announcer: now executive suite. ted: welcome to executive suite. we are going to hear from a story made in rhode island business. they have been around for more than 140 years in the state. we are going to talk
about some changes they are having and they are providing some things that could be in your bathroom right now. first, i'm pleased to be joined by steve. he's the mayor of williams square, you could almost say.
thank you for joining us. steve: my pleasure. ted: you are synonymous with the area. you are actually --- you got into real estate because of johnny unitas. tell us of that story.
steve: after i came out of law school, i was actually involved with the supreme court. and, i found out about a diner that was being foreclosed on and i went to a bar mitzvah. he was in the real estate
business and a broker. he said that he is a lawyer, you will spend everything you make. he put his arm around me. he said real estate. i said i talked to them about that foreclosure sale. he's a foreclosures are great.
look into that it i did. it was basically $1000 that i had to my name. the other $700 was deposited on a bedroom site. i did. about 30 people were there and nobody else bid anything and i got really scared.
petrified. after they put a purchase in front of me which i signed with a shaky hand, i went running back to the judge and i said i did a horrible thing. i was afraid to tell my wife. he said calm down. he came up with me to go to the
real estate. now you have to start marketing it. i was not getting very much success. most people starting out are interested in the land but not the diner. things went on for probably six
months. i finally got a call and he said are you familiar with the haber brothers? yeah. so -- i'm sorry -- we he said, i would like to buy the diner.
he offered me a very nice sum of money. i said the diner is yours. he took the diner. the diner had a basement so he left his big hole in the ground. i got a call from the police department and he said there is
a hole in the ground, kids are playing, you have to fill it. i called the landfill company and i told them -- here is my phone number in case you need me. next thing i know i'm getting a call from a fellow called johnny unitas.
i didn't believe it. who is this really?he said i am johnny i'm here with another player from the vikings. my lawyer from baltimore and a business partner from philadelphia and we are starting a chain of restaurants and we
would like to buy this land. begin me an offer and it was an incredible offer. you never take the first opera. ffer. i put him on hold my hand was shaking so much so i have to hold my hand. i called the judge and said you
don't take the first offer but i have johnny unitas on the line and give me this offer. i told him what it was. he said are you crazy? not only do you except but do not let him leave. [laughter] i called my law school classmate
and said joe, i don't have many money to pay you but we have to go to south edinburgh. i can get you johnny unitas' au tograhp. that is how we started. ted: it began with you in this world of real estate.
talking about it, some people say you own 80% of the buildings in that area east side of providence. one example, younger folks may not realize it, but starbucks was an empty lot for decades. what you think is unique about
the neighborhood that made it work? i think it is the village. a combination of unique retail stores. most recent. great apartment buildings and professional buildings. the city itself.
it hasn't had really -- we are trying now to get it more recognition than it is. it is a great place to shop, live and dine. we just opened the furniture store. doing very well.
ted: well, you know -- steve: people say how do i get into the beach. that is good and bad. hopefully, i think that will die down a little bit. a lot of people coming to try the pizzas and pasta is incredible.
if you ate in italy, it is like that. that is pretty much it. the oven was brought in from italy. even the chefs came from italy. everything is really legitimate. ted: we will talk more with steve about his real estate
career and the fact that he is a co-owner of the boston celtics. ted: welcome back. we are talking with steve, the basically i would say the mayor. e.on so many of the buildings. yes been involved -- he has been involved in developments. you were not given a $14 million
loan from your father. we really figured it out yourself. i'm curious -- you have been doing this a long time. you have watched the great digital shopping habits changing. do you ever worry about owning
all these brick-and-mortar stores? what do you think will be the future for brick-and-mortar retail? steve: i worry all the time because we have seen things evolve. at first, the internet came out
and retailers were scared to death. pretty soon all the retailers soon had websites and the ability to shop on the internet. so, i think that from a retail point, it is obviously multifamily, but from a retail point of view, it is a
challenge. i think that -- from my point of view, looking to do things that are unique. that you would not find people going to the internet for and so i think that if you focus on those kind of boutique stores, that the internet is not going
to really able to offer the general public. i think you can still be very successful in the future. i think that in a large part -- bthe bo xxy retail stores, these will be like showrooms.
they will see what is out there and probably order it on the internet. ted: how about development in providence? i covered it a number of years how high the commercial real estate tax is. how difficult it is to build
when rent is low in boston but the costs are similar. what is your view? how much is the massive development in providence upside down? or not? steve: i'm a big believer that the consumer lens themselves.
therefore, it starts with the there is no question that in providence compared to boston is much less. there is much less money to spend. therefore, rents have to be lower. unfortunately, the construction
costs do not change with what city you are in. as a result, we find the margins are smaller in providence and also the growth factor. we just never really had the kind of growth from these other communities have had. a lot of it has been
particularly in the musical chairs kind of thing. i think residential has done pretty well. and on the retail side, you know , i think we are seeing a lot more national tenants coming into providence now because they can afford to pay the higher
rent. it is unfortunate because, for me, when i tried to do rent to national tenants and local boutiques. whether it be providence, or ht examplthe -- or the example of sephora. it draws traffic.
they pick up on that traffic. as a result. you have to get the traffic. i think that it is 30 miles away. i think able bring a lot of traffic into womenswear -- w halen square.
i have gotten a lot of calls from people. they are supposed to go into brookline because the traffic and congestion, it is a lot easier. i think what providence can do is i think bring in the right
mix of tenants from southern massachusetts and so many south kingston and the southern part of the state. it is the same thing i tried to do with the square. you can drop people from providence and that will make it more vibrant.
