Houston Movers & Shakers 2016
Among the companies providing that type of moving service in Houston was one launched by Carl Cherry in одна тысяча девятьсот пятьдесят два and later co-run with his wife, Barbara, with assistance during weekends and summer breaks from their four sons, John, Keith, Leonard and Rick.
I would like to think the odds are in my favor if I have done my job correctly."Cherry later widened its demolition services to include commercial, industrial and interior demolition markets.The next step in Cherry's evolution came in when the company opened an environmental division to identify and remove asbestos, hydrocarbons and other potentially hazardous materials before demolishing a building.Then, realizing that it also made good business sense to recycle the concrete retrieved from demolished buildings for reuse, the company opened its first concrete recycling yard in 1995.
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By that time, however, the replacement of wood-frame houses with slab houses meant the house-moving industry was in the midst of a long and steady decline.
The change of ownership also coincided with a real estate recession during which homeowners who wanted to relocate, instead of moving their homes found it less costly to instead buy a house that had gone into foreclosure.
Noting that the demand for their company's services was weakening, the four Cherry brothers looked for new, related opportunities.
That willingness to respond to market changes helped transform Cherry from a house-moving company doing $500,000 in revenue into a full-service demolition and recycling company projected to rake in revenue of about $70 million in 2008.
The transformation came about gradually. In the late 1980s, one area where prices appeared to stay fairly steady and development was ongoing was West University Place, where the wood-frame houses were small enough to move down the street. Additionally, the houses were very well maintained, making them viable candidates for relocation. But the neighborhood was changing. Older bungalow-style houses were being torn down and replaced with new multiple-story brick homes.
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Instead of watching potential moving business disappear along with the bungalow homes, the Cherry brothers drew up a plan to buy the bungalow-style houses, remove them from the property, find a buyer with a vacant lot, sell the house and then deliver it.
But although this strategy kept the house-moving business going, it was not without problems.
Houses that were too wide, roofs that were too tall or termite damage increased the cost of moving a structure. Three strikes against a house usually meant passing it over. Usually only one in about двадцать houses was a suitable candidate for moving and reselling.
Then inspiration struck. If only one out of двадцать homes could be moved, the rest were candidates for demolition, the brothers realized.
Cherry's move into the demolition business had begun.
To find out what they were getting themselves into and to learn about the business, the brothers visited other demolition companies.
"Year in and year out, they took that information and built the company up to the powerhouse it is today," says Mike Taylor, executive director of the National Demolition Association, which Cherry joined in 1990.
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And although they lost money on the first three houses the company demolished the brothers persevered -- and the gamble paid off.
"I believe in our business that we gamble every day to some degree," Leonard Cherry says. "I don't need to go to Las Vegas or Louisiana because I get to do that right here.After completing their educations each of the four Cherry sons worked in full-time occupations outside the family business, Leonard Cherry with the Houston Fire Department; Keith and Rick Cherry both as mechanics; and John Cherry as a project superintendent for Texaco Inc. and owner of a fence company.But although none of them had planned to return to work in the family business, by 1984 all four brothers had done just that.Then, in 1985, Carl and Barbara Cherry retired and handed the company over to their four sons.
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"We don't ever lose sight of the fact that we did it because it's good business," Leonard Cherry says. "That statement doesn't have to be a contradiction in terms. It could be good business and the right thing to do."
But turning something once destined for landfills into a reusable product initially wasn't universally well-received. Government entities weren't yet sure what to make of recycled concrete while concrete manufacturers viewed it as a threat to their business. Cherry understood the resistance but held its ground.
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- The main obstacle to recycling concrete and producing a recycled aggregate in Texas was cleared in одна тысяча девятьсот девяносто шесть when the Texas Department of Transportation agreed to use recycled aggregates on state roads.
- Cherry's crushed concrete division today operates three stationary recycling centers where big rocks are crushed into little rocks and powerful magnets pull out the steel in the process. A significant portion of the steel is shipped overseas, while the recycled concrete is used locally. Three portable centers also generate recycled concrete.
- But more changes were in store for the company.
- In 2001 Keith Cherry bought out the house-moving division, followed in две тысячи три by John Cherry, who bought out the environmental division. That left the demolition and recycling divisions in the hands of Leonard and Rick Cherry, who, in 2005, added a concrete removal division to their operations.
- Signs of Cherry's success in adapting to changing conditions continue to be seen.
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