>> There's an old saying that
you are known by the company you keep.
And in talking about our company,
I'll always paraphrase this and say, over the years,
Our-Way has kept very good company
because we have hired,
and we have kept some of the very finest people.
At Our-Way, our personnel department
has only one hiring standard.
We tell them to hire what we call solid citizens.
And what we mean by that are
people who care about their families,
who are hardworking, honest, responsible people,
people that we know will care about their jobs,
and who will understand that as a company succeeds,
so will they for themselves and their families.
Because that's really why we're all here.
>> The story of Our-Way is a story of
dedicated people working together to provide
the highest standards and quality
and service for its customers
and rewarding job opportunities for the Our-Way family.
Our-Way Incorporated, then
known as Our-Way Machine Shop,
was founded in 1948,
by B Orr in a 25 foot by
25 foot garage on Elizabeth Street in Inman Park.
Miss Bobbie Bailey was one of the original six employees.
It did not take long for people to recognize
who was the driving force behind the butting company.
Long-time C&S banker and friend,
Merriell Autrey recalls those early years.
>> I met Bobbie before she was about 18 years old,
and she was working in a machine shop,
and I'll never forget our call one day.
Somebody said, well,
you talk to his assistant
out in the back and I went out in the back,
and there was Bobbie in
coveralls and up to elbows in grease.
And I don't know what she was doing,
remaking a motor of some kind, or something.
But that's where our first relationship started.
My first impression was,
you don't find,
and I'm not trying to be a male chauvinist pig,
but you don't find women putting this kind of
effort into a company like she was doing.
And she really was running the show.
I later found out why she pretty much stepped in,
held that company together,
ran it and made profits out of it and showed
that she had the acumen to really manage a company,
and she was very impressive.
I guess one of the other things I liked about it,
she always seemed to take care of her employees.
And she always wanted to take
care of those that meant so much to her,
and not necessarily her family,
but she considered everybody in this plant,
her family, and I think she would
do anything she could today
to take care of any one of them.
>> I think she 14 or 16 years.
But she used to work with her brother named Leon.
He used to rebuild our automobile motors,
and she used to help him rebuild automobile.
That's how she learned dependency.
And that's why she could get in a compressor,
and she knew how to build a compressor.
So that's why he started with her and she could do it.
And that's how she convinced
him that she could do the work and she could do it too.
>> So the story of Our-Way began from
the seeds of a dream of one person, Miss Bobbie Bailey,
a 22-year-old woman from the South
who wanted to do something more for her family,
who wanted to build a lasting business
that would provide her family
and many others the means to
make their own dreams a reality.
Always eager to build
the business and take on new challenges.
In 1960, Miss Bailey went after
and was able to get the Copeland contract,
a major growth step for
the company and just the beginning of the hard work.
Bobbie's sister, Audrey and her husband,
Jack joined her to start up
the new company, Our-Way Incorporated.
Soon after, Miss Bailey bought out
the machine shop owner and
became the sole owner of Our-Way,
a company which has since become
the world's largest independent remanufacturer
of commercial air conditioning
and refrigeration compressors.
>> Most people that own a business,
you don't see them get down there and work with you.
And from the first day,
because she worked down there with me,
didn't mind getting dirty, just like the rest of us.
She'd get just as greasy as the rest of us did.
And she was always right in there with you.
I couldn't get over that because to me
that was exceptionally different.
>> One year, we were extremely busy,
and had a lot of orders that summer,
and she come right out on the floor
and she worked right out there with us the
whole summer where she pushed
us to make sure we got
all those orders out, but we got them out.
We worked like 10 hours a day
for six days a week and
she was right there with us the whole time.
I've always respected that for her,
the way she did that and how
she comes out there on the floor
and doesn't mind doing it.
>> She's a doer. When she
says she's going to do something,
she's going to do it and she
expects the same thing of you.
She presents challenges to you
and she expects you to take
those and run with them and get
the job done. I've learned that.
But I've also learned that
she's an extremely loyal person.
If you are loyal to
her and you do the job that she expects of you,
she in turn is extremely loyal to you.
>> All these years, I've
been learning a lot of stuff from Bailey.
I've been appreciating things that
I really I don't appreciate before.
And one thing that she told me,
long time ago that I remember when she
said she even showed me work and I said,
I cannot do this.
She said, if you're doing, you can do it.
And that's what always I put it in my mind.
When I got any new job,
why I cannot do it?
Yes. So I've been doing things that really surprise me.
>> From its beginning in 1948,
the story of Our-Way has been one of
continuous growth and achievements.
