We’re excited for you to take a peek into an insightful discussion that took place between Craig Penland, our dedicated President at Eurolink FSS, and the charismatic Jeff Wilson. Jeff’s known for sitting down with accomplished entrepreneurs right here in the Upstate of South Carolina, offering them a platform to unveil their remarkable stories and triumphs. You can hear more from him at his website: jeffwilsonsc.com
Buckle up as we venture into the heart of this conversation, where Craig candidly shares the story behind Eurolink’s triumphs and the challenges that paved its path.
EUROLINK FSS VLOG TRANSCRIPT
Jeff Wilson:
Hi, I’m Jeff Wilson and I sit down with successful entrepreneurs from here in the upstate of South Carolina, giving them an opportunity to share their journey with you and their successes. In this episode, I talk with Craig and Penland of Eurolink FSS. Kick us off with the value proposition for Eurolink.
Craig Penland:
Basically, we offer hard-to-find metric fasteners that are manufactured to dinner ISO standards that are normally not stopped here in the United States. We have about 15 to 16 different European suppliers that we buy from and we have weekly airfreight shipments coming in. So if the item, if the item is not here in the United States, but the OEM or the customer still needs it, we’re the company that people from all over the country come to find 50 – 100,000 pieces of that screw/nut/bolt and bringing in as quickly as possible. More or less where JIT importer.
Jeff Wilson:
Nice. I like to learn about my guests and when they had that entrepreneurial itch, you know, the just insatiable itch, right? And it’s like, Man, I gotta scratch this. I gotta give this a try. Do you remember yours?
Craig Penland:
Well, I’ve kind of always had it. I mean, I’ve worked since I was 12 years old. And I’m originally here from Greenville and grew up on the east side of town. I have always wanted to own my own business, went off to college, ended up getting married, had a son, and got started in the restaurant business ended up at the age of 24, being the youngest General Manager in the history of the company, and couple years later left, got into the business with my older brother. After doing that, for five years, we left and we knew instantly that we could do this ourselves, we could run our own company, My older brother was like my Hero growing up. And I always looked up to him.
He got started with a company, and he was offered the branch manager position. He took over he hired a good group of people that grew the business, doing about 10 to 15 times more in Greenville than what they were doing in Atlanta on a monthly basis. And after him running it for a few years, he saw me putting in 90 plus hours a week in the restaurant business and called me and said, Hey, how about an eight to five Monday through Friday job? So, I took him up on it and came to work for him. I was with him for five years. And let’s just say management made a decision that they no longer wanted my brother Todd to run the business and they let him go. But within a day of them letting him go, I left, gave my notice, and walked out. And because I wanted to work for Todd. He was the reason that I got out of the restaurant business and into the nut and bolt business. And he was the one that I wanted to spend my career working with and working for.
Jeff Wilson:
So it sounds like your brother was probably one of your biggest mentors.
Craig Penland:
He was.
Jeff Wilson:
Okay.
Craig Penland:
He was
Jeff Wilson:
Now take us on that journey. So this is this is an open canvas for you so so Eurolink, just walk us through.
Craig Penland:
The original name of the company was supply line fasteners. And basically, we left our former company in May of 20 or 2000. And we talked ourselves into starting our own business. We decided to do it in the basement of my house over in Spartanburg. And we hooked up the phone and said that we were live on July 1 of 2000 and just started making phone calls phone calls that time sending out fax, after fax, after fax, and just slowly started putting a few any…
Jeff Wilson:
any noncompetes you had to deal with?
Craig Penland:
Nope.
Jeff Wilson:
Okay.
Craig Penland:
And just slowly started picking up a little business here and there being a small local distributor. We ended up going after OEM contracts, which was not our cup of tea at the time. Before that we were we were the master importer that was selling to the local distributor. And so we were getting into a business model that we were not familiar with a comfortable with, but it was a way to pay bills. So we picked up an OEM contract out of Spartanburg. They use a lot of metric fasteners and we started running into issues of not being able to get 50 pieces of this, 100 pieces of this. Even though we were sending it off to all the big importers around the country. They were sending back their answers by fax again with five or six items that they had stock in different locations around the country, but then they would write no stock, no quote, besides three or four items. After a year and a half, almost two years of dealing with this, even though we knew exactly who to buy these items from over in Europe, they wouldn’t sell to us because we were the new kids on the block. We ended up losing that OEM contract, they said that you’re just not big enough to take care of us. And we recognized at that point back in about 2003/2004, that there needed to be somebody that could import in the hard to find items, the items that are not kept here because we couldn’t be the only distributor around the country that was facing this issue. And in losing contracts because of this.
