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Never Throw All Your Eggs In One Basket C. Bel is co-captained by patriarch Clyde Bel Jr., MFC, and his niece Jeanne Durning, MFC, a master of logistics and detail, with the continued support of Clyde´s sister (Jeanne´s mother) Doris Bel Buchart, MFC. Located at the corner of Tchoupitoulas ("Chop-I-too-luss") and Ninth, the company was launched by an optimistic Clyde Bel Sr. in 1926 and playfully named ("See Bel") by his wife Carmelita.
History Despite the Great Depression´s deadly effect on the country, Clyde Sr.´s endeavor thrived during infamously trying times. "He went into a luxury business such as awnings, [which] at that point in time were a luxury," Bel says of his late father. "There was a feeling that wealthy people would always be able to afford luxuries, so he´s pretty much been right. Recessions come along and friends will say, `Well, it´s a horrible recession,´ and I´ll say `Oh… sure.´" Despite September 11th, he notes candidly, "2001 was a very good year." Bel began to work for his dad in 1946, answering phones when the family home was still the base of operations. For a time, his grandfather Horace was also in the business, and during World War II the company diversified by making gun covers for the Navy and tents for the Army. Around 1953, Bel and his sister Doris took over and, by the 1950´s, C. Bel expanded from exterior awnings into the drapery and fabric business, produced a catalog and set up distribution in 11 states. Unlike many small business owners who eat, breathe, and sleep the concerns of their livelihood, Bel picked up what he refers to as a "side life" in the 1960´s. " A politician got me angry, so I ran against him for the state legislature," he says, pointing to the old office chair he once occupied on behalf of his constituents. "I was elected four terms, 16 years, and wound up in the legislature until the 1980´s." His exit was precipitated by the 1979 election victory of the then 23-year-old Mary Landrieu, daughter of New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu. (In 1997, Landrieu became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Louisiana.) At the end of her uncle´s state tenure, Jeanne Durning joined the business. "My mom [Doris] was in sales, grandfather [Clyde Sr.] was basically doing a little bit of cutting and overseeing the work," she recalls. At first she was involved in sales with designers and architects and over time became involved in every aspect of the business. Durning conveys that, regardless of circumstances, the family´s feet have always been firmly planted. Looking both back and ahead, she says, "However many hours you want to put in, you´ve got to have good people under you and I think, for the most part, we´ve had excellent people who were honest and would give us a day´s hard work without having to stand over them." Twenty employees, many of them long-term with as many as 27 years, work in various capacities at C. Bel. "We treat our employees like family," says Bel.
Keeping Pace With Consumer Needs We´re not the best because we´re the oldest; we´re the oldest because we´re the best." A key to the company´s success has been it´s willingness to adapt to the changing times, offering different products and services along the way. "Somehow or other you have to say, `Well, I´m not just an awning company," says Durning, "and if things aren´t working there you have to find out where they are working and get a new niche." Besides ample work with fabric awnings and aluminum ones as well, C. Bel manufacturers and installs draperies, primarily for local hotels, in support of renovations and rehabs. "Normally, we have an installer and helper [on each job]," she notes, "but when you have bigger jobs, you pull people from the shop to go out and install. Sometimes we have as many as five, depending on how many hotel jobs we have going on at a time." C. Bel´s business area roughly encompasses a 150-mile radius, though many of their accounts are located right in and around New Orleans. In the 1990´s, Sears approached them about taking over a territory, but they turned down the arrangement out of a determination not to lose their base business. Durning says, "We go to Mississippi… we actually like about a 65-mile radius. For stage curtains, I´ve gone further." C. Bel bunk curtains can be found in housing for oil rig workers and Navy personnel in the Gulf of Mexico. One customer drove all the way from Mexico to buy two lateral arm awnings. Drapery hardware is stocked for regular clients and new walk-ins alike, and wood blinds were available until they became unprofitable. C. Bel´s work can be found in countless locations throughout New Orleans, including high-traffic Riverwalk, on businesses ranging from Saks Fifth Avenue to K-Paul´s (Paul Prudhomme´s) Louisiana Restaurant, as well as the homes of local news anchors. Residential work represents a reliable portion on C. Bel´s revenue. "What I´m seeing is people are starting to fix their patio and pool areas like living rooms," Jeanne says. "Cushions to match awnings, umbrellas to match that, cabanas and curtains, and shower areas with gazebo tops." Fabric is becoming the favored material for carports--in hip, peaked and marquee styles-- rather than metals. And whether freestanding or fixed to the house, the first C. Bel structure in a given neighborhood usually entices neighbors to follow suit. Bel considers it a multiple use deal: "They wouldn´t want to have a party under an aluminum carport, but you can have a party under a canvas carport."