In 1956, Our-Way became
factory authorized by General Electric Corporation.
1960, Copeland added factory
authorized to Our-Way products.
Our-Way named best of rebuilders.
1969, Carrier and Dunham-Bush
recognized Our-Way as factory authorized.
1978, Our-Way relocates to Stone Mountain.
In 1982,
Our-Way compressor is recognized
as certified by Copeland.
1990, company gets the Maneurop contract,
and all product lines gain UL recognition.
1991, Our-Way acquires hermetic refrigeration and
becomes the sole supplier
of Carrier remanufactured compressors.
1992, Our-Way qualifies as Carrier Q-Plus certified.
1993, company named supplier of
the year by Carrier out of 2,200 suppliers.
Also in 1993,
Our-Way gets the York International contract.
And in 1997, Our-Way obtains ISO 9002 registration,
signifying world class quality.
Today, after over 50 years of serving the industry,
Our-Way is a $35 million company
that has earned worldwide respect and recognition.
In listening to the story of Our-Way,
there is a recurring theme of teamwork or like
a family doing whatever needs
to be done beginning at the top.
>> She does not back off from anything,
and she loves a challenge.
And she doesn't see anything that she can't do.
And so I think her drive
has been very important to the company.
And I think that why
it has worked so well with the two of us is that
our skills compliment each other because she loves
the manufacturing end of it and
I handle the business end of it.
And we have the greatest respect
for each other and for our talents.
And so she generally says,
I handle the manufacturing,
Audrey handles everything else.
>> Always been a pretty close company.
Most of the people,
even the ones that have retired and left over the years,
they probably tell you the same thing.
It's always been a close knit company
like a family business.
Because of the fact that she hands
on every day and has always equally
concerned with her customers
and keeping the employees
in the plant working and running.
She's also made this company successful
by hiring a good team to work
with her and a team that knows she and Audrey
both know how she wants
things done and that's the way we've done it.
>> We're a team. I've learned that we're
a team and we work together.
We ask that everyone does the
same. And that's what we have.
We have a good working relationship with the employees.
And I'm proud of that.
After a while, it just feels like going home again.
Either you go home to your house or
you go home to work and just that way about it.
I was always on a personal level.
It wasn't just an employer employee relationship.
It was something that you had to give,
you had to do whatever you had to
do to help the company grow.
And that's the way I always felt for 18 years,
and I still feel that way.
Audrey is extremely hard worker.
Audrey wants to dot every I and cross every
T. She believes in quality work also.
Audrey also personally has given me
the opportunity to learn how corporation works.
As a controller, I've really won
a lot of hats that a lot of controllers don't.
She shared with me freely,
information about how a lot of things work that I
would not typically expect to be exposed to.
>> Besides its people,
Ways hallmarks our quality and service.
In 1997, Our-Way's commitment to
quality led to
the company's achievement of ISO registration,
the highest international standards of quality.
>> When we went into the registration process,
we had a lot of the things already done.
We were already doing I will say
at least 75% of the things that we
needed to do to become registered,
and we just had to develop
those other 25% of the things that we needed to
do and document some of
the things that we were already doing.
But we were a good long ways down
the road when it came to the registration.
>> We are known as a quality organization.
We are known as people of integrity who are
very honest and deal straightforward with our customers,
our suppliers, and our employees.
One of the hallmarks of our company is a quality product.
We have set the standard in
our industry for remanufacturing.
>> We do things here that other companies don't do.
We are ISO registered and we try to
live by that, quality is upmost.
>> Quality to me in my department is very important.
If I produce a product,
I want it to be exactly
right before it goes out the door.
>> In addition to quality,
Our-Way service is legendary in the industry.
The commitment extends to
extensive customer training, including plant tours.
And regardless of the circumstances,
customers of Our-Way can count on
their orders being delivered on time.
>> We all set out to get a job done.
And over the years,
I think we've done an excellent task of that.
Our biggest thing is we've always strive to
give the customer what they needed on a timely basis.
And if it took Peg we were saying if it
take until ten o'clock in
night or three o'clock in the morning.
>> I remember Roy staying there one night
until 3:30 in the morning to build
a compressor for the little Debbi company in Tennessee,
and they sent an 18 wheeler down and he waited all night
long for a compressor to be built off the line.
And they sent us
two boxes of little debbi cookies
for staying there that night.
>> I don't think anybody else
could have done it near as well.
I'll be honest with you.
They satisfied the distributors,
they satisfied the customers.
And if we made a mistake,
we cured it the same day,
we didn't let it get prolonged.
