Historic Charlotte

SOUTHERN
ENGINEERING
✧
President Charles Saleh.
HISTORIC CHARLOTTE
192
Southern Engineering has built its reputation
as one of the top steel fabrication companies in
the Southeast, utilizing assets that include a
ninety-year company history, a financial infusion
by new owners, talented new management,
experienced employees, and the loyalty and trust
of suppliers and satisfied customers.
The company’s two-hundred-thousandsquare-foot
facility, located on a thirteen-acre
site on Charlotte’s Wilkinson Boulevard, has
undergone over $7 million in improvements
since 1994.
The Berry family of Charlotte founded
Southern in 1911 and operated the company
for three generations. Known as “Little
Pittsburgh,” the company flourished as one of
the premier steel fabricators in the region. Its
steel built many of the major buildings in
Charlotte for years, including the Charlotte
Coliseum, Ovens Auditorium, and most of the
power plants in the region.
By the time the recession of the early 1990s
rolled around, Southern Engineering was in
trouble. When Charles Saleh, company
president, arrived at Southern Engineering in
1994 he faced a formidable task. He found the
company in bankruptcy and reeling from the
aftermath of a tornado. The handful of
remaining workers was working with obsolete
equipment. Under his leadership, Southern
rehired laid-off employees and encouraged
creative problem solving while overhauling
inefficient and outdated practices.
Southern Engineering has been restored
the hard way: “one employee, one supplier,
and one customer at a time.”
The company’s management and employees
are serious about achieving Southern’s mission
to be the premier steel fabricator in the region,
providing superior quality and on-time
delivery in every project. This objective is
based on each employee’s performing with the
highest integrity, commitment, and loyalty to
customers and the company.
Charlotte’s central location is a key factor in
Southern Engineering service to an increasing
number of clients throughout the Southeast.
The company’s ties to Charlotte are strong,
depending not only on the company’s long
history of operation there, but also on the
desire of its officials and employees to continue
playing a part in the region’s success and
growth. “We need to be known for our ethics
and for making our community a better place
to live,” Saleh says, demonstrating his own
dedication and that of the company through
participation in many community, charitable,
and professional organizations and programs.