B.E. 100s Neighborhood Improvement - African American business enterprises and executives

Black Enterprise, June, 2001 by Marjorie Whigham-Desir

"A lot of these deals are made based upon relationships," explains Hall. The contract, to be the exclusive provider of seats for the Cadillac DeVille, was estimated at $900 million over five years. "I firmly believe that for minority companies to have an opportunity to be a major player in the industry, you have to have a joint venture. Besides, it's much easier to do a joint venture with someone who has experience in that industry if you don't have any," he adds.

While Hall may not have had experience building car seats, he'd worked as a systems analyst for Ford Motor Co. for 15 years and had been an owner of two Bonanza Steakhouses. He later served as assistant vice president of New Detroit, an urban coalition of major corporations with a mission to provide a voice and support to minority and disadvantaged Detroiters. That position led Hall to assume the helm of the MMBDC.

"JCI won the contract based upon having a minority partner," says Hall. "And thus the start of Bridgewater Interiors L.L.C., a joint venture between my company-Epsilon Technologies L.L.C.--and JCI." Hall serves as president and CEO of Bridgewater Interiors L.L.C. He formed Epsilon with two partners--William F. Pickard, CEO of Global Automotive Alliance, No. 9 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list with $260 sales, and former Green Bay Packer and entrepreneur Willie Davis, who also sits on the boards of several multinational companies, including JCI.

The group broke ground in March 1998 in a city- and state-designated empowerment zone. Epsilon and JCI collateralized an initial $2 million of the $33 million cost of the plant. The balance is financed through a bank and will be paid off within five years. "The biggest challenge was getting and training a workforce to build good, quality seats in a timely fashion with customer service in mind," Hall remembers.

Two master seat builders were hired from JCI and made supervisors. "I bought seat components so that we could practice building them, break them down, and then start the process all over again." In manufacturing, efficiency is essential. "GM sent in engineers to see if we could build seats fast enough to meet their timetable. It takes exactly 28 minutes to complete one set of seats--driver's side, front passenger, and a rear set," recounts Hall.

However, the challenge, says Hall, is in managing his supplier base. The company uses 52 suppliers providing more than 250 parts. Despite the pressure, business has been good. Bridgewater had $52 million in sales from July 1999 to December 1999, making enough seats for 26,000 vehicles. Last year, the company made seats for 119,000 DeVilles, which translated into more than $218.4 million in sales and a No. 11 spot on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE 100 list.

"The JCI partnership is a relationship I want to renew and grow," explains Hall. "We mutually agree on what makes sense for Bridgewater to go after and that's what we do."

MOVING BACK IN

When Emmit J. McHenry sold his former BE 100s company, Network Solutions (see "Where Are They Now?" August 2000), many thought he would move on, lending an ear and his expertise when needed. But that's what other people thought. This African American computer networking pioneer and founder of the Internet-domain-names registry had other plans.