On a Roll

On a Roll

COMPANIES by Jean Gruss | Editor/Lee-Collier

Rick Collins had to cajole about 1,000 customers to rescue hurricane-shutter company Rolsafe. Now, he's marching up the West Coast to Sarasota and Tampa with ambitious growth plans.

Selling hurricane shutters in storm-battered Florida should be as easy as selling ice cream in the desert.

At least that's what Rick Collins thought when he arrived in Fort Myers in early 2005 to be president and chief executive officer of Rolsafe, a hurricane-shutter company that had been in business since 1981.

Collins and Ohio-based private-equity group Migg Capital had purchased Rolsafe for an undisclosed sum. "The company had tremendous potential, market-leading products and name recognition," Collins says.

But what Collins found instead was an operational disaster. The manufacturing facility was chaotic, permits had not been pulled for many jobs, recordkeeping was in shambles and many customers simply had been abandoned.

"I didn't come here to do a turnaround," Collins says. "As it turned out, it was."

Despite the obstacles, Collins managed to grow revenues 55% to $15.5 million in 2005 and another 46% to $22.7 million last year. The company has added 40 employees in two years.

One has to wonder: If Collins posted these results while he was turning the business around, what kinds of numbers is the company likely to produce in the years ahead?

Col. Collins to the rescue

Collins was turning around a trucking company for Migg when he got the call that Rolsafe was for sale. He visited the Fort Myers-based company once in November 2004.

Collins, a retired Army colonel, doesn't waste words: "They needed a CEO to grow the company."

So Collins agreed to run the company. Little did he know that he would be restructuring yet another company. He estimates he's led corporate turnarounds at more than 20 companies since he started working for private equity firms in 1994.

In addition to his experience as an Army engineer and corporate turnarounds, Collins spent 13 years as a project manager on the trans-Alaska pipeline. He has dual masters degrees in arctic and civil engineering.

Because there's litigation involved against the previous owners of Rolsafe, Collins is careful when he discusses past problems. However, the sheer scale sounds daunting: Jobs to manufacture and install hurricane shutters were incomplete or not done at all for about 1,000 customers.

The first thing Collins did was to personally visit or call every dissatisfied customer and explain to them the situation. He didn't try to sugarcoat the problems, but gave them assurances their installation would be done properly. "I told them it would take some time," he says.

It was essential to rebuild customer trust. "We say what we do and do what we say," says.

That extra time gave Collins the opportunity to fix the problems in the manufacturing facility and with the installation crews.

"In order to do that, you need good people," Collins says. "One of the most challenging aspects was finding good people."

In 2005, the residential construction boom was reaching its apex and qualified employees were especially hard to find. Collins used recruiting firms and word of mouth to find them. He recruited people wherever he could find them, even hiring the manager of an Applebee's restaurant in Fort Myers by correctly reasoning that her management skills would translate well to the shutter business.

He met with employees one-on-one and in groups. He organized what he calls "workout sessions," during which employees would sit down together, work through a problem and develop an action plan. The ground rules of the workout session were simple: participants had to be open to criticism and honest about the problems but could not insult each other.

The workout sessions helped employees reorganize the workflow in the manufacturing facility and fix the recordkeeping problems that had plagued the business.

"We also do that for strategic planning," Collins says. The company plans for the next three and five years with department heads and key employees. "The more involved employees are, the better the results," he says.

Collins also boosted morale by starting a 401(k) program and raising wages to a more competitive level. "There's a new day when there's new owners," he says.

Another priority when he took over the business was to ensure that Rolsafe had enough aluminum to manufacture its shutters. That was especially tough in 2005, when building materials became scarce and prices rose.

"There have been problems," Collins acknowledges. "In 2005 we expanded our supply base."

Because there's only enough room for about a one-month supply in its manufacturing facility, Collins says he had to make sure suppliers could deliver supplies in time. The company now has 10 suppliers.

"The key is to have multiple supply chains," Collins says. He visited every supplier to gain a better understanding of their challenges and built relationships so he could ensure aluminum supplies even in a tight market.

Sarasota and Tampa expansions

Collins' goal at Rolsafe is simple: "Our mission and vision is to be the best and the largest."

Three months after he took over - even as he was wrestling with dissatisfied customers and reorganizing the business - Rolsafe opened a new operations center in Port Charlotte. "That was part of the growth strategy," Collins says.

These operations centers consist of customer service representatives, production planners, installers and maintenance staff. They range in size from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet, enough room to house as many as 30 employees with a showroom for customers. The idea is to have manufacturing remain in Fort Myers and to ship the products to operations centers such as the one in Port Charlotte.

Rolsafe is marching up the West Coast. It will open an operations center on Washington Avenue in Sarasota May 1 and it's planning to open another one in Tampa in July at an undisclosed location. The company is financing the growth through a mix of private equity money and bank financing from National City and FNB Capital Corp.

"We plan to go further than Tampa," Collins says with a smile. He won't reveal more but projects the company's revenues will be three times what they are today within three years.

Tampa is an especially good market because there are more year-round residents who are likely to experience hurricanes. But these customers are demanding, he says. "They're smart about business," he says.

Rolsafe doesn't advertise its prices and custom-tailors its shutters to each customer. Its salespeople quote a single price that includes manufacturing and installation, starting at about $10,000. Collins declines to cite the average price of a job.

In addition to geographic diversification, Collins plans to find other opportunities outside the residential market and into commercial buildings. Rolsafe's residential business accounts for about 80% of revenues and the rest is commercial.

Despite the downturn in residential real estate, Collins says he's working with homebuilders to incorporate Rolsafe's shutters in new homes. "Most would agree there's going to be a rebound," he says.

What's more, the state is likely to create a system that rewards homeowners who protect their homes against hurricane-force winds by reducing their insurance premiums. Collins intends for Rolsafe to be well-positioned to benefit.

Collins says he and his private-equity partners are in it for the long term and they don't plan to sell once the turnaround is complete. "They're not in business to flip companies," he says.

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company. Rolsafe

Industry. Hurricane shutters

Key. Rebuilding customer trust is essential to rescue a faltering company.

The Colonel's Turnaround Recipe

Rick Collins, a retired Army colonel, is a private-equity executive who has restructured more than 20 struggling companies. His latest turnaround: Rolsafe, a Fort Myers-based hurricane shutter company. Here are some of the lessons learned from the experience:

• Build trust with your customers. When he first took over as president and CEO of Rolsafe, Collins visited with about 1,000 dissatisfied customers to stabilize the company. Be honest with your customers about the problems and establish a plan to resolve them.

• Find good employees and reward them accordingly. In tight labor markets like Southwest Florida, go outside your industry to look for people with good management skills. One manager recently joined Rolsafe after managing an Applebee's restaurant in Fort Myers.

• Create "workout groups" by bringing employees together to identify problems and find solutions. Let them be honest with criticism about their work, but don't allow personal remarks.

• Help employees envision where the company can be in three years and five years. It's not just about survival, but success. Keep the overall mission simple; Collins says his company plans to be the best and the largest.

• Understand your vendors and suppliers and the challenges they face. Expand your network of suppliers so you can keep production going even when one falls through.

-Jean Gruss