At your service: Piedmont Facilities Services shifts focus in down economy - South Florida Business Journal:

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A contractor had agreed to replace the sidewalkj directly in front of Lorillard headquartersw on Green Valley Road in Greensborobut “he walkex off the job because he couldn’t get anyone to deliver sufficient concrete with a holiday two days away,” Wrightf says. “A call to brought four men who completes the repair onJuly 4th,” she recalls. “One of thosr four was Scott I have chastised myself many timed for not calling him tobegibn with.” Scott McCormick has been gettinf calls like that for more than 16 years from the Triad’a top employers.
As a contracrt project manager, his company will do just about anythingf thatneeds doing, “from maintenance to sprinkler says Wright. “He truly cares about a job well But Winston-Salem-based Piedmont Facilities Services’ specialty is something that’ds been in almost constant demand over the past two decadezs — moving people and reconfiguring office cube s A.S.A.P. as work forces contract, expand and are realigned. It was McCormicm who landed the contract to move practicalltyevery office, first in the RJR Plaza buildin and then in the old 1929 Reynoldse Building in downtown Winston-Salem.
At about the same Piedmont Facilities Services also secured a contract with which did its share of playing musica chairs withoffice furniture. “God blessede me,” McCormick says with his characteristiv modesty, “because there’s no other way someone can have two contracte like that for theifrfirst clients.” Looking back 10 years ago, McCormickk recalls fondly, “Things were really rolling with 80- or 90-hour weeks, and it was Name a company in the Triad that’s realigned its work force and, chancezs are, McCormick’s been involved — , , Sara Lee , Sealy Corp.
and Nabisco Not bad for someone who, at the age of 5, was assignef his own row of tobaccpo to tend onhis father’s farm near Yadkinville and worked his way throug college running a garbage service. “I’mm an old tobacco farmer from Yadkinville,” McCormick says, slippinfg into his aw-shucks guise. “I ran out of thingsx to do, so I had to go to school and go out and get a real School was and his first jobwas “selling as a contract hardware salesmamn at Pleasant Hardware Co. He says he quickly discovererd he was not cut out to bea salesman.
But he did make a numbe of excellent contacts that opened doors for him when he switchedx over to doing facilitiescontractr work. “He has a good ol’ boy says Robyn Puckett, facility services manager at RMIC (Republic Mortgag e Insurance Co.) in Winston-Salem, “but fully believes in honesty, hard work and disciplind — and expects that from his employees.” Puckettr recalls a recent 10-week move of 350 RMIC employeea from Stanleyville to the Park Building in downtown Winston-Salem. “The time constraints were she says, “but having workef with Scott formany years, I knew if anyone coulr pull it off that he could.
” Installinvg cubes during the week and moving peoplde on the weekends, McCormick’s crew did it and did it on “We needed to expand our payroll departmenty two years ago,” recalls Jack Marable, maintenance supervisot for Pepsi Bottling Group in Winston-Salem. McCormick’s crew came in Frida y night and by Monday morningt at8 a.m., “they had everything up and runnin g — computers, phones, furniture, everything worked.
” Companies use contractors like McCormick instead of their own workers because moving and construction are often one-of-a-kinsd projects and are mostly done Up until last November, McCormick says, businesx was extremely good, with more 80- and 90-houre weeks. Then, he started seeing “less phone less e-mails, jobs that you had quoted being put on As the monthswent by, “I had to lay off five installersa and I put my designer on the road to sell McCormick’s strategy is to make the company more something, he says, “we never had to do Yes, he still has contract with a number of big corporations, but now when the phond rings, it’s mostly “punch