Stuart Jackson has bought and sold electrical business Instel Power Products multiple times
Stuart Jackson calls himself the Fred Sanford of power equipment. In a climate where inventory is a “dirty word” and lean manufacturing leads to no spare equipment on site, Jackson is the “junk man,” he says, with a warehouse and yard full of everything from three-foot-long fuses to giant transformers that can power a shopping mall.
The Early Years
Jackson, who grew up in Chester, Va., says he didn’t begin dealing in electrical equipment right away. With a history degree under his belt and little business experience, he found work selling office machines for Monroe Systems for Business. One of the top performers in the country became his mentor, however, teaching him how to treat people and be successful, he said.
After about a decade, the office machine business changed and Jackson was looking for a new venture. In 1983, he learned that a friend’s father, who had founded Instel Power Products in 1967, was given the option to buy it back.
“I met with him, and he hired me to run this business,” Jackson said. “In hindsight, if I’d had really known what this business was, I wouldn’t have done it, because I was not trained … but what I did have was a knowledge of how to be successful in business. I’ve also always been a Mr. Fixit. This business is a fixit business.”
Instel was originally an independent testing company, testing electrical systems for Fortune 1000 companies all over the Southeast, he said. Jackson worked to educate himself about all things electrical.
“Every spare moment I would study manuals, textbooks and all I could read about the discipline,” he said. He didn’t have the benefit of a mentor at Instel, however, when the owner developed health problems and had to leave. “Within two months of coming in to run this company, my mentor was gone and I was on my own.”
While he learned about electrical systems, Jackson spent the first 10 years also collecting the various parts and pieces of equipment Instel needed to also do field service. The collection started with the surplus in the closed Celanese plant on Woodruff Road, he said.
Jackson was the second-highest bidder on the equipment, but ended up buying it because the first bidder didn’t pay by the deadline. He was then able to sell several pieces to the original bidder and also sell pieces back to Celanese, he said. “That was the start of me getting into the surplus business.”
The First Sale
The business continued to grow and in 1996, SC Electric and Gas offered to buy Instel with Jackson staying on to run the company. To prove the company’s value, Jackson said he worked harder than he did as owner, but finally turned in his resignation. “I sold the company to slow up, not speed up,” he said.
Jackson met with corporate executives and a business psychiatrist in 1999. The psychiatrist concluded Jackson was right to feel like quitting. However, the group offered Jackson a paid sabbatical and a salary increase.
He accepted lessened responsibility and scheduled the sabbatical for the summer. “I bought a motor home and told my sons we were going to drive across the U.S.,” and they spent the summer traveling. “We had the most glorious time, and I didn’t call the office once. It took me about two weeks to get decompressed, however.”
Owner Again
A week before he left on his cross-country trip, however, the owners informed Jackson that they wanted to sell. “When I got back, the whole company was upside down and twisted and backwards,” he said. Jackson purchased the company again and “began to build it back up into a large company with multiple locations.”
In 2005, another buyer made an offer – this time Square D, he said. “So I said okay. I thought we were selling the whole company, but I learned that they didn’t want the used-equipment side.”
Crafting a Welcoming Workplace
After the Square D purchase, there were only two employees left, he said. Both were willing to stay, so they started building the business again.
“I said we were going to have three rules: We’re going to work hard, we’re going to have fun, and no ***holes. And that was the premise of this new company,” he said. Jackson said he had many years experience with employees who were skilled at the business, but “had personality flaws or conflicts, and they cause a lot of heartache. They bring down the good employees.”
Now Jackson’s two sons, Matt and William, help with the business, along with longtime employee Dave King and Coco, the resident pooch. Instel now has nine employees.
Niche Electrical
In 2013, Instel provides quick support to manufacturers who have a power failure and need to get their plant up and running as soon as possible. With some equipment dating back to the 1960s or beyond, Instel can switch out a piece of equipment much quicker than the plant can order it from the electrical manufacturer, Jackson said. Instel’s staff takes in all kinds of electrical equipment and refurbishes it along with manufacturing buses for power distribution.
There is a surprising amount of vintage equipment operating, Jackson said. “The whole infrastructure of the United States has a lot of vintage electrical equipment. It’s running the whole country, and everything isn’t new.”
Because it is so durable and high quality, the cost-effective option is to purchase a refurbished piece of equipment, he said. “The equipment that was built then is better than the equipment that’s built now. This type of equipment is quite expensive, so it lends itself to being repaired.” He notes that Instel recently rebuilt the 1960s-era equipment in the Landmark building (originally the Daniel building) in downtown Greenville.
“Most companies are making products just a few days in advance; they don’t have a warehouse full of product,” he said. If a plant has to shut down production, it can have a domino effect down the supply line, he said.
And that’s where Instel comes in. Its 80,000-square-foot warehouse is packed with equipment from the late 1920s to current vintage that can get a plant up and running again.
“We’re the need-it-now company,” he said. “The plants will call and I can hear the tremble in their voice” when they ask if he has a part on hand.
The original manufacturers aren’t always well versed in the older equipment and focused on service. “They’ve moved on. They’re working in 2013, not 1966.”
Jackson said he prides himself on giving everyone equal treatment, from the largest auto manufacturer in the area to the owner of the local pizza joint who lost power.
Instel’s customer service includes going the extra mile, he said. In the shop, he pointed out a breaker dating back to 1949 that was sent to them from a furniture manufacturer in North Carolina. It didn’t need repair, just resetting, but Instel also cleaned, oiled and repainted parts of the equipment before returning it.
Lining the halls are binders full of manuals, diagrams and all manner of documents related to decades of electrical equipment that he’s collected from closed plants and fellow equipment brokers.
Jackson said he simply is a fixit guy and junkman, adding that he could use another warehouse the same size as the current one.
“I don’t have the heart to throw anything away,” he said.
