Friday, May 29, 2009
Botetourt offers growth area for business
Those of us who love Botetourt for its history and friendliness forget that our county is also a prime business location.
Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.
Priscilla Richardson
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Those of us who love Botetourt for its history and friendliness forget that our county is also a prime business location. Cliff Spangler, 38, co-owner of Cleaning Equipment and Services on Lee Highway in Cloverdale, likes this location because of the business climate here. "Our location is good for us. We have a bunch of customers in Botetourt. By being in Botetourt a lot of our customers seem like neighbors." Especially one nearby customer just across the highway.
In addition, their proximity to I-81 makes business sense for them. "I travel it pretty heavy." And despite the former plans of VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) to include their property in a bypass around the Exit 150 congestion, he feels safe now. He believes VDOT has given up those plans.
Cliff Spangler's father's Air Force career took the family to Myrtle Beach and then Alaska until he put in for recruiting duty. That landed him in this area and he and the family stayed here. When his father retired from the Air Force, he took a job with this company, then owned by the Boxley family, as a salesman.
"He was with them for about three years and they decided they wanted to get out of this industry. He bought them out. At that time, we were downtown on Campbell Avenue." They moved the business to Botetourt in 1992. Eventually his father retired from the business and Spangler finished four years with the Air Force. Then Spangler and his mother, Victoria Spangler, became co-owners.
Spangler and I met at a state sponsored program teaching ways for small businesses to sell to the state. He said he learned a lot and will be using the information to help grow sales. "We have another store with a service person in Bluefield, Va. We had four locations, including two in North Carolina, but we sold them. Just too hard to manage." His sister and her husband bought one of the N.C. locations.
When you sell to industrial customers who know exactly what they want, why should they pick a Cloverdale business? "Our heartbeat is our service," Spangler said. "I do the service plus I have a man who works with me, Josh Mowels." Spangler learned about servicing the equipment from his father, who still drops in a few days a week. "Just to see what we're up to."
Right now, their territory goes from Bristol to Washington, D.C., and as far east as Richmond. But you're wondering, what do they sell and why haven't we known about them before? The name Cleaning Equipment and Services sounds more like a house cleaning service than what it really is, a firm that sells hot and cold water pressure washers, automotive parts washers, waste water treatments, and waste oil heaters. Nothing that an average household would ever use.
Waste water treatment equipment looks to be a growth area. "If you're pressure washing heavy equipment and have grease coming off it, this cleans the water and you reuse it again so it does not go into the ground," he explained. "Most times we only sell the equipment when EPS (Environmental Protection Service) is involved. But there will come the time when you'll have to use it. We do sell quite a bit to the state. A lot of the newer facilities they're building are putting in reclamation systems." He reckons the state is following environmental rules so they can crack down on others. And that will help their business.
A business born in Roanoke but flourishing in Botetourt. They work hard at their business but they also enjoy our business climate.
