“Starting on the ground floor and working to get on top” is an apt description for most new businesses. But in 1973, father and son business partners James and Allen “Bunk” Harpole started a bit lower on the ladder to success. In fact, they started in the basement – literally. The pair worked out of Mr. Harpole’s basement in Columbus, MS for about two years.

From the company’s humble beginnings, the father and son team created a company that’s known as one of the best of its kind in North Mississippi and West Central Alabama.

Harpole received a big break early on that helped lead it to the success it enjoys today. That help came from the late Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant who helped the two entrepreneurs get their biggest job – a pre-engineered metal building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama housing over 30 acres under one roof.

Bunk played football under Coach Bryant at the University of Alabama from 1965-68, playing in the Orange Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Cotton Bowl, and won a national championship in 1965.

That project set the groundwork for a successful business. The Harpole office walls are now lined with plaques given to them by their supplier, Gulf States Manufacturers, for excellence in job performance. A few of Harpole Steel’s accomplishments include:

» Furnishing and erecting over 2700 steel buildings;
» Top 3 volume dealer for Gulf States Manufacturing since business inception, including consecutive number one
     dealer honors since 1998;
» Membership into the Gulf States President Advisory Council;
» Membership into the GSM $50 Million Dollar Club;
» 50% repeat business, and 40% referral business;
» Foremen average 24 years of experience, marking one of the best employee retention ratios in the business;
» Salesmen offer an average of 20 years of industry knowledge;

The company now has 40 employees, five crews, two parts order crews, and one job superintendent, Gary Crowely, who has been with the company since inception, and with the Harpole family for over 40 years.

John Harpole, Bunk’s oldest son who started working summers in high school with pre-Engineered steel buildings joined the company in 2005 after working as a CPA with Ernst & Young, LLP. This made Harpole a third generation family-owned and operated company.

Harpole Steel Buildings’ storied history provides for a bright future.

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