Small Business Stories - Ken Altiero

I’m Alex Fees on SBTV.com, we are coming to you at the 2008 NFIB conference, the National Small Business Summit in our nation’s capital, Washington DC. And joining me here now is Ken Altiero. Ken is the president of a company called Patriot Seating out of Auston town Ohio. Ken, have I done you justice there? Yes you have. Alright, It’s good to meet you. Nice to meet you. Appreciate you being here. Tell me about Patriot Seating. What is that? Patriot Seeding is a company that upholsters and assembles office seating. Okay. And we have a unique concept, concept that we hire veterans of the US armed forces, exclusively, in our plant. Really. To actually build the furniture. Exclusively. Exclusively. So your entire workforce is veterans. Actually, in the plant. Right. Yes. I understand. Our entire workforce is veterans. All the labor. We do have some office people that are not. But all the labors are veterans? That’s correct. How do that come about? Well, I’ve been in the office furniture industry for 26 years and back in, when 9/11 happened, I started thinking very differently about the world in general and what I wanted to do to maybe give back, leave a legacy behind. Right. My brother’s a veteran, he was wounded in Vietnam in 1967, he’s been my hero throughout my life. And I got to meet a lot of veterans through my brother. He works as a veteran’s rep for the state of Ohio, and I noticed that they have a very difficult transition from military life to civilian life, especially the combat veterans. And I’ve always felt that veterans have never been appreciated like they should and I decided about three years ago to write a business plan and hire veterans exclusively to work in my facility. And I did it because of my, my love for my brother and of course my respect for veterans, but it was the greatest thing I’ve ever done, because they’re the most incredible workforce that I’ve ever employed. Certainly. So it’s really helped in a lot of ways. And statistics have shown that veterans, in particular, also very successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. That’s correct. What about that? What about that workforce you mentioned? Is it a work ethics that you find or what? Yeah, they, they, they come in each morning, they come to work each morning, they raise the flag. They work diligently all day long. There’s a camaraderie between them that is unbelievable. Discipline. Loyalty. It’s unbelievable, It’s incredible. And at the end of the day, they lower the flag and everyday they work like that. They will not produce a product that isn’t in perfect order. We had actually one return in 2 and a half years. We’re only a 2 and a half year old company, so they do a fantastic job. How many people Ken, how many employees are we talking about? Right now we just have 11 employees. Okay. And out of those 11, 7 of them are veterans and the other employees are, I’m not a veteran myself. Right. And the other employees within the office, in the plant, there’s 7. And I hope to have hundred, 200 someday, as we grow. Yeah. And how do perspective employees become aware of your company? We worked with employment agencies to make veterans aware that we’re hiring. We have a website, every piece of furniture says “assembled by veterans of the US armed force”. We have a new video, that will be on our website very shortly. What is your website? It’s www.patriotseating.com Patriotseating.com. Right. Alright. So tell me about this, what age group of veterans are we talking about? You have 11 employees in the plant, your labor is made up of veterans. How old are they? Right now we have, we have a Vietnam veteran, my brother’s a Vietnam veteran as well and he’s always there. We have, I guess the age, age is between, right now, 35 and 55. But, we expect, in the next couple of years with these young men and women coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, that we will be hiring a lot of younger veterans. And the pool of veterans is going to increase… Right. Absolutely. … as the years go by, because of their service. Right. Ken, is the VA, the Veterans Administration are aware of you? Yes, yes, absolutely. In fact we have a, we are on the GSA schedule. I have a sister company that’s called Veterans Representative Company which my brother owns 51 percent of and that company is our conduit to the government. And we sell our products through that company to the US government. VA buys products from us. Alright Ken. Ken Altiero’s company Patriot Seating hires only veterans in the plant for the labor to construct office upholstery, right? That’s correct. What kind of reaction do you get from clients? You know, in the first six months that I went out to the field, we didn’t have a government contract, so I was just talking to, you know, commercial business. People that owned companies that you would think really had limited view on, on my concept. And I got everything from goosebumps to teary eyes because of what we’re doing. It was very emotional for me to talk about it for the first six months. People have been great, they love the idea that we’re hiring veterans. Everybody knows a veteran, either their, you know, somebody in their family, themselves have served and, so I get great reactions. But, we also have a wonderful product, so people do not buy our products just because they’re built by veterans. But I think it help us get in the door and then, of course, the product has to be a very high quality product to get sold. And we do have that. Alright, Ken you said a 2 and a half company, Austin Town, do I have it right? Austin Town, Ohio, Young’s Town Ohio area. Are you just doing business to that area or? No, we’re doing business nationwide. I’ve got 11 representative groups nationally. And most of our business right now is in the Midwest, the northeast, the south, but we have sold out in California, Texas, so we’re growing and I’m sure we’ll spread our wings throughout every state. Right, good deal Ken. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. Good to meet you sir. Thank you. Again, he is Ken Altiero, he is the president of Patriot Seating. We’re at NFIB, I’m Alex Fees, you’re watching SBTV.