So over the next few years, we backtracked, we came up with the name, Eurolink, we went over to Europe, we talked with the suppliers, we told them what we wanted to do, what the future of Eurolink looked like, we had to find a importer or a freight forwarder, that was willing to work with us because that first air freight shipment could have been 2000 pounds, or it could have been 20 pounds. But we had to be reasonable with our prices, and our delivery. So after working a few years getting dotting all of our I’s and crossing all of our T’s, in April 2007, we launched Eurolink. For the first time ever, we were a small family-owned business here in Greer, South Carolina, that was trying to sell to much larger distributors all over the country. And we had to get our name out there. And that’s where it started doing trade shows, doing tabletop events, going to conferences all over the country, basically just traveling the country and telling people what we do and how we do it. And it was an uphill battle 2008/2009 with the economy. Wow. I mean, we got to the point where I wasn’t sure we were gonna keep the door open.
Jeff Wilson:
Okay.
Craig Penland:
And it was, it was March 2010, that I had that God moment with the company. And what I mean by that is my college-age son had called that earlier that day and said, Dad, I want to come home and work for the company this summer. And yet, I couldn’t even pay my own salary at the moment. And that night, I was still at the office at nine o’clock, 9:30. And I just hit my knees. And I said, God if this is what you want me to do, then just show me something. But if it’s not, I’ll move on. And I won’t, there won’t be any regrets for what I’ve done for the previous 10 years. And within a day or two, a customer that I’d lost six months earlier, called up and said, I know you’re still sitting on a lot of the inventory that belongs to us that we’re no longer buying from you. We will take all of it. Wow. And I was like, Excuse me, we will take all it just go ahead put everything on pallets and send it to us. And I was like, Okay, what about payment, they said, If you’ll give us a discount of five to 10 a discount within five to 10 days. They said we’ll pay you within 10 days. And I was like you’ve got to be kidding me. And all of a sudden I went from a $3,000 previous month and total sales to a $40,000 month and total sales. And I made enough money off this sale that I could pay for my son to come in and work with me. So it was just us two at that time.
Jeff Wilson:
Sure.
Craig Penland:
And, it just bloomed that 40,000 turned into a 42 the next month a 44. And I went through two and a half straight years that it was, it was a positive growth every single month.
Jeff Wilson:
Wow. Yeah. That is a great God story.
Craig Penland:
Amen.
Jeff Wilson:
Amen. Great God story.
You and your wife have designed concert-themed T-shirts right each year that you that you pass out. So tell us about that branding. That’s that’s pretty cool.
Craig Penland:
Yes, over the years. Back in 2012. We had a customer Send us a letter after we took care of them that made reference to you guys were like superheroes to us. You failed the part that everybody in the country had no quoted. And if we wouldn’t have gotten that part, we would have shut down a production line. And that next year, my advertising group that I was working with came up with the Superman ad and it was great for one year and then we realized that we had missed the mark with women in our industry. So we came up with the Super Women’s the next year. And that worked great for about two more years. And again, we sent out a customer survey. And what we got back was a remark that said almost the same thing. You guys helped us when nobody else could, you guys are like rock stars down there, you’re always coming through and everybody else says no. And I sat down with my marketing company. They went through the survey. And they said, you know, we need to utilize this. And I was like, Oh, how do you plan on utilizing this? Let’s market it, let’s come up with a new logo. And we will move forward with kind of the rock star image for a year like that’s what will present to the country, the country. And they knew that I was an 80s kid, um, room with hair bands. And I remember going to the first trade show, they called me, they said, We got an idea for your giveaways. And I was like, what’s that? And they said, Let’s do tour t-shirts. And we have done, I think six to this point. And it is a lot of fun trying to come up with the theme of the t-shirt every year. But yes, the Rockstar has really played with my background.
Jeff Wilson:
That’s awesome. But going back to mentors and mentoring, so your brother Todd, you’ve been on the receiving end. Have you had an opportunity to be a mentor to others? Business, personally, spiritually, you know, talk to us about those opportunities and the importance that they play in your life.
