In 1952, on the eve of his 40th birthday, Nesbitt Q. Cline was still in the startup phase of the Cline Company – a four-year-old business that sold oil, drive shafts and hydraulic hoses out of an old house in downtown Greenville.
Critical assets included his wife Martha, a hand hacksaw, a knife, a pair of pliers and a cinderblock front porch that had been converted into a loading dock for shipping orders. So far, the business had not yet turned a definitive corner on its future – until one day, a delivery truck backed into a corner of the loading dock and destroyed the porch.
Though unintentional, the accident proved to be pivotal for Cline. It not only led him to build his first building nearby on Buncombe Street, it put his business on a course that will soon mark its 68th year as one of Greenville’s most stable and time-honored companies.
“My grandfather used to say, ‘You’re never set in business – you can never be set without something changing,’” said Scott Cline, company president since 2002. “And he saw the porch wreck as a sign that it was time for him to make a change and expand the company.”
‘Earn the customer’s faith first’
In the last six decades, the Cline Co. has changed and expanded in many ways – such as incorporating in 1980 and becoming Cline Hose & Hydraulics LLC in 1999 (though most people still know it simply as the Cline Co.).
Since the porch accident, the business has grown from two to 40 employees, added three more buildings on five acres, and gone from having one local customer (who bought a case of oil in 1948 for a gas station) to accumulating more than 1,000 current customers from across the country.
The main thrust of the company’s business lines is still in hydraulic hose assemblies, couplings and end fittings, which are made and installed per the customer’s requirement.
But now, the operation – run by brothers Scott and Glenn Cline – also supplies power drive services, cooling systems and both cylinder and pump repair to a wide sector of the U.S. agricultural, construction, transportation, industrial and end-user markets.
“Scott and I just grew up learning the business from our father and grandfather,” said Glenn Cline, vice president and counter sales manager. “Our grandfather taught us this lesson: ‘Earn the customer’s faith first and the business will follow.’ And we see the value of that insight on a daily basis.”
For example, the company’s business has now widened to a 100-mile service radius –reaching Columbia, Charlotte, N.C., and Athens, Ga.
The client base has increased to include Apple, Google, Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Defense, and major subway systems in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.
While that base has also expanded locally to include companies such as EDR Solutions (makers of hard drive crushers), many clients who began doing business with the senior Cline from long ago are still current.
“Strange Brothers started buying from us in 1954 [the company’s first year as grading contractors], and they are our oldest current client,” Glenn Cline said. “But we have others from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s who are still with us. I think it’s a credit to how we still do business.”
New home in Mauldin
A major aspect of that business has come from giving personal training and technical support to all clients, to ensure they receive proper installation, maintenance and repair of all hydraulic and pneumatic systems, hoses, pumps and valves. A 24-hour emergency service is also available 365 days a year.
“Service is our strength – we serve any individual who needs us or anything we supply,” Scott Cline said. “And that service has remained a constant part of what we do, especially when something like the porch accident pushes us to make another change to the company.”
The most recent push will soon mark the company’s biggest change of the last 60 years: to relocate the entire operation away from Greenville.
On Dec. 14, 2015, as it nears its 68th anniversary, Cline Hose & Hydraulics LLC will open on a new three-acre site on Verdin Road in the City of Mauldin. The acreage and buildings on Buncombe Street are up for sale.
“We didn’t really want to leave Greenville,” Scott Cline said. “But we had run out of office space, and we didn’t have any more room to expand the company on our present site.” The move will mean a more central location in Greenville County, and allow proximity to the main interstate arteries of I-85 and I-385.
“And we’ll have all our employees and company processes together under one roof, which means we can do an even better job helping customers solve issues that require our experience,” Glenn Cline said.
Both Scott and Glenn Cline said employees saw the move as another way to “further everyone’s career.”
“We have profit-sharing for all 40 of our employees, who we regard as family,” Scott Cline said. “So when we grow and expand the business, such as with the new move, everybody here benefits.”
Glenn Cline added, “Since the porch accident in 1952, every part of the company has consistently grown or changed in some way. With the move, we’re looking forward to a new era and whatever company changes will happen in it.”
However, the Cline brothers say one promise has remained unchanged since the start-up days of their grandfather: The Cline Performance Guarantee.
“We back everything we sell with a 100 percent guarantee that says, ‘Your product performs according to specifications or we’ll replace it free of charge – No ifs, ands or buts,’” Scott Cline said. “That guarantee is part of the customer trust my grandfather started in 1948, and which we intend to honor as long as we remain in business.”
