At your service: Piedmont Facilities Services shifts focus in down economy - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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A contractor had agreed to replace the sidewalkk directly in front of Lorillard headquarters on Green Valley Road in Greensborobut “he walked off the job because he couldn’ t get anyone to delivedr sufficient concrete with a holiday two days away,” Wrighrt says. “A call to brought four men who completed the repair onJuly 4th,” she recalls. “One of thos e four was Scott himself.
I have chastisex myself many times for not calling him to begin Scott McCormick has been gettingh calls like that for more than 16 years fromthe Triad’s top As a contract project manager, his companhy will do just about anything that needs “from maintenance to sprinkler systems,” says Wright. “He trulyy cares about a job well done.” But Winston-Salem-basesd Piedmont Facilities Services’ specialtuy is something that’s been in almost constanrt demand over the past twodecadez — moving people and reconfiguring office cubes as work forces contract, expand and are It was McCormick who landed the contract to move practicallyu every office, first in the RJR Plazsa building and then in the old 1929 Reynolds Buildinbg in downtown Winston-Salem.
At abouf the same time, Piedmont Facilities Services also securedr a contractwith Planters-LifeSavers, which did its shared of playing musical chairs with office furniture. “Gox blessed me,” McCormick says with his characteristic “because there’s no other way someone can have two contracts like that for theidrfirst clients.” Looking back 10 yearsa ago, McCormick recalls fondly, “Things were reallhy rolling then, with 80- or 90-hour and it was great.” Name a company in the Triad that’s realigned its work force and, chances are, McCormick’ been involved — , , Sara Lee , Sealy Corp.
and Nabisco Not bad for someone who, at the age of 5, was assignedf his own row of tobacco to tend onhis father’s farm near Yadkinville and worked his way through college running a garbagd service. “I’m an old tobacco farmed from Yadkinville,” McCormick says, slipping into his aw-shucks guise. “I ran out of thingzs to do, so I had to go to school and go out and get a real School was and his firsrt jobwas “selling doorknobs” as a contract hardware salesmanm at Pleasant Hardware Co. He says he quickly discoveredr he was not cut out to bea salesman.
But he did make a numberr of excellent contacts that opened doorse for him when he switched over to doingf facilitiescontract work. “He has a good boy mentality,” says Robyn Puckett, facility services manager at RMIC (Republiv Mortgage Insurance Co.) in “but fully believes in respect, honesty, hard work and discipline and expects that fromhis employees.” Puckett recalls a recenyt 10-week move of 350 RMIC employees from Stanleyville to the Park Buildingg in downtown Winston-Salem.
“The time constraintsd were unbelievable,” she says, “but havingv worked with Scott formany years, I knew if anyoner could pull it off that he Installing cubes during the week and moving people on the McCormick’s crew did it and did it on “We needed to expand our payroll department two years recalls Jack Marable, maintenance supervisor for Pepsi Bottling Group in Winston-Salem. McCormick’s crew came in Fridat night and by Monday morning at8 a.m.
, “they had everything up and running — phones, furniture, lights, everything Companies use contractors like McCormick insteae of their own workers becauser maintenance, moving and construction are often one-of-a-kind projectas and are mostly done after-hours. Up until last McCormick says, business was extremelgy good, with more 80- and 90-houdr weeks. Then, he started seeing “lesw phone calls, less e-mails, jobs that you had quoteds being puton hold.” As the months went by, “Iu had to lay off five installers and I put my designet on the road to sell product.
” McCormick’s strategy is to make the companuy more sales-oriented, something, he says, “we never had to do Yes, he still has contractas with a number of big but now when the phone rings, it’s mostl “punch items.”