Craig Penland:
Well, I’ve actually got to partake in both sides. I’ve got to be a mentor and a mentee. As far as being a mentee, you’re right, my brother was a huge one for me. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2013. Since then, I’ve had different pastors spend a lot of quality time with me, local pastors around the town. I’ve had some just amazing friends, very good friends that also on businesses around the Greenville career area that stepped in just unbelievable the number of men that surrounded me from like 2016 to 2018. And they still do today,
Jeff Wilson:
Sure.
Craig Penland:
But surrounded me and said work on to invest in you,
Jeff Wilson:
Okay.
Craig Penland:
And it was from their investing in me that I made the decision that I wanted to invest in others. And I have done a mentor-mentee relationship in our industry before that the young fastener professionals, a national organization put together so I’ve worked with a young man whose father owned a business up in Illinois. And I spent about a year and a half, two years, contacting him and speaking with him on a regular basis, just because he was going through the struggles of dad owning the business, and he needed some input that was outside his company.
From there, I’ve led Men’s Ministry or groups at church, I currently have a men’s Bible study at my farm. And that meets every single week, which allows me to invest in some men around this area who are really going through a tough time. And I love spending time with other men. I’ve actually had two lunches this week with men just going through a rough time with their marriage or their children and just needed somebody to sit down and talk with and pray with. So, I get I get a lot out of that.
And even as busy as the company is today, as much as we’re going through to finish off the year. Those times with these other men, an hour or two hours in the middle of the workday, they’re precious to me, and I take advantage of them whenever I can.
Jeff Wilson:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. I had an earlier guest today. We talked about him being an entrepreneur, defining success versus significance. In his mind, if you can pause long enough and identify opportunities to be significant in the lives of others, success will follow.
Craig Penland:
Absolutely. Success will follow.
We’ve actually become partners with a group here in Greenville called Switch, switchsc.org. They are a local grassroots organization that deals with human sex trafficking, and we started with them back in 2017. We have been the main sponsor for their Gallas, for two of the last three years, including this previous one in November, and I love working with that organization.
Jeff Wilson:
Absolutely.
Craig Penland:
And here recently, just since the summer we have gotten involved with a group called Sunday Dinner with a Twist that feeds our homeless in downtown Greenville, SC. And it’s an amazing organization. The people that are in charge of it, a gentleman by the name of Red, he was homeless himself for many years. And he doesn’t put any requirements on the people that need our help. He doesn’t ask you to come to Him. We go to them. We basically got To-Go boxes. And then we go into tent cities every Sunday. And we handed out To-Go boxes and pillows and blankets and tents. So we have really jumped on board with both of those organizations. And I tell you what, I’m challenged every year to see how much I can give back of our company profits to the community around us.
I heard a podcast years ago with the owners of Hobby Lobby, a very faith-driven company. And they were talking about how they give 50% of their profits back. And that just challenged me. A company like that, that started in the garage, that is able to grow the way, that they’ve been able to grow and still give away 50% of their profits. So about five years ago, I decided that I was going to start doing that too. Now, I’m not up to 50% yet, not close, but we are gaining every single year.
Jeff Wilson:
So why is it important for you as a business owner and a leader within your organization to get involved in the community?
Craig Penland:
Love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, I can’t make it any simpler than that. I was given two marching orders, and that on is the second one. So that pretty much sums it up.
Jeff Wilson:
Good.
Well, Craig, I’m very big on acronyms. So, I have an acronym in the form of a question for you. What is your WIKNWIKT? That’s WIKNWIKT. That stands for “What I Know Now Wish I Knew Then”. So you and I had a cup of coffee at Barista Alley, downtown Greer so the 2021 Craig Penland is having a cup of coffee at Barista Ally with the 2000, correct, Penland. What I know now wish I knew then, how’s that conversation go?
Craig Penland:
You can’t outgive God, no matter how much of a try, you cannot give God. And I think over the years, the one thing that I’ve learned and I’ve expressed to people who work for me, friends, and business associates, is that I could probably write a New York Times bestseller on how not to run a company. Because if you could do it wrong, I’ve done it wrong in the last 20 years. But the fact that we’re still here, we’re still growing, tells me that the idea behind the company that concept was the right one. I just had to start trusting God with all my business decisions. And once I started doing that, then the company grew to unimaginable numbers.
Jeff Wilson:
That’s awesome.
Date: 08/29/2023
Subject: Craig Penland candidly shares the story behind Eurolink FSS’s triumphs and the challenges that paved its path.