Posted on Mon, Dec. 13, 2004
Fort Valley husband,
wife turn niches into profits
Telegraph Staff Writer
FORT VALLEY - Paul and Delise Knight have made their living working in unusual businesses.
Delise owns Bardel Bows, a dog-bow maker, while Paul owns Southeastern Silver Co., a silver recovery firm. Together the two also have several seasonal businesses, and they give seasonal tours of Pineola, their historic farmhouse in Fort Valley.
The duo's business existed before their marriage in 1997, but Bardel Bows in particular has benefited from the marriage.
Before Paul added his technical touch to her business, Delise barely knew how to turn on a computer. But that's changed, and now everything is on the computer.
"We'd never have been able to do the volume that we're doing if he hadn't been able to do what he's done," Delise said.
Delise's energy also has been one of the keys to success. She and Paul travel to trade shows across the country, and she makes presentations.
"It's very hard to reach the grooming market," she said.
Marlene Romani of M.P.C. Romani Inc., a pet products maker, has known Delise 15 years and said Bardel likely is the largest bow manufacturer in the United States.
"They're dynamic, very outgoing and aggressive," Romani said. "Everything they do has to be the best."
Pet business
Delise got her start in the pet business by handling Borzois, a Russian hound breed, in the show ring.
Eventually she began a one-stop pet shop in Milledgeville that included a veterinarian, pet store and groomers. It was one of the first of its kind, and although it was on a smaller scale, the business model has proven successful with large companies including Petco and PetsMart, which turned into national chains.
In 1997, Delise sold the business, but only after she took Bardel from a side operation into a thriving business.
Delise began Bardel in 1989 with her mother, Barbara Chapman, she said. The two started with just $90.
Delise said her now-deceased mother came up with the name by combining the first three letters of their first names.
"She said she was older so her name should be first," Delise said with a laugh.
Delise got the idea for Bardel when she was a groomer and couldn't find the types or quality of bows she was looking for. The niche was there, Delise said, because nearly every female dog that goes into a groomer leaves with two bows in her hair.
So Delise began making her own bows for her shop. By 1989, she decided there was a business to be started.
Now, Delise has three part-time employees, not including Paul, and 12 contract workers.
Bardel doesn't sell its bows to consumers but instead markets to groomers, veterinarians and wholesale companies. But that hasn't hurt business, and the company continues to grow each year, Delise said.
Bardel is now the industry's largest in the country. It does business in 48 states and a number of foreign countries. However, keeping the work in America has been important to Paul and Delise, even though they have had lucrative offers to ship their work elsewhere.
"That has been a very important thing for us, for everything to be made here," Delise said.
The key to success for Delise?
"Hard work," she said. "I think being a groomer in the past, I know groomers' needs and I think that's the key."
Southeastern and the future
Paul, who briefly attended Macon Junior College, left to start working with his father in the family's silver recovery business, Southeastern Silver Co. He eventually bought it from his father.
The business gathers X-ray film and other negative film and chemically treats it to gather the silver in the film.
Paul gradually has been scaling back the business, as he spends more time with Pineola and Bardel. But digital technology, not a lack of interest, will eventually make his business obsolete, he said.
Paul works with Bardel, runs the other seasonal businesses and is helping Delise plot new courses for Bardel.
The Knights said they are optimistic about the future and are developing sideline businesses to work into their collective portfolio. Their move to Fort Valley was almost accidental, but they have fallen in love with the town.
In 1997, the Knights saw an advertisement for the home in a real estate magazine and decided to take a drive to the country and look at it.
It was a whim, they said, and they weren't in the market for a home, not to mention the fact that they weren't high on Fort Valley. However, they were so enamored with the house they put in an offer to buy it that week.
"We pulled up to this house and absolutely fell in love with it," Delise said.
Now, the two also have nothing but good things to say about Fort Valley. They attribute their false impression to bad press for the town and say it is a wonderful small town.
"It's a great community," Delise said.
The couple goes to church in town, and Paul has even used his technical know-how to start a cable broadcast of the church services. Delise is a member of several boards.
Their impact has gone mostly unnoticed, although it has been felt, said Kathy Grahl, Bardel office manager and longtime Fort Valley resident.
"Both of them are intelligent, creative individuals who quietly go around doing things for the community and other people," Grahl said.
The two love history, and restoring the home has been a labor of love. The couple restored Pineola and has expanded its grounds, going from a few acres to 12 acres. They have seasonal businesses selling pumpkins and Christmas trees, and Delise is thinking about adding a gourd business.
The couple offers home tours at various times during the year and would like to make it a full-fledged business to help pay for all of the restoration.
They are the third owners since the original owners, the Bassetts, sold it. They even hosted a Bassett family reunion and a reunion of British Royal Air Force cadets who stayed at Pineola when it was in the Bassett family.
In 2000, the house was featured in the Home and Garden Television show "If Walls Could Talk." The house even has its own Web site, www.pineola.com.
Pineola, built in 1865, once was a sprawling 2,000-acre farm with a cotton gin, and Delise and Paul are thinking of bringing back part of it by getting a cotton gin, as well as a sugar cane grinder and a mule to power it.
The couple is full of ideas, friends and co-workers say.
Grahl said Delise's energy and Paul's intelligence make the couple a winning team at everything they have put their collective mind to.
"I think the two of them together can tackle just about any problem that comes up," Grahl said. "It's amazing."
To contact Mark Vanderhoek, call 923-3109, extension 402 or e-mail mvanderhoek@macontel.com.