Exceeding Expectations

The Waynes were fortunate to be able to start their business with many of the menthey had worked with at T.R. Tucker Construction. Bobby Phillips, who had workedwith Tucker from age 16, had been a project manager with Tucker Construction aftercompleting college. Mr. Phillips came to work with the brothers about a year afterthey launched the new business, and used the contacts the men had developed whileat Tucker Construction to land some badly-needed contracts for the new company.Terry Vinson, for whom Eric and Keith had worked at T.R. Tucker, brought his wealth ofexperience and became an invaluable supervisor for Wayne Brothers. Jimmy Honeycuttwas also an original Wayne Brothers crew member, and Walt Lyman and Eddie Stancil,both of whom had worked for Tommy Tucker, were added to the work force later intime. Eric Wayne quickly demonstrated a talent for his preferred work in the field, whileKeith Wayne was attracted to the necessary tasks associated with managing projects,and administration of the company.General contractor Myers and Chapman Construction Company awarded WayneBrothers its first lump sum contract for the concrete work on the Outlet Marketplacenear the Carowinds Theme Park. The six-figure contract was a major undertaking andmixed blessing for the relatively-new company. While it was a significant step forwardfor the company, the project brought some special problems due to the unusually largesize of the concrete slabs compared to the typical malls being built at that time. Thegeneral contractor expected rigorous compliance with the schedule for completion ofthe various stages of the concrete work, as the other sub-contractors could not beginwork on their contracts until Wayne Brothers had completed the foundations and slabs.Careful planning allowed Wayne Brothers to install the foundations for the largebuilding on time, and prepare the forms for pouring. In those early days, the task offinishing the placed concrete was “subbed out” to sub-contractors. Plexico Brown’screw satisfactorily finished the concrete work at Outlet Marketplace using the smallhandheld and single-bladed machines in common use at the time, and then went onto assist WBI with finishing increasingly larger jobs. Mr. Brown, whom Wayne Brothersregarded as a competent and reliable person of integrity, often stated that he liked towork with WBI because the company seemed to understand the needs of the finishingsub-contractors better than did many of the larger contractors.Wild Turkey Harvested from the WilkesCounty area by Keith in Spring of 1988.Daniel Wayne was 2 years old. House inthe background was home site whereIsaiah, Heather and Daniel were reared.Despite initial capital needs and the necessity of convincing guarantors to bondlarger projects for the company, Wayne Brothers enjoyed some advantages overPiedmont19