A Clarksville Legacy: Smithfield Manufacturing

BY TONY CENTONZE

Smithfield Manufacturing on Kraft Street has been making precision products for its customers for more than 60 years. The company, which has had some ups and downs, is now under the leadership of Gerneral Manager Norma Purviance, and poised for sustained growth.

“I’ve been here for 25 years, and I became the General Manager in 2016,” Purviance said. “I guess it was somewhat unheard of for a woman to be at the helm of this type of business, but it’s becoming more prevalent now.” We produce a wide variety of components.”

The business currently has 15 employees, with whom it is able to produce an annual 7-figure top line.

Purviance tells the CBJ, “We have customers all over the United States, but mostly in the southeast region. Tennessee holds our largest base of

are long-term,” Purviance said. “Only a few have been here for less than five years, but if you talked to them you would think they had been here as long as the rest of us. I get different answers from every one of our employees as to why they choose to make this their long-term home.”

“The most popular answer is, ‘you’re not just a number here.’ Our company truly cares about the reason you are working here. You are here to fund your lifestyle, which typically means you put your family first. As a general rule, we try to put our employee family first.”

Purviance started off in the Deburr department, Her job was to use whatever tool necessary to ensure that there were no rough or sharp burrs on manufactured parts, that when handled, might cause injury to the customers.

“We’ve been in business since 1952, it was started by Basil Smithfield,” Purviance said. “We make a wide variety of products. We are basically a machine shop, and we make products that are used in several industries, automotive, medical, heavy equipment, industrial valves, etc. customers. Our biggest customer is Parker Hannifin in North Carolina. They specialize in O-Rings, and we manufacture parts for their gear pump division. We make a series of double-ended high-strength studs that are part of the gear boxes used in off-road equipment,” Purviance said.

Ron and David Smithfield owned the company until May of 2013. Dave Devine of Michigan is the current owner. “Everyone has their own motivating factors, and we’re supportive of that. I don’t want to lose good people for stupid reasons, for example if they’re a few minutes late for work. That’s a terrible reason to lose a good employee, in my mind. So, flexibility is a popular answer among our employees as well. We work around their schedule if necessary. We have some single people here who have kids, so we try to work with them, as they attempt to keep the home-fires burning, while providing income for their families.”

Purviance says she has employees in the building from 5 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “So, as a general rule, we can accommodate anyone’s schedule as long as it falls within that range. We have full-time and part-time people here.”

Purviance says she and her team are constantly looking at opportunities for growth.

“We are absolutely focused on growing this business,” Purviance said. “I’m part of our internal sales team. We also work with two outside groups, Cep Sales, a manufacturers representative sales agency out of Portland, Tennessee, and E J Peck Inc. marketing consultants out of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Mr. Devine has people he works with as well.”

“We would like to see some sustainable growth. This company is a survivor. We survived the tornado in 1999, and we’ve gone through a couple of periods of struggle over the years. The people who work here now are all-in on getting the job done, and doing whatever it takes. I see great things happening, but a steady managed growth is what we want to see. Skyrocketing growth has its challenges, so our goal is to keep steadily growing and adding people as we need them.”

Purviance is seeing lots of opportunity in our current booming economy.

“This economy is fantastic right now, so we are starting to see some exciting things on the horizon, hopefully we can capitalize on some of those opportunities,” Purviance said. “This company works with a variety of customers, most of whom are more than 100 miles away. Locally we’ve worked with Trane, OEM Tube Assemblies, Inc., Bridgestone Metalpha USA Inc., and Purity Zinc Metals LLC. We do work for Fort Campbell as well.”

Purviance says Clarksville’s Industrial Development Board has been very helpful in getting them in contact with other local manufacturing companies.

“We would be thrilled to work with some of the bigger international companies that have moved into the area recently,” Purviance said. “We currently have industrial clients in East Tennessee. We also have a presence in Nashville, and believe it or not, Michigan and Wisconsin. If the right job comes along, and we’re the right company for it, our business could change overnight. We’re ready.”

Purviance says she has lived in Clarksville all her life, and is always looking for ways that she and her team can give back to the community. “Clarksville is a great place,” Purviance said. “We support St, Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and the local United Way. We recently joined the Chamber of Commerce, but I don’t see many businesses like ours.”