ted: you are co-owner of the boston celtics. that is very cool to a lot of people watching today. how did you get involved with that? steve: i actually started -- i'm a big sports fan, but i always
wanted to own part of a sports team. i saw the pittsburgh penguins hockey team and mario lemie ux was trying to get the team. i was involved the group that was trying to buy the penguins. it did not work out in the end,
but he was putting it together for mario, putting the celtics deal together. they referred me to them and i got to know the owners. we have a really good group of owners there. we are going to have a good season.
ted: are you excited for the 2017 season? steve: very excited about it. i think the addition of al horford is huge. we have a lot to build on from last year. we have a great coach in brad stevens.
ted: only about 30 seconds left, but you have been very successful but you are still doing it and investing. what you two going? -- what keeps you going? steve: my wife says the thrill of it till. i think -- that
still -- all thae kill. giving back to the community that has been good to me and building things that hopefully people appreciate. and by creating tenant mixes. i appreciate the communities will benefit by them.
that is what it is all about. ted: thank you so much for joining me and thank you for watching. stay with us because coming up next, we will talk to the new executive who has move around a little bit. now i'm joined by two executives
that has been in a long time for rhode island. may have new management and so we will talk about that. we will talk about the company's's three. -- company's history. i'm joined by ben and john. you have worked in there since
1978 and now the executive chairman. thank you for being here. i will start with you. i was saying it is never smelled better on executive suite. all caps of different -- all kinds of different sources.
you're making the sopaps we buy. we are coming up with unique formulas and selling it. some great names. johnson and johnson, all the soap scum from rhode island. ted: and you are charging the same?
i get that question. we have over 50 kinds. we have the ability to do it all new. everything is completely different. ted: what is that? it is taking oils whether they be palm, coconut,
creating a chemical reaction and that turns into a soap. you can envision hospitals and that is what it --'s the noodles and that is what -- pasta noodles and that is what it resembles. ted: 150 years old. the name comes from the original
founders from bradford, england. they named it after bradford and bradford soaps. how big is your operation today? how many people and how much soap? we employ about 250 employees and bradford. we have a facility in columbus,
indiana with about 100 employees. we also have another in california and mexico. you go into the shower and you use it and that is what we do in mexico. 250 employees and a great campus.
ted: how much soap a day? over 300 million bars of soap. ted: is it too much? it is great. sometimes you see people walking around and it smells like soap. ted: john, this has been a
family owned company for a long time. it has been involved since the 1940's? my father was the first member of our family to join the company. the company started in bradford, england.
somebody opened a competing company under the same name, not registering the name, it reopened under the original the company changed hands several times, moves several times and by providing 30's, it was located here. making industrial soap to clean
cotton and woot. my dad pivoted the company to make some specialty finishing products with the textile industry like flame retardant. then, the textile industry was moving south. you cannot move the building so he made the wise decision to
upgrade the soapmaking and downstream soapmaking capabilities. we have ridden that wave for 50 years now. ted: we have seen so many manufacturers, massively frankly what they do. you have a sizable operation.
what has been the core of continuing profitability in rhode island? great people and a commitment to continuing to reinvent ourselves and stay innovative and courageous. at one point, we were basically a contract manufacturer and our
customers owned all the ip. then we became a custom manufacturer where we were starting to develop and codevelop with our customers. now, we are really issued tj partner using -- a strategic partner and using trend research and knowledge to fully develop
products with customer strategy so our customers can grow the we really defined what it means to be a manufacturer. ted: people remember in 2004, there was some management and talk of people coming together. how would you describe relationships since then?
terrific. without our employees, and we have generations -- we have grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters working at the we have a terrific relationship with our employees. somebody who wants to work at a manufacturing environment, or
build a real product that people can relate to like we see here, for people that take pride in seeing fruits of their labor out on the shelves, in the mall, supermarket, i think it is a great place to work. ted: how competitive is the world of soap?
are there a ton of factories churning out big soap sellers? it is a competitive environment because it's a cost competitive environment. you can carve it into two worlds. one is old-line soap. ivory, old irish springs.
those are being pushed out by two large global factories and they are doing it very fast. they do it at a very low cost. there is no creativity. it is old formulas and that market is declining. there are some companies in north america that play into the
specialty market. we are the largest. we probably have 80% of the market stake. that clearly goes back to renovation. we spend a lot of time developing formulas. we do a lot of things first.
you can see some of it here. we made the first bar of soap for amway when they were just starting out. that was over 40 years ago. we have made soap out of sea algae. an as the f-15 so we have made -- spf 15 soap we have
made. we were the first company to make natural soaps with natural preservatives. all of that creativity sets is a part. ted: you have been at this a quite number of years. you hear a lot about more
manufacturing and companies like yours to grow and come. any advice of what people should be doing if they want to continue economic growth? well, i think the old adage of a burden and -- a burden in the hand -- a bird in the
hand. unfortunately, we have had the tendency of trying to hit a home run. unfortunately, that has not been successful. there are repercussions of that not being successful have dragged down chances of
development. my first and foremost and strongest mesh into leadership in the state is paying attention to the companies that are here. it is a lot easier to keep a company if you care about it and you understand what its needs are than it is to grab a company
from some other state that is desperately trying to keep it anyway. ted: we only have about 30 seconds left. you have just taken over as the top ceo. what are you excited about and what are you focusing on?
i'm etc. about what we bring to the table. i'm trying to reinvigorate the culture. i think we have had a great culture, but it is about getting everybody to understand what we are trying to do. we are want to get everyone to
get into the same direction. ted: stewart and john, thank you for joining me. as you can see, you might be using their soaps now. that big beautiful mill. it is a national register. very cool.
thank you for joining me and thanked you for joining us. if you missed any of our show, you can see all of that on our website, wpri.com.
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