Return to Virginia Business - May 2002

Related stories:
This year's Fantastic 50 (intro)
The 2002 Fantastic 50 (chart)
Highest Overall Growth Rate: RGI - Robinson Gareiss
Manufacturing winner: Parker Compound Bows
Retail-Wholesale winner: Schiller International
Service winner: The Cube Corp.
Technology winner: TechBooks

by Brett Lieberman

Click image to enlarge

Robert Errett's timing probably wasn't the best when he decided to go into the bow-making business. It was the mid-1990s, and nearly two dozen manufacturers were carving up an already-soft archery market. "It [wasn't] a very promising time to start a new company," concedes Errett.

There might have been plenty of competition but fortunately it wasn't very good. Errett had been in the distribution end of the archery business for 10 years and wasn't impressed by many of the companies he was dealing with. Bow manufacturers took weeks to ship to stores. Quality was erratic. Their bows were mostly one-size-fits-all, and customer service was nearly nonexistent.

Errett's idea for a new company was simple: Produce high-quality bows with only the best components. Pay close attention to details and cosmetics. And most important - provide the best possible customer service. As obvious as his plan may sound, it wasn't the rule in the archery business, which helps explain why Parker Compound Bows has been right on target since its 1996 launch. Its bows are made of a special fiber glass known as carbon glass. The handles are crafted from high-tech aircraft aluminum. "Everything about the bows is the absolute best quality. We don't spare a dime. When you do all that, you end up with a better product," Errett says.

The Mint Spring-based company's revenues have risen 660 percent to $3.9 million in 2000, from $593,000 in 1997, making it the leader among manufacturing firms in the Fantastic 50. The number of employees has more than tripled to 30 and Parker Bows has established a foothold as an industry standout. Parker Bows' success is no longer limited to the archery world - Inc magazine recognized it last year as No. 231 on its annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the United States.

Parker Bows has quickly become the bow of choice for many archery pro shops and gun dealers selling archery gear, in large part because of the products' relative ease of use. The ready-to-shoot Parker Outfitter model sells itself in five minutes, because it comes prepackaged with the best-fitting arrows, quivers and string selected by the manufacturer. It instills confidence in customers since they know the gear is appropriate for that model, and it's a timesaver for salesmen who do not need to spend more than an hour working with a customer to configure a system.

The Outfitter was initially targeted to beginners, but pro shops routinely recommend the bow for more advanced archers as well because it is a quality product and not just a basic model. Parker can also ship a bow to a dealer in a day or two, as opposed to two to four weeks for competitors. All its bows also come with an unconditional warranty. But perhaps the greatest compliment is from Parker Bow's competitors, who now sell their own version of the Outfitter.

Parker Bows is also finding suburban areas, often more opposed to hunting, to be a lucrative new market. As urban sprawl pushes subdivisions further into the countryside, larger deer populations have become a sensitive issue for neighbors, who don't want deer nibbling on their flowers but also oppose organized deer kills. Municipal leaders in areas such as Northern Virginia, Charlottesville and Roanoke have found archers a partial solution, because bows make less noise and arrows travel a shorter distance than bullets.

Probably the biggest difference between Parker Bows and other archery manufacturers is Errett's constant focus on quality. Pro shop owners, such as Bob J. Norris of B & B Archery in Manassas, say the company's focus on customer service and quality is unparalleled. "The best thing in business is customer service, and that's what they have," Norris says. "It helps me and it makes us both look good."

Return to Virginia Business - May 2002