>> Our-Way's customers will echo that commitment.
Joyce Placido from Carrier Corporation.
Our-Way has always been very responsive to us.
They are really there to please the customer,
which is unusual these days.
Powell Patrick from Johnston Supply.
I've worked with Our-Way since 1974,
and customer service has always been number 1 with them.
They go overboard to get the customer what he needs.
Carol Poindexter from Baker Distributing.
Audrey, I've told so many people,
but probably never you,
what a role model you've been for me
over the years I've worked in this industry.
Thanks for your leadership and friendship.
>> Audrey and Jack and Bobbie.
It's certainly an honor for me to have a chance to
sit here and talk to you a little
bit about our relationship.
I wish I could be there with you as you celebrate what's
been just an incredible career for all of you.
Our relationship with you is really 40-years-old now.
I don't know of any other example where two companies
have had as long and strong a relationship
as Copeland and Our-Way have had.
In those 40 years, you may not know it,
but you may not have thought about it,
but you've built over two million Copeland compressors.
You've served our distribution network.
You've been more than just a supplier to Copeland.
You've been a partner to Copeland.
You've been somebody that we've looked to to
bounce our ideas off about where
we've gone and where we're going.
And I just want to take an opportunity to not just thank
you for what you've done for
us in providing us compressors
and products and technology.
I want to take a time and thank you for
the guidance that you've been for us as I and
as the rest of the people at Copeland have looked out
and where we should be
going and where the industry is going.
But I think most of all, we want to thank you for
your friendship that you've
had with Copeland with our people.
I think our relationship with Our-Way is
the epitome of what
we would love to have with all our suppliers,
with all our customers and with all our friends.
You guys have been family to us.
You've been somebody who has trusted us.
You've been somebody that we can trust.
There's nothing we haven't been
able to share with you and tell you.
There's no issue as difficult as they might be,
that we haven't been able to look each other in
the eye and work out together.
And it's that spirit of friendship and trust,
I think that's made our 40 40
year relationship different than
really anything else that I've experienced of
my career. We're going to miss you.
I already have experienced the struggles of
trying to move ahead without your relationship,
and I know that you're helping us in this transition,
and I thank you for that also.
But again, most of all,
we're going to miss the friendships
and the relationships.
I'm not going to say goodbye.
I really don't see this as goodbye,
we certainly hope to stay in touch with all of you.
We certainly hope that you take a little
well deserved rest in this retirement,
but we just want to continue to
experience a personal relationship
with you that we've experienced in
the past and just wish you the best in the future.
Thank you for everything that you've been to me,
to Copeland, and to this industry.
>> A walk through the plant
demonstrates another big reason
for the success of Our-Way.
Not only have its people had
the technical expertise to get the job done,
but they have been very innovative.
>> I found out very quickly
that when there was
a question as to a compressor failure,
they looked at Our-Way to find out what the answer was.
Everybody turned to Jack, even the manufacturer.
I learned over the years why.
Because we didn't just guess at it.
We tear that compressor down to the nuts and
bolts and the broken pieces to analyze it.
So Jack was extremely well
respected in this industry, and still is.
>> Jack added the engineering part because
his background in engineering was engine design.
Well, that was a perfect match
for what we were doing here,
and he's an innovator.
So we didn't buy new machinery,
we bought used machinery.
When I started at the office,
it was a one girl office.
We bought used desk,
everything in the factory was used,
and that's how our company has grown.
We've never gone out and bought expensive new equipment.
As we could afford it, we bought it,
but we usually did most of the things in-house.
>> Our-Way has always been self-sufficient.
They've always done everything to make things work.
Whatever it took, we do it.
>> We tool up all the machines that we've brought in.
>> I think another thing that speaks of
our technical innovation is the Greenland Expedition,
where our engineers designed
and fabricated the equipment that was
used to go down and bring up planes that
were buried 270 feet in the ice.
>> They told us what they wanted,
and then Bernie Nbroski did the engineering on it,
and I did the designing.
>> Our-Way's commitment to
high standards extends beyond the industry.
Our-Way has always recognized
its responsibility toward being
an active corporate citizen in the community.
The company has worked with
just about every charity you can name.
>> Some of our earliest involvement goes way back.
I remember when we
used to help with auctions for the cancer society,
and we did that several years,
and the employees got involved.
And of course, for the Heart Association,
we've been involved in that for about 15 years.
>> Both Audrey and Bobbie have embraced the needs of
the community with the same dedication
they did in building Our-Way.
Bobbie's love of music has led her to
become very active in Georgia music.
