By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

A case in point is the recent experience of Tony Deering, whose South Africa-based Pegasus Steel, a worldwide leader in the processing of large steel plates, recently announced that it will open its North American headquarters and a manufacturing plant in Goose Creek

by Aug. 1.

Deering, a partner in the company and father of young children, came to the United States looking not only for a site that would be amenable to the growth of his business, but also one that would provide a stable, positive environment for his family.

“Not to be too controversial, but the political situation in South Africa has been deteriorating in recent years,” he said. “The homicide rate is up, the crime rate is up. In short, it’s a difficult place to raise your loved ones. A lot of people are leaving.”

A British native, Deering had already shown once in his life that he was willing to move across the globe in search of opportunity.

No less determined this time, he arrived in Charleston after a 22-hour flight armed only with a suitcase, a cell phone and a conviction that armored vehicle manufacturers and the shipyards in the region would be able to use his steel.

Reaching for the telephone book in his hotel room, he immediately set about the time-consuming task of connecting with a community he knew no better than any other first-time tourist.

“I didn’t arrive thinking the Charleston region was going to be the first and the last choice, but I’d heard good things about South Carolina, and I thought there was great potential for a business of our kind,” he said. “Force Protection, Protected Vehicles, the shipyards, they all represented opportunity to me, and since the foundation of a lot of these projects was laid in South Africa, I thought we’d be a good fit.”

Pegasus Steel, which will continue to employ 165 in South Africa under the stewardship of Deering’s partner, Alex Russell, currently produces 80% of the transportation components manufactured in that country and is widely considered a reputable source of precision cutting, bending and forming of steel components.

Deering, who will serve as president and CEO of the North American operation, said the company will make an initial capital investment of more than $10 million in an existing facility in the Crowfield Corporate Park in Goose Creek and create 85 jobs in the Lowcountry paying an average of $15 an hour.

The company expects to hire at least 20 of those workers by the end of June, by which time it should be bringing the world’s largest laser cutte, a device used to cut steel plates that are 40 feet long and at least one-inch thick, through the Port of Charleston.

But if Deering’s can-do, get-it-done spirit was the driving force behind making the company’s presence in the Lowcountry a reality, the businessman himself credits the Charleston Regional Development Alliance for helping him forge the kind of personal connections to the place and its people that made the idea of expanding Pegasus Steel, not to mention moving his family halfway around the world, that much more comfortable.

“I really can’t praise them enough,” he said. “I’ve worked in a number of different environments over the past 25 years and have never been so welcomed into an environment where people were completely receptive to what you wanted to do and so helpful in laying the foundation for you to get started.

“The development alliance not only helped us secure job development credits and the like from the state, but more importantly, they set up the critical meetings that helped us get into the system and flow of things here.”

Stephen C. Warner, head of business development and marketing strategy at the CRDA, and the organization’s point man on the Pegasus Steel project, said assisting Deering was just part and parcel of the organization’s effort to serve as a facilitator for business prospects considering the tri-county region.

“When I met Tony Deering for the first time, the thing that impressed me most was how much he had gotten done by himself, without a lot of staff and consultants pitching in,” Warner said. “That said, I think one of the values we strive to bring to the table when a prospect like this comes along is that we are facilitators.

“There are many things we simply don’t have the power to do, not being a government entity, for instance, but the one thing we can do is bring the appropriate people together at the appropriate time. It’s not always about finding just the right site for these decision makers; oftentimes my task is simply to help them connect with the right people.”

Deering’s first few trans-Atlantic trips to Charleston were primarily reconnaissance missions to determine the volume of business he might be able to develop in the Southeast.

Once he began meeting with the CRDA, one of the main things he was looking for was more generalized information about the local economy.

“He really wanted an overview of the local business community, and we talked a lot about the strength and vitality of the local economy and what that strength is based on. From there, we preceded to focus in on those business sectors that were most of interest to him,” Warner said. “We talked about potential customers, potential competitors and the availability of the type of specialized employees he’d need.”

Among the first connections the CRDA fostered for Deering was to people with the state’s CATT program.

“Based on our conversations, we knew that Tony needs a very specialized worker and that, because he doesn’t have a real strong competitor within 1,000 miles of Charleston, the skill sets he’ll need aren’t readily available,” Warner said.

“At the same time, we do have a legacy of steel work in this town, and so we are a community that will accept this kind of business and a work force that’s readily trainable to do the work he needs.”

In another meeting, Warner introduced Deering to the people who would ultimately provide his financing, permitting, fire and police protection. It was a one-stop meeting that Deering said he found beneficial to moving his project forward.

But Warner said his introductions weren’t always so “business need” focused. Many of the people he introduced to Deering were relative newcomers to the region.

“One of the things that can seem daunting to an outsider is Charleston’s image as a very old city in which most people have lived for generations,” Warner said. “With someone like Tony, we want to show him what an open and welcoming community this is and introduce him to people that have gone through what he’s going through.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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