” says Tom Dayvault, the chamber president.

High Point University, a private church-related institution, recently opened a new $5.71 million, 500-seat auditorium and theater. And a groundbreaking took place in October for a new building to house a degree program specifically geared to the furniture industry.

“GTCC was instrumental in the success of Piedmont Centre,” says Smothers, the current Piedmont Triad Partnership chair, “by working with new companies to train the area workforce to meet specific needs.”

The community college’s High Point campus also was chosen to be home to the new Larry Gatlin School of Entertainment Technology, a program designed to educate students in sound recording, lighting, entertainment performance and management. Construction of the $9.25 million, 60,000-square-foot building and amphitheater is under way.

The Gatlin School will enhance the area’s already strong cultural offerings. Each year High Point residents are beneficiaries of the work of an arts council, community concert association, fine arts guild and community theater. The downtown 950-seat High Point Theatre is home to the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, ranked among the best regional professional theater companies in the nation. The Shakespeare Festival stages three classical theatre productions each season in repertory, plus innovative presentations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” for holiday entertainment.

In addition to the cultural offerings, leisure activities are plentiful in the area. Oak Hollow, a city facility, boasts one of the state’s premier 18-hole public championship golf courses, along with a marina for use by fishermen, sailors, water skiers and powerboats using Oak Hollow Lake. The 1,550-acre park also includes four indoor and 10 outdoor lighted public tennis courts, along with 10 miles of bridle paths for horseback riding.

High Point City Lake Park is a 970-acre site that is home to one of the largest swimming pools on the East Coast as well as an amphitheater, water slide and playground equipment.

“High Point is unique in so many ways,” says the chamber’s Dayvault, noting that High Point is home to two nationally known motivational speakers, Nido Qubein and Tom Haggai. Then there’s Jim Millis, who has been a High Point civic leader for many years, is a member of the Business Hall of Fame and has achieved national prominence in the textile industry.

And the city has contributed its leaders to national government service. Bob Brown, an international business executive who founded the public relations firm of B&C Associates, was the highest ranking African-American official appointed by President Richard Nixon. Former NCCBI Chairman Phil Phillips is now serving under President Bush as the U.S. Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean.


Savvy Growth, Smart Giving
Further evidence of High Point’s unique nature, Dayvault says, is its philanthropic spirit. As proof, no fewer than 68 of the city’s business leaders donate more than $10,000 to United Way, the highest per capita contribution ratio in the country.

Another unique feature that separates High Point from many other communities is that the city continues to reinvest in itself, training and educating young people to face the challenges of the future. This commitment led Entrepreneur Magazine to rank the Piedmont Triad as one of America’s top five places to start a new business.

Unquestionably, the future looks bright for High Point. “We look forward to bringing in more distribution operations, technology-based companies and medical/pharmaceutical industries,” says the EDC’s Hill, “while continuing to help existing companies grow.”

The effort received a boost in October when FedEx finalized its commitment to build a $500 million hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The one-million-square-foot sorting facility is expected to be operational in 2007 and will no doubt result in more tech-based businesses deciding to call High Point home.

“Our business community joined the business and government leaders in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and the entire Triad in successfully bringing this project here,” noted Doug Harrison, chairman of the board of the High Point Chamber of Commerce and a strong vocal leader of the effort. “FedEx will be a key catalyst for economic growth for the entire region and our state.”

They’ll be welcomed with open arms, of course, and if the past is any indication, they’ll prosper in harmony with long established companies and a community always willing to help them grow.





A City Full of Family-Owned Businesses

In the darkest days of the Great Depression, two visionary High Point business leaders, Bill Horney and C.R. Wisenberg, partnered in a company to produce advertising point-of-purchase displays.

That company, Mirro Products, has evolved with the changing times and technology and stands today as a national industry leader in the field. It is also among more than 150 family-owned businesses that have flourished in High Point for more than a half century — an astounding statistic. The Chamber of Commerce roster even lists 17 companies that have operated continuously for more than 100 years.

David Horney, son of one of the founding partners, now serves as president of Mirro Products while his brother, Jeff, oversees design and sales. The 70-year-old company designs, builds, warehouses and ships  its innovative three-dimensional advertising displays all under one roof at its 41,000-square-foot plant in west High Point.

