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Navigating the hard soft water businessBy Pamela Cotant
But Ray Mayne, who was thrust into running Fox Water after his father's sudden death, is up for the challenge. He revels in competing with bigger companies that have more name recognition. "It's great to be an independent that doesn't have to be owned by anybody," he said. Mayne's father was the first independent dealer to be named president of the national Water Quality Association, a post he held from 1979-1980. Fox Water was started in 1959 by John Fox in the garage of his North Side Madison home. In the early 1960s, the business was moved into a former Army barracks on Sherman Ave. Mayne's father, Richard Mayne, who was working for the former Water King in Deerfield, met Fox in the Wisconsin Air National Guard and came to work for Fox Water in the mid-1960s. After Fox began developing the Cherokee Park area in 1968, the elder Mayne began running the company and eventually became part owner. The younger Mayne, who made some deliveries and assembled equipment while attending East High School, graduated in 1980 from UW-Oshkosh with a business administration degree. After his father asked him to join the business, Mayne began by pitching in where needed but mostly concentrated on sales and service. "The tightness I had with my father and the commitment I had to the company was a lot more important than other options out there," Mayne said. On June 18, 1992, Mayne's father left work at his normal time but called his son after he got home, saying he didn't feel well and wondering if it was something the two had eaten for lunch. Mayne, who was feeling OK, urged his father to go see a doctor. Shortly after the phone call, his father died of a heart attack. "I lost my best friend, mentor and my father all in the same day," said Mayne, now 48. But there was a business to run. Fox wanted Mayne to continue running the business and he then opened the door so Mayne could work toward full ownership. Mayne said when he suddenly was left in charge, he relied on his staff, which included his only sibling, Linda Mayne, who had started working for the company in 1986 and is primarily involved in billing and selling. The company now has seven full-time and three part-time workers. All but two of his employees have been at the company for at least 10 years and most of have been there much longer. Bettie Reis and Robin Squires have been there 36 and 30 years, respectively. "There's nothing we can't figure out," Mayne said of his employees. Linda Mayne said one employee, Phil Otis, a friend of Mayne's since fifth grade, is like a second brother, and his father works at the company also. She said a number of people made contributions to get the company where it is today and employees are supportive of each other. "Ray and I aren't the only family here," she said. On Feb. 1, 1998, Mayne was able to buy out the other owners. He did it with the second biggest Small Business Administration loan in Dane County history -- at least at that time -- obtained through First Business Bank and with additional financing from Fox. Mayne's wife, Kate, is a mail carrier and they have a daughter, Kelly Mayne, who attends Madison Area Technical College, and a son, Alan Mayne, a sophomore at East High School. Mayne's children were involved in the East Madison Little League, which used to have its fields on land behind his shop before moving to the Oscar Mayer Field on North Street. Mayne continues to be involved in Little League, sponsoring a team every year and a sign on an outfield fence. An integral aspect of the company is overlapping job descriptions, and Mayne literally runs in the office as he works with employees and answers phones. "Everybody knows that sometimes your job description expands to complete our work and satisfy our customers," said Mayne, who typically works more than 10 hours a day. "Shortly after my dad died, I was still delivering (softening) salt on Sundays." Mayne says it gets harder every year for small companies such as his to thrive. Because of the competitive market, Fox Water hasn't raised the prices for its water softeners in five years, but has still managed to increase revenue and stay afloat. In the past, some of the space in the Sherman Avenue building next to the Esquire Club was leased to other businesses. Now, Fox Water occupies the whole building. The interior is paneled -- a throwback to its beginnings, and the basement has a workshop where Fox Water assembles its own water softeners from component parts it buys. Another room stores crates of water bottles for another part of the business: delivery of 5-gallon bottles of water. Mayne wishes he had a loading dock. As it is, the company needs a few more hands to operate a forklift to move the bottles of water in and out of the trucks. Mayne said he has tried to improve the company's fleet because of the image it projects. A high school friend, Ken Grueneberg of Ken's Art and Signs, came up with the company's logo and did the signage for the vans and a mural on the side of the Fox Water building. Fox Water builds its own water softeners because it helps control costs and it gives the company complete control of its product. The water softeners are so reliable, Mayne said, that one service person, Rich Bernstein, is responsible for 5,000 water softeners and responds to problems in one day. The company has decided to focus on Dane County and to not to have its products sold through a plumber, as some companies do. "We deal directly with our customers," Mayne said. "Good product, good service and good people to deal with is what we hang our hat on." Linda Mayne said her brother gives employees a lot of leeway in what they can do to satisfy customers. Over the years, Fox Water has come up with new sources of income. In 1989, it became a distributor of Nicolet Natural Artesian Water in 5-gallon bottles. It rents and sells the water coolers for the bottles. The company also installs water heaters. Water softener rental, the backbone of the company, has decreased as more people opt to buy them instead. As in the past, the company delivers water softener salt to a limited number of customers. Despite Mayne's comfort in his role as the little guy, he admits he's had second thoughts. He said it might have made sense in the past to expand in other ways, go into franchising or have the company's softeners sold through plumbers. But because that is not the direction the company has gone, Mayne is steadfastly focusing on what his company does best. "I'm pretty proud of what I've done and where I have to go," said Mayne, who, like his sister, has always lived on Madison's North Side. "There is just something to be said for just trying to provide a decent living for your employees and hopefully yourself." pcotant@mailbag.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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