Conway Enterprises.

• Author: Spaid, Ora
• Position: Profile: Regional Report South - Company profile

Conway Enterprises

What would a volunteer fire chief, a spelunker and a history buff have in common with a thriving $14 million business?

Not much, unless you are talking about W. Fred Conway. Those avocations put him onto opportunities that he seized and used as a base to build Conway Enterprises of New Albany, a family-owned and -operated complex that includes "American's largest short-run label printer" and houses the offices and merchandise for Squire Boone Caverns & Village, a tourist attraction south of Corydon.

Conway's business as a manufacturer of pressure-sensitive labels has increased steadily, by 38 percent in the recession-ridden months of the first quarter of this year. When the company moved into its imposing plant in New Albany's industrial park in 1984, it had 55 employees. Today, it has 226 and expects to add about 40 a year to handle a projected increase in sales to $30 million by 1995. The plant was doubled in size last year and a new warehouse was added in June.

This burgeoning business with the humblest of beginnings - started by Conway and his wife with $100 in capital in the basement of their home - is a classic application of the find-a-need-and-fill-it formula for success.

In 1963, Conway was traffic manager for George Koch & Sons, and Evansville manufacturer of industrial equipment. In his spare time and during some of his working hours, he was chief of his township's volunteer fire department. One day he looked out the window of the station house to see a fire truck from the Evansville department headed for a fire in his township - an intrusion across city limits.

Conway and his fellow volunteers were as hot as any fire. They had worked ceaselessly to build and equip their department by soliciting donations from township residents on the promise of fire protection. Something had to be done to make sure residents called the township fire department rather than Evansville's.

The idea of sticking labels with the fire company's number on residents' telephones had been tried, but the labels kept falling off. One day a piece of ad copy with a brilliant red stick-on overlay came across Conway's desk. It was a self-sticking label, then a new concept. "This is it!" he thought.

Conway arranged with an Evansville print shop to produce fire-red fluorescent labels printed with fire, police and ambulance numbers. The labels were cut to fit so they would adhere to the cradle of a telephone. They were distributed to the 2,000 or...