From there, Mirro Products displays go to convenience stores, retailers, athletic arenas and other venues across America. They range from Icee stand-up lighted polar bears to Super Pretzel self-service containers, as the company services such diverse household brand companies as Wilson, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Ocean Spray, Pennzoil, Jiffy Lube, Golden Corral  and General Electric.

The company has enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships with many of its customers for as long as four decades, despite multiple changes in corporate ownership on the customer side.

“Good customer service is the key to our success,” says David Horney, who graduated from Western Carolina University and was working in Knoxville, Tenn., when lured back to the family business by his father. “Good design and competitive pricing take care of the rest.”

A key ingredient in good customer service, Horney feels, is “making it easy for customers to do business with us.” That task is aided by the self-contained nature of Mirro Products, assuring quality control throughout the production process.

To meet special customer needs, the company even employs a skilled craftsman to manufacture unique tools needed to give the customers what they want.

He recalls working with a General Mills executive in Minnesota to land the signage account for the company’s Columbo Yogurt division. After visiting General Mills on its turf, he invited their representative to come to High Pont, tour the Mirro Products facility and play a round of golf. 

“After we played golf I told him it was time he placed an order,” Horney recalls. “His answer was, ‘Why don’t I just give you a check.’” 

The check was for $487,000, enough to buy a three-year supply of Columbo Yogurt signage.

In the beginning, Mirro Products screen-printed advertising messages on glass mirrors for its clients. With the technological advances, the company shifted to plastics in the 1950s.

Now most of the signs, clocks, wall plaques, counter displays and menu boards are constructed of styrene, often in combination with wooden light boxes and metal stands.

Although area businesses account for only a small percentage of Mirro Products’ customer base, “both Jeff and I feel a strong sense of obligation to this community,” David Horney says. “We have a vested interest.

“High Point is not really transient, and there’s a different mindset at work here,” he adds. Not only do the company owners live and work here, but so do their employees and their families, motivating business leaders like the Horneys to work to make High Pont a better place.

As evidence, David now chairs the boards of High Point Regional Health System and High Point Bank and Trust Co., while brother Jeff recently completed a term as chairman of the chamber board.

Father and co-founder Bill Horney is chairman emeritus of the High Point Economic Development Corp. and continues to be active in a host of community efforts.

Even now, “Bill Horney remains one of High Point’s greatest ambassadors,” says chamber president Tom Dayvault. --Jerry Blackwelder





Like Hosting Two Super Bowls a Year

Right: Showplace, a spectacular 450,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility, is a center of activity during Market

Practically everybody in North Carolina knows High Point is home to the International Home Furnishings Market, which twice a year brings together buyers and sellers of furniture and accessories from around the world.

But even those folks to have been to “Market,” as it is known locally, hardly would realize the impact such a trade show can have on the economy of the region and entire state. “It’s the equivalent of hosting two Super Bowls a year,” says Tom Dayvault, president of the High Point Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, the Market annually pumps upward of $340 million into the area’s economy, more than the Super Bowl, World Series and NCAA Final Four basketball tournament combined. 

It’s the world’s largest home furnishings gathering, bringing to High Point each spring and fall some 80,000 manufacturers, retailers and designers from every state in the nation and 109 countries around the world. 

They transact business for eight days inside 180 exhibition buildings approaching 12 million square feet of showroom floor space displaying residential furniture of every kind, in addition to lighting, gift and decorative accessories and rugs.

The International Home Furnishings Market was an outgrowth of the Southern Furniture Market, which premiered in 1909. It grew to be the largest trade show in the industry, eclipsing regional markets in Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco and Europe. 

Market means the population of High Point virtually doubles every six months, with guests needing accommodations, food, transportation and other amenities to make them feel welcome. They arrive not only at Piedmont Triad International Airport, but from airports in Raleigh and Charlotte as well.

They rent private homes or hotel rooms throughout the Triad and beyond, spreading the economic benefits of Market throughout much of central North Carolina.

To coordinate the undertaking, industry and civic leaders came together last year to create the International Home Furnishings Market Authority, an organization similar to sports authorities in other cities. 

Past mayor and chamber president Judy Mendenhall was hired to oversee the authority in July 2001, four months before the fall show. A self-confessed “non-furniture person,” Mendenhall expected the October market to be a learning exercise to discover needs and develop programs to address them. 

Instead, just weeks before Market came the terrorist attacks on America. Mendenhall was meeting with Palliser Furniture officials in their showroom when she heard the news, and immediately realized the impact it would have on High Point.

