Spring Break
Pirate Entrepreneurs get tips from local innovators
Max Lemanowicz
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News
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According to Hackney's wife, Marty Hackney, the director of Entrepreneurial Initiative in the Office of Engagement, Innovation and Economic Development at ECU, previous Pirate Entrepreneurs' meetings were mostly about the beginning and process of prototype design.
"In this meeting Jim will go through the ways in which to make prototypes last and how they can be affected," she said.
The Pitt County Development Commission sponsored the event and donated food from Ledo's Pizza.
"This is a great opportunity to engage entrepreneurs and to continue in the process of developing their ideas," said Joseph Dawson of the Pitt County Development Commission.
During his 25-year stint with Hackney Industries and as a former CEO of the company, Hackney was highly instrumental in helping the corporation grow from $25,000 sales in 1965 to over $50 million in 1999.
"One of the most important things to know about innovation and entrepreneurship is, either survive or go," Hackney said.
A company that originally started out as a horse-and-buggy manufacturer, Hackney and Sons has become one of the leading manufacturers in North Carolina. Their main line of work deals with Beverage Delivery Truck Bodies and its drivers, refrigerated vans, and recently, emergency vehicles.
Hackney at first focused on engineering innovation represented by several manufactured products that Hackney and Sons has produced throughout the duration of its existence.
"It's something I've been involved in for all of my life," Hackney said, "This is what I do."
Hackney Industries is responsible for many innovative ideas, including prop-frame milk wagons that made it easier for truck drivers to unload products at a lower level, poured-type insulation in refrigerated vans, which dramatically enhanced thermal heating and cooling capabilities and Galvanized Steel Beverage Bodies and trailers helped combat against erosion in Northern states that are afflicted by intense cold and salt laid on the roads. Freeway Spray lubricant was designed for use on aluminum and non-phosphorous metals -- something that WD-40 cannot do.
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