Awnings and Codes The entire building is adorned with a variety of bright blue awnings-- formerly covered in gray, until Durning decided a different color would be more dynamic. Combined with Yellow Pages advertising, a web site designed by employees Christine Fox and constant referrals, the awnings draw a steady flow of customers. "None of these awnings are the same," Jeanne explains, "All the way down, each one is different… there´s a bubble awning, a hood, a California, a concave, a convex, elongates. If the customer comes in, we can show them [the different types]." As home to various historic areas, New Orleans strictly governs changes to the physical landscape. "We have a lot of agencies like the Vieux Carre [Old Quarter] Commission… and all these people who tell you pretty much what color you can use and what style. Because New Orleans has a lot of historical buildings, you don´t see a lot of backlits here. I doubt you see any in the French Quarter, none on St. Charles Avenue, and there are a lot of regulations." In the French Quarter, most awnings are retractable, without sides, and maneuverable only by hand with ropes. "You can´t find an orange awning or a red awning. People who own the buildings and people who rent… know what rules they have to abide by, and they have to… paint the buildings a certain color, they can´t change the windows. We just finished a hotel where the windows really need to be changed. Rain´s coming through. They repair these wooden windows and doors literally [rebuilding] them with wood filler and epoxy and whatever else…You do not paint a door until you have their permission." Successful permitting rests on the customer´s shoulders. C. Bel provides the completed drawings and a fabric sample, which the clients submit first to the appropriate review board for approval and, after approval, to the proper agency for a permit. "If they balk [at doing the paperwork] we explain it to them," says Bel, "and they understand. Because politics reign supreme everywhere." Fortunately, the process is not as complicated outside historic districts or in the greater New Orleans area, though some things are changing. "They´re starting to call awnings signs," says Durning. "If they want to do print work on it, they´re calling it a sign. They tax signs… and they want you to have a special license." Limitations are also imposed on the number of times a business can place its name on its own building. "If you visit Houston," Bel mentions as a counterpoint, "maybe some of the restrictions [in New Orleans] aren´t too bad. Because Houston has virtually no zoning at all… Signs, a commercial place here, a residential place next to it. They got caught in urban sprawl. It´s so fast, I guess they couldn´t control it."
Hotel Drapery Once C. Bel proves their capabilities and timeliness in one location, other work follows. "If I´m within the price range, they know they can count on us… They want to be able to turn these rooms over really, really quickly, so time is of the essence." C. Bel´s drapery workroom was opened at a time when awning jobs were more seasonal, though things have since changed. "We [didn´t want] to lose seamstresses from awnings, and they could be cross-trained to go into draperies," Durning says. "And generally speaking, the slow time for awnings back then was a heavy time for draperies." Employees simply had to move from one work area to the other in the same building. "At one point, we specialized in draperies for new construction and apartment houses," Bel notes of their work in New Orleans. "Now they´re tearing them down, and they´re building other things there. Before we got too far along, we changed and went into something else. We change our focus every seven or eight years, I guess." Typically, hotel housekeeping removes old drapery and strips a room before C. Bel staff arrives. However, because hotels tend to book rooms that are on the work list, installers must frequently be sent elsewhere. Moving materials can also tax a busy schedule. "It takes a little time to get into a hotel, to get your merchandise up to the 21st floor through the service elevators," Durning says. Bel estimates there are some 35,000 hotel rooms in New Orleans right now and notes the turnover of hotel staff actually benefits their business: a `good problem´ with hotels is that the managers don´t last very long for the most part. So they go to another hotel and they´ll call us." "The general managers stay," Durning clarifies, "but the people in engineering and the director of housekeeping-- those are the ones you get your orders from. They can call us for one drapery rod, and we´ll go do one drapery rod as readily as we´ll go do 100, but there´s a reason behind that. If they know they can call you for the one, they´ll call you for the 100. There are a lot of times where they just want component parts, rods and stuff. But because they keep using us, we use the same brand all the time. They don´t have to worry about whether the glides fit."
