9A
STRICTLY BUSINESS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, May 15, 1997
Hubbard leads Metrolina Dodge
Continued from page 8A
dealership, designed by W.
Powers McElveen & Associates
Inc. of Columbia, S.C., sits on
nine acres of land and took 10
months to build. It has an open
air showroom, a wide, covered
area in which salespeople can
point out features to customers.
The octagon-shaped, two-story
building features a huge show
room floor which is bordered by
tinted, insulated glass. The rest
of the ground floor consists of
offices, rest rooms, customer
lounge, play area, fax and copy
center, reading room as well as a
parts and service area.
The top floor has the account
ing office, operations manager,
advertising conference room and
Hubbard’s office. His office is
spacious, tastefully decorated
with furniture he selected while
on a business trip to the Orient.
There is even a bathroom with a
shower. The entire lot and show
room floor can be seen from the
office.
The lot has room for new and
used cars, unlike the old loca
tion. “We could only stock Dodge
products at the old store,”
Hubbard said. “We had no used
cars at all. We’d actually taken
part of the body shop and used it
for service.”
The new service area features
49 bays, the largest in Charlotte
and third largest in the country.
’There’s an Xpress Lube which
does quick oil changes. 'The body
shop is now called Metrolina
Dodge Collision Center. “We do
body repair on all makes and
models,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard will not say exactly
how much the dealership cost.
He just grinned, then said “a
lot.”
Metrolina Dodge is the crown
jewel in Hubbard Automotive
Group which contains Metrolina
Kia, Diamond Chevrolet-Geo
and Diamond Isuzu.
Hubbard ran the original
Metrolina Dodge location for 10
years. In 1985, He was one of
the youngest operations man
agers for Sears. He left the com
pany to enroll in Chrysler’s
Minority Dealer Development
Program, which lasts for two
years. Hubbard finished in nine
months. He invested $140,000 of
his own money along with
Chrysler funds to capitali2e the
costs of Metrolina Dodge. In 20
months he owned the store. It
usually takes five years.
Hubbard’s business savvy has
guided the dealership fi-om sales
of $16 million in its first year
toward $100 million this year.
He was selected Black
Enterprise magazine’s
Automobile Dealer of the Year
in 1991.
“I was very pleased, honored -
hvunbled by it,” Hubbard said. “I
felt a lot of things played a big
role. I had good people and I did
not come to the car business
with any bad habits over the
years. I came out of retail with
Sears. Retailing is retailing,
whether you are selling cars,
washers or dryers. You simply
have to figure out what people
want and give it to them.”
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SBA honors 2 Charlotteans
Continued from page 8A
her work as First Citizens direc
tor of community development
lending, which targets minority
and female owned business and
SBA loans.
Walker’s award recognizes the
bank’s centralized effort to tar
get groups that did not tradition
ally have access to credit.
“I’m real pleased,” Walker
said. “We had done a lot of work
to improve our lending. I am
pleased we were able to get
some recognition for that effort.”
McCuUough and Walker will
represent North Carolina during
Small Business Week cere
monies honoring state, advocate
and special award winners.
The events will be June 1-4 in
Washington, D.C.
A local awards luncheon is
planned June 5.
Official announcement of the
awards are expected by May 28.
McCullough was nominated
for the award by George
McAllister of the Charlotte
Small Business Training and
Development Center. He won in
state and regional judging before
rising to the national level.
Criteria in the selection
process include: voluntary
efforts beyond business/profes
sional responsibilities to advance
minority small business inter
ests and efforts to improve con
ditions in the minority small
business commimity.
Others include provision of
professional services to minority
small business and accomplish
ments in advising those busi
nesses, with demonstrated merit
as an effective advocate for
minority small business inter
ests.
Enjoy the pride of
home ownership.
Cannon announces changes
By Brian Powe
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Fieldcrest Cannon recently
launched a $57 million invest
ment effort to improve facili
ties at its plant off Highway
29 in Kannapolis.
One of the area’s leading
fabric printing and towel man
ufacturing plants, Fieldcrest
has over 6,000 employees,
many of them African
Americans from Rowan and
Cabarrus counties.
Hoping to keep the facility
on the cutting edge of technol
ogy, officials believe expansion
is essential to progress.
John Nevin, Fieldcrest’s
executive vice president of
operations, published a letter
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to employees about the expan
sion. In the letter, Nevin said
that the facility was at the
crossroads.
“It is critical that we contin
ue modernizing to make sure
that we service our cus
tomers,” he said.
Already $309 million in debt,
Fieldcrest Cannon opened an
$200 million account with
First Union Bank. According
to officials, there will be
money taken from the account
over the next few years to
maintain the consistency of
the modernization process.
The board of directors
approved the capital cam
paign to extract jobs in some
areas and create jobs in oth
ers. Officials guaranteed that
there won’t be any changes
made in employment.
Aerospace giant Lockheed
Martin has been called to han
dle its newly constructed $6
million data center.
Fieldcrest Cannon
spokesman Dick Reece said in
a published report there is a
logical reason for the changes.
“The reason we’ve done that
is because those people spe-
, cialize in those areas,” he said.
' “They bring to the table the
(expertise we didn’t have.”
Enjoy the comfort and pride of home
ownership. Tklk to Connie Burrough about an
affordable home loan from First Citizens.
Put yourself in this picture. And your own
home.
There has never been a better time to
apply for a mortgage under
our Shelter Source program or
the Fannie Mae Community
Home Buyers program.
First Citizens Bank reduced
the interest rate on qualifying
loans by one-quarter percent
below the standard rate until
June 30, 1997 on both of these
programs.
Connie Burrough (704) 338-3807
Also until June 30, First Citizens is paying
for the appraisal on a Shelter Source loan and
discounting the appraisal and credit report fees
for the Fannie Mae loan. Both programs allow
low down payment options and flexible
qualification requirements.
Call and make an
appointment with mortgage
specialist Connie Burrough to
learn all the details ,
and
requirements
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