Her first order of business was to be develop a security plan in conjunction with local and state law enforcement officials. With anxiety levels high across the country in the wake of the terrorist attacks, attendance at the following month’s market understandably fell significantly. “It was a shaky market, but we got through it,” she recalls.

Now, with two more markets under her belt, Mendenhall has created a comprehensive transportation network to ferry the visitors around downtown High Point and to and from their hotels. She personally visited 110 hotels serving market guests, and created a web site (www.highpointmarket.com) to allow market-goers to book hotel rooms and local transportation online.

She also worked with hotels to design a “Later for Less” program to encourage buyers to avoid the crowds at the beginning of market and schedule their trips later in the week.

With so many visitors from around the world, High Point “is truly North Carolina’s international city,” says Dayvault. And to make the market experience easier for international industry representatives, the Market Authority stationed interpreters at Piedmont Triad International Airport fluent in Asian and European languages.

“We want to create a market that is as user friendly as possible,” Mendenhall says. Between now and next April she will be working to locate additional parking lots and produce a restaurant guide for Market attendees. 

The creation of the authority predated the announcement that Las Vegas was considering entering the picture as a furniture industry trade show destination, and Mendenhall vows High Point does not take the competition lightly. However, she pointed out that Las Vegas has positioned its interest as a regional market.

“If you consider the capital investment here, plus the major buyers and exhibitors showing here, it would be hard to uproot,” she says.

Her success as the authority’s leader, she feels, will be measured with buyers and sellers “coming to High Point, having good information, transportation, lodging and meals and not even knowing the Market Authority exists.”  --Jerry Blackwelder




Former Farm Land Now Blossoms with Jobs
Former Mayor Judy Mendenhall remembers standing along Highway 68 in north High Point a decade ago, breaking ground for a new business park “in the middle of farm land and vacant fields.”

Now the 1,100-acre Piedmont Centre is home to 170 companies employing 9,000 workers, and has become one of the premier places to do business in the southeastern United States.

The Piedmont Centre was the dream of developer Lowell Easter, who saw promise on the vacant land and forged a successful combination of city services, public utilities and corporate dreamers to create a magnetic atmosphere to attract new businesses to High Point.

A more recent and equally successful phase of the park, Mendenhall at Piedmont Centre, was developed by Liberty Property Trust. Among the recruits to Mendenhall at Piedmont Centre was Adnan Mjalli, who had scouted various locations in search of a home for a new pharmaceutical research company.

“I was looking for a fast-growing area with the necessary ingredients to help companies like ours to create new medicines, and Piedmont Centre clearly fit the bill,” Mjalli explains. “Here we found good talent for our workforce, an infrastructure designed for easy expansion and tremendous support from city officials to help us grow,” he said.

City government did its part to encourage development at Piedmont Centre by extending water and sewer service to the area, by building new roads and helping to recruit new businesses for the park.

“It was obvious from the beginning that it was a real advantage for the city to become a partner in this effort, and that it would be a good investment,” says Becky Smothers, who served as mayor of High Point during much of the park’s growth.

The partnered investment has paid off not only for the city but also for companies like Mjalli’s Trans Tech Pharma, which has expanded three times since locating here in 1999. “It’s obvious that the Piedmont Centre has been the key to our transition to technology-based companies and a catalyst for progress,” says Loren Hill, president of the High Point Economic Development Corp.

In addition to Trans Tech’s work to help find cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease and diabetes, Piedmont Centre has attracted other technology-based companies like Banner Pharmacaps, makers of capsules and tablets for Excedrin, Aleve and Advil.

Banner Pharmacaps recently consolidated all its U.S. manufacturing operations in its Piedmont Centre location. Pharmagraphics, an international pharmaceutical and healthcare packing printer, is relocating its world headquarters to its facility on the edge of Piedmont Centre.

Nationally known companies like Polo Ralph Lauren have established operations here, and home décor and blinds manufacturer Levolor recently added 100 employees at its Piedmont Centre site, ranking it as the city’s eighth largest private employer.

Bank of America, second only to the High Point Regional Health System in number of employees, operates a major telephone service center in the park.

Being located within five minutes of Interstate 40 and 10 minutes from Piedmont Triad International Airport has been a key to the success of the office park, along with the sheer attractiveness of the surroundings.

Greenways, a lake, walking paths and meticulous attention to landscape details combine to create a first-class working  environment. --Jerry Blackwelder

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