Flexibility and a Good Rapport If this concept sounds far-fetched, take a second look at the big screen version of John Grisham´s The Pelican Brief, released in 1993. Bel describes the C. Bel awning project featured in the film as "a clown costume" with "little diamonds all over it, with different colors." Movie crews contact the company now and again to announce their shooting schedule in New Orleans and request a rush job at the film site. C. Bel encloses existing awnings with new, and sometimes period, facades. Though temporary, the jobs are memorialized forever on celluloid (and later DVD). "The secret to this company," Bel muses, "is that sometimes we work four days a week and sometimes we work seven days a week. Whatever it takes. Flexible is the key word." Arrangements, for instance, are routinely made to meet with residential clients during the week, early in the morning, before the work day begins, to discuss new products. In this way, customers don´t have to lose a Saturday or take time off. C. Bel has also been happy to accommodate participants in New Orleans´ most famous gathering, Mardi Gras, which gives business a boost as well. "The new thing we´ve gotten involved with in the last year is flags for the Kings of Carnival," Durning says. "Every year they put up a flag that they received during their reign. It´s been a plus for our business. Again, if you satisfy them, they´re going to think about you when it´s awning time. And most of these people live in the uptown area and have awnings." "We´ve got something else that´s unique," notes Bel. "We will sell cut yardage to anyone who comes in the front door. Right before Mardi Gras, we were selling a lot of one, two and three yards of #8 cotton duck. Unbleached, 36-inch." The canvas is used for costumes made by Mardi Gras Indians. "They have different tribes, and you´ll have a longshoreman come in here, six-foot-five, 250 pounds, and he´ll come in a couple days before Mardi Gras and say, `I have to make a costume.´ The tradition is, whoever wears the costume must make the costume. And I can just picture this guy sewing on sequins and beads on #8 duck!" When talk falls to suppliers, the same interest in building personal relationships holds true. Clyde recounts a vacation drive to Maine during which he made stops to see his various suppliers in Atlanta, Baltimore, and in the New England area. "It gave me a much better knowledge and a working relationship even though we´ve been dealing with them for a number of years." His visit to one industry giant was particularly memorable. "I´m pretty naïve, and I stopped in… and I said, `I´d like to see the boss.´ The gal at the desk got all shook up because it was a corporate headquarters and he´s in his ivory tower and no one comes in without an appointment." After Bel was guided through a time-killing tour of the warehouse, his contact finally turned up. "He said, `Let´s go in the boardroom, and we´ll sit down and talk a little bit.´ So we put in about an hour and a half I guess, and I gave him some of my candid thoughts about what they could do different. So it worked out very well. You can meet `em at the convention, but you meet 700 other people at the convention. This was a one-on-one." Such experiences offer C. Bel staff a laugh now and again, but as Durning points out, the benefits of face-to-face contact are tangible on the sales end. "The more traffic and the more word of mouth, people find out how diversified you are, and they don´t think of you as just an awning company." C. Bel´s primary rubric is simple: "Never put all your eggs in one basket," says Durning. "Never."
Originally published in Upholstery Fabric Products Review, June 2002 John Gehner can be reached at http://www.ifai.com. John Gehner was formerly editor of InTents magazine and assistant editor of the Industrial Fabric Products Review. << Back to Homepage |