She is president of the Friends of Georgia Music
and is instrumental in the planning for
the annual Georgia Award Ceremony and is on the committee
that inducts Georgia musicians
into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
Ellen Gilmer, Senior Vice President, Bank of America.
Bobbie and Audrey, you both have
a firm sense of responsibility
in giving back to the community.
Your tireless efforts to support organizations
in Atlanta have provided assistance to many.
From Jim Miller, President of Fidelity National Bank.
Audrey, there's no way to describe what
you and Our-Way did in bringing the Olympics to Atlanta.
It literally made the difference of paying
the bills as the Olympic organizers went to Tokyo.
>> I think a good corporate citizen just
reflects the tight people that are running the business.
And the reflection obviously
on Bobbie and Audrey in running
this business and the involvement they've had from
American Heart Association to
the involvement with the Olympics,
raising money for the Olympics and all the charities
that the company has given over the years,
is just a reflection of
the people and their giving spirit.
>> This short story of Our-Way leaves
many accomplishments and stories untold.
But regardless of any of the stories,
it's the people who have made the difference.
The legacy that Bobbie Bailey, Audrey,
and Jack Morgan and the entire Our-Way family leave to
the industry and the community
is one of strong corporate values,
quality, service, and responsibility.
Because of this legacy,
the story of Our-Way will live beyond
Bobbie Bailey and her dedicated team.
>> She didn't know about it? Wonderful.
>> Bobbie, if you recall about nine or 10 years ago,
when Marie Manahan retired
and you all had that wonderful dinner,
I did a truthful stand up monologue.
Well, every year or two after that,
when somebody else would retire,
Don Hood would come to me and say, Patsy,
would you like to do a monologue
for this one or that one or the other one?
I would always tell him, Don,
I have one monologue left in me,
and it's for Bobbie Bailey.
So I wanted you to know, Bobbie,
that I've worked on this monologue in my mind,
every day, every week,
every month, going back and
forth to your office, working with you,
and I would like you to see that here it is.
I have it prepared, ready to go.
However, since I always
try to be prepared for anything and everything,
which you have to do working for Bobbie Bailey,
since you have not actually
signed the contract and closed the deal,
here is my monologue from me to you.
It has been a truly delightful,
wonderful experience working for
you all these years in Our-Way.
PS, if you'll show me the signed closed contract,
I'll let you see what's in my monologue.
>> Frank was running around in total hysteria,
and with his head propped over,
he had just overflowed the acid tunnel.
His lips were just flopping up and
down and his hands were flying up and down
and stuff and his usual course of action and it's a fire.
Frank takes off running.
>> All the fires no stuff he had put out.
He was asking about those fires then and I said,
you were sending Miss Bailey,
she don't know about half.
>> We had to terminate
a young man back in on the carrier line.
So they proceeded to go down to the parking lot,
and the gentleman who
this young hot headed gentleman we
had terminated had confronted,
pulled a pistol from under his seat
and began to fire at the gentleman in the parking lot.
Well, the gentleman, when
he saw that he was pulling a gun,
he began to run down across the back of
the parking lot and he was firing over his head.
Well, we terminated both of them.
Wound up terminating both of them because we had to.
He had a pistol on the property.
Well, when Bobbie found out
that we had terminated this gentleman,
she thought a lot of this gentleman.
And she said, "Don,
can't we do something?
We can't terminate him.
He's too good a worker."
She said, "Call Bill Ford,
our labor attorney and find out what we can do."
One thing I left out that Bobbie said,
"It was self defense. It was self defense."
So after I told Bill what had happened,
Bill, said, "I want to ask you a couple of questions."
It was going to determine if this was self defense.
He said, "Which way was
the gentleman who was being shot at pointing?
Was he facing the gentleman that
was shooting or was he going away?"
I said, "He was hauling tail from that guy."
He said he laughed and he said,
"You tell Bobbie that there's
no damn way that can be self defense."
>> I recall back during the Elizabeth Street days,
we had an employee named John Smith.
And John would come in drinking
a lot and the way he drew in
his paperwork, really say anything to him.
He was just more or less agreeing with John
and was trying to get John going to work.
John would just staggering around in there.
Well, Miss Bailey happened
to come in the office at a point.
And Red saw her coming in the door.
And he stood up in front of John and said John,
"I'm not going to tell you again.
You leave and you leave now.
Don't come back until you sober up."
Miss Bailey, she looked
at John and said, "John, are you drinking?''
If he said something I
doubt to her because she took him by the ear,
and she led him up to
the street and John been over crying,
and she literally tossed him out into the street.
