Dwight Schaubach started his business career making nylon for E.I.DuPont in south Richmond. After working there for only ten months, he was included in a large layoff by the company due to a business slowdown. His wife's uncle, who managed National Linen Service in Richmond, gave him a temporary job until DuPont would rehire him. After one year with National Linen, Mr. Schaubach decided to stay and was promoted to supervisor. He continued at National Linen for another three years, until Carmine Foods hired him as manager of its seafood processing plant. He managed fifty people processing shrimp, oysters and other seafood.
His entrepreneurial spirit manifested itself in his bid for a franchise in Carmine's Chic A Sea fast food restaurant chain. The company, however, preferred to have him running its plant, so, he and his brother, Elliott, opened their own chicken and seafood restaurant, in 1969, called Feather-N-Fin, with four tables and a lot of carry-out. By 1980, they had seven restaurants in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Suffolk, VA.
In the mid-1970's, the man who picked up the trash from Schaubach's home approached him about removing food waste from his restaurants. This venture ran into problems and Schaubach agreed to back the man with funds to comply with the city's requirements. However, his would-be partner did not agree and Schaubach (always having a serious interest in trucks) decided to purchase a truck and 100 containers from a schoolmate. In January 1975, with his brother, Elliot, Bay Disposal was born. Bay Disposal began picking up solid waste from restaurants and other commercial and industrial operation in the area. When Bay Disposal was sold to Chambers Development of Pittsburgh in 1989, the brothers became affiliated with Smithton Sanitation Services of Washington, NC. Smithton was named one of Fortune magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies in 1990.
In 1985, Schaubach became aware of special needs for the removal of medical waste and, after visiting a plant with an incinerator while in Europe, he bought a 20-ton-a-day incinerator to burn medical waste in Norfolk. In 1986, the new company, Incendere, was added to the operation to collect and dispose of medical waste. Incendere was soon collecting medical waste in an area from New Jersey to Georgia. By 1988, the first incinerator was operating at capacity and Incendere added two more units. In 1990, Incendere sought to expand its operations into Ohio. There, In Alliance, Ohio, Schaubach bought municipal solid waste hauler, Max Disposal and Recycling. This grew into a $5 million a year operation, which he sold to Laidlaw Environmental Services in 1995.
The need to keep their restaurants in good condition led to another venture in 1978, Bay Builders. By 1990, it had expanded to housing construction with seventy-five all brick homes built in the Warrington Estates subdivision in Suffolk, VA. The Nansemond River Estates subdivision, started in 1996, will have 160 upscale brick homes when completed.
Late in 1995, Dwight and Elliott split Incendere's operations and Dwight, joined by his son Jamie, and another father and son - Charles and Emmett Moore - formed Area Container, another municipal solid waste hauler. Schaubach merged BB Rentals, a portable toilet business, into that operation. In February of 1996, Schaubach sold his waste disposal interests to Wayne Huizenga's Fort Lauderdale - based Republic Industries (later split into Republic Services and AutoNation).
The same month that he got out of the waste industry, Mr. Schaubach purchased one of the oldest businesses in Norfolk, Johns Brothers, which was founded in 1892. He divided its operations into two entities - one dealing in air conditioning, heating systems, heating oil, and commercial refrigeration, and the other in security system installation and central station monitoring. Johns Brothers Security is the largest independent security company in Virginia and ranks in the top 60 in the United States.
Also in 1996, he exercised his long-standing interest in cars and racing, taking a 30-year lease to operate and promote Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA (WW Motorsports), a NASCAR-sanctioned Saturday night track. In 1999, a long-term lease was signed to operate and promote Southside Speedway in Chesterfield County, just south of Richmond, VA. Mr. Schaubach sometimes drives in races at both tracks, and also collects, shows and renovates antique cars, particularly Duesenbergs and Buicks. Schaubach Restorations, Inc. recently restored a 1929 Duesenberg which was one of the first built and was nominated an outstanding vehicle in 1998 by the National Awards Committee of the Antique Automobile Club of America.
Mr. Schaubach is also involved as a majority owner of a federally chartered SBIC in Connecticut. His Chesapeake Deep Water Terminal has a lease, with an option to buy, on ninety-seven acres of land on deep water in Chesapeake, VA, which he plans to develop. He also has a majority interest in Alliance Financial Corp; founded in 1996 to finance sales of equipment and vehicles by companies he controls.
Dwight Schaubach has built his local business empire, including more than 265 employees, on hard work and a sense of the needs of the community. He has been involved in numerous charitable and civic organizations over the years, giving willingly of his time and resources.
Just damn.
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