|
CaroLinks advisors bring wide array of attributes, interests
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Suddenly it seems the puzzle that is CaroLinks is beginning to come together in high relief.
Eight months ago, the Charleston-based startup promised to shake up cargo delivery from the Port of Charleston by using a combination of trains and barges to move containerized goods to inland distribution sites 24 hours a day.
But since then, the going has been slow. Contracts to purchase sizable tracts of land in both North Charleston and Orangeburg have been extended, and for many, the most substantial sign of CaroLinks’ existence is a billboard adjacent to Interstate 26 near the Montague Avenue interchange.
That is, until now. Recent announcements by the company have indicated activity behind the scenes to bring the $250 million inland port project to fruition.
“I think what’s happened is that people are waking up to the really vital need we have of an intermodal project like this,” said Margaret A. Gilliam, a former retail stock analyst and New York-based consultant recently named to CaroLinks’ board of advisors.
Investors populate board
Aside from Horizon Lines Chairman and CEO Chuck Raymond, whose membership was the first to be announced, none of the advisory board members named to date have any direct experience in port or intermodal operations.
“We do import and export a lot of (NASCAR) souvenirs and Legends series race cars through the Port of Charleston, but intermodal? No, I don’t have any experience in it,” said Howard “Humpy” Wheeler, another newly appointed board member and president of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C.
Gilliam, founder of the consulting firm Gilliam & Co., and Stephen Honigman, a partner in the New York-based law firm Fox Horan & Camerini LLP, appear to be even more outside the realm of moving heavy cargo.
What all four bring to the table is enthusiasm, extensive contacts in specific industry sectors and, in at least two cases, cash investments in the CaroLinks project.
Honigman, who describes CaroLinks principle Lucy Duncan-Scheman’s chief attributes as dynamism, talent, expertise and vision, said intermodal know-how is really the purview of the company’s
20-member staff.
“What we’re being asked to bring to the table is strategic advice and management expertise and to act as ambassadors to the various corporate sectors that we’re involved in,” Honigman said.
Raymond declined to comment on his affiliation with CaroLinks. According to his spokeswoman, Barbara Yeninas, he only addresses press inquiries that concern Horizon Lines.
But two of the three board members interviewed by the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Wheeler and Gilliam, indicated that in addition to being advisors and ambassadors for CaroLinks, they are also investors in the company.
While Honigman said he has “not yet” invested in the company, he happens to sit on the corporate board of EWA Information and Infrastructure Technologies Inc., a unit of Herndon, Va.-based Electronic Warfare Associates Inc., with whom
CaroLinks recently announced it is forming a joint cargo security venture.
‘Unique ideas made America’
Wheeler first met Duncan-Scheman about three months ago and was asked to join the advisory board several weeks later, he said.
“I’m a businessman first and foremost, and I think Lucy’s got something here that’s quite unique,” he said of the
CaroLinks plan to move cargo from the South Carolina State Ports Authority’s Wando Welch terminal by barge across the Cooper River and then either by barge or rail to a site near Orangeburg.
“I have a home down in Seabrook, so I’m in the Charleston region quite a lot and the truck traffic between I-95 and Charleston is just unbelievable,” he said. “From that perspective alone, I think what she’s proposing sounds good. I think they’ve got the right approach. Like I said, it’s unique, and unique ideas are what’s made America.”
As one of the nation’s leading stock car and racetrack executives, Wheeler knows all about all-American business ideas that pan out.
In addition to being president of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Lowes Motor Speedway, Wheeler is also president of 600 Racing Inc., a Charlotte, N.C.-based company that for the past 13 years has been producing a new line of smaller race cars that require little maintenance and can compete on smaller tracks.
Although the company has a few domestic suppliers, 600 Racing Inc. imports parts through the Port of Charleston from Japan, China and Germany. It then ships many of the assembled vehicles it makes through Charleston to Europe and the Pacific Rim, Wheeler said.
Asked if he ultimately sees himself being as much of a customer of CaroLinks as a member of its brain trust, Wheeler quickly said, “I don’t know if we’re going to be any kind of customer compared to Wal-Mart, or some of the other retail outlets, but we’ll be in the mix.”
Is Wal-Mart a client?
Several months ago, when asked by the Business Journal about a possible relationship with Wal-Mart, Duncan-Scheman declined to describe the retail colossus as a major partner, describing her contacts at the retailer’s Savannah distribution center as “friends and supporters.”
However, it was clear from talking to Wheeler and the other advisory board members that Wal-Mart is a name that’s no stranger to their conversations.
“Despite the fact that they run the lowest-cost trucking operation in the country, Wal-Mart is absolutely looking at intermodal transportation very seriously,” Gilliam said.
Why?
“Because it promises to be even more efficient,” she said. “You see, in retail, you’re constantly trying to balance the trade-offs. It’s quite a logistical puzzle, and with the cost of diesel fuel on the rise, achieving even modest gains in efficiencies can result in significant savings.”
Unlike Wheeler, Gilliam’s affiliation with CaroLinks came not through Duncan-Scheman but through Kenneth L. Londoner, who is listed on the company’s Web site as the managing partner of Safe-Ports Finance.
Gilliam readily admits that intermodal transportation has not been a longtime interest; her membership on the advisory board goes back about a year.
“It’s all been very informal up to this point. We haven’t really been organized, and I think Lucy is still figuring out what she wants our roles to be,” Gilliam said.
Opportunity for major retailers
Given her background as a retail analyst, Gilliam was asked if major retailers are expected to be a significant driver behind CaroLinks.
“I’m not sure it will be a driver, but certainly, everything eventually winds up in the hands of the consumer, so it’s a logical area of concentration for the company,” she said.
Other major retailers that might use CaroLinks’ services are companies such as Home Depot, Lowes and Costco, Gilliam said.
“This is an ideal operation for really any big retailer that sells bulky products,” she said.
Like Wheeler, she also sees opportunity for CaroLinks in South Carolina’s burgeoning automotive cluster.
“A lot of parts and supplies, like tires, are very difficult to transport on the road because they’re heavy and hard to handle,” Gilliam said. “In the end (CaroLinks’ success) is going to come down to how well it solves the problems real people, companies, encounter in managing their supply chain.
“Right now, if you look at the situation nationally, there are just a tremendous number of delays at ports and with the various trucking fleets, and when you’re trying to work lean and maintain only a ‘just-in-time’ inventory, those delays can really threaten your business.”
As if to underscore her belief in CaroLinks, Gilliam said she rarely agrees to serve on company boards.
“I serve on a few small ones, but never on those connected with publicly traded companies,” she said.
Gilliam sees her extensive and deep contacts in the retail industry as the main asset she brings to CaroLinks.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version