She brought a whole new meaning to the turn
of throwing somebody out on the ear.
>> I don't have any funny stuff. I need to work.
>> I wish Charlie Bang was there.
When you talk about funny,
I guess he's been the one in
this company all these years
that gives you a laugh when you need one.
>> These gypsies had made their rounds
and throughout the building,
had gotten names, put names together,
and had told Fred that Audrey
had told him it was okay to give him some metals.
Well, in turn, Fred was very generous,
and he loaded the guy with barrels of copper.
>> That copper is very dear to Miss Bailey's heart.
It's been a problem in
this company so she keeps it very secure.
So if you look at the security,
there's a locked chain link fence.
The doors to the building are
steel doors with heavy padlocks.
There's motion detectors and
laser beams and all kinds of
things that have to be overcome to get to this copper.
And I've thought about these Indians from
Oklahoma and some place they had a meeting that,
and this is very high grade copper,
magnet wire is what it's called.
And I just have to think in my own mind,
they were sitting and having a meeting
sometime and trying to
figure out how we're
going to get to Miss Bailey's copper.
And I would think
the logical thing would be to get some bolt cutters,
a cutting torch and some dynamite and come in at
night and take the copper.
But that's not what happened.
There had to be an Indian,
I assume that was a little more creative than the rest.
And he decided he could accomplish
the same thing with a bag full of belt buckles.
>> It was sometime later and
stuff within an hour or so maybe
a couple of hours that Fred
realized he'd made a serious mistake.
Thought that Don Hood and nobody give
him permission to give that copper away.
And tried to beg the guy to come back,
the guy called and said his truck
had broken down because he was hauling
so much copper down the road that the trailer broke down.
>> I was 24-years-old when I started here.
Hat hair. Mustache.
>> Well, don't we all look at this at 24 years.
>> And it wasn't great.
>> About 18 years.
>> Eighteen years?
>> It's taking this hold.
We'd go to home 9 yards begging and pleading.
>> I don't do nothing.
>> One morning I came in,
and I noticed that there was a desk out on the floor.
Is that desk out here?
I have a desk in my office down here.
But then later on, I found out that
that was Bobbie's desk.
And Bobbie likes to see for herself the people
that she has hired are
going to be able to do what she wants from them.
And so she homesteaded in my area for three months.
>> Go downtown with Miss Bailey and never drank
any alcohol before and get
a big glass of champagne and get the giggles.
I think that was the best time I ever had.
>> I wouldn't watching what I did put
too much pressure on it
[inaudible] went to the top of the house.
Miss Morgan I ask [inaudible].
>> She may yell. We may get upset,
and you're going to get a 286 call.
>> I asked one person about the Bailey page.
>> Oh wow.
>> Were there anybody's in the plan or not?
>> Yeah. Man, she uses it,
but what's funny, she didn't want anybody else using it.
Somebody else call somebody?
What are you doing calling them off the job?
>> She does page quite a bit.
Well, I never call her back.
>> Let me see where I put the thing
I really wanted to bring out in this.
Because if I don't,
my senior moments take over.
>> Mostly in organization
because she can organize something down to the period.
And sometimes it's a little bit of a joke,
if you want to say it that way.
Whereby if she has you do
something and you key it up and print it out,
you know at least it's going to be redone
twice, usually three times.
Audrey is the planner,
Bobbie is the shoot by the hip.
>> Jack has another side of him,
and that's his driving.
Now, I don't want to say that he drives fast.
I said, "Jack, I'm going to get
the maintenance to put a wind sock
up on the roof so you'll
know which way to land when you come in.".
>> We're key worker. No she stopped, she wasn't alone.
Tell her to keep working.
I know Shan's going to be able to stop,
so that's why I said to keep working.
>> Retire when you can.
I don't care how old you are.
You owe yourself something.
The opportunity to do what you want to do.
You worked hard for.
>> There's no company like our.
In ten years, I've had a lot
of memories. Every day is a memory.
>> She made me feel like I was a part of the family.
>> It just after a while,
it just feels like I'm home again.
>> As I grew to know about it,
Oh, it's just like another mom to me.
>> As we grow older,
memories become very important to
us and we believe memories to be the mirror of a sort.
>> She is my guardian angel,
and I'd like to thank her.
>> Challenging but I'm sure,
but this team's up to it,
and it will be
an away team going over and assuming a different name,
but it'll still be an away team.
>> Deep I'm going to hurt and I'm going to miss you.
>> Thank you.
>> Now, go take on the day.