BUILT AMERICA MAGAZINE
General Shelters began when Campbell was selling mobile homes and, as Koonce tells it, “two cats from Arkansas talked him into building his own.” Campbell gathered the materials and began manufacturing mobile homes. Regulatory requirements soon changed the direction of the operation. After being told the units required inspection stickers, he received permission to remove the furniture and sell them as mobile offices. From there came another opportunity: use those same manufacturing capabilities to produce portable backyard buildings. At the time, Campbell called them “port-o-buildings.” He was also among the few manufacturers doing it locally. More than 50 years later, that relatively simple product has evolved into a broad manufacturing operation spanning backyard storage and specialty buildings, greenhouses, deer stands, gazebos, cabins, carports, garages, shops, construction trailers, steel structures and commercial applications.
General Shelters now serves both individual buyers and larger organizational needs, with the in-house fabrication, inventory and production flexibility to take on projects that do not fit neatly into a standard catalog. One of General Shelters’ most consequential decisions came in 1999, when the company began roll-forming its own steel. Portable buildings had traditionally relied heavily on aluminum siding. Steel offered a stronger alternative, but rather than remain dependent entirely on outside fabrication, General Shelters invested in producing it internally.
Today, the company roll-forms steel and its associated trim components in 29- and 26-gauge material.
“It’s a 40-year warranty. It’s pretty much maintenance free,” Koonce says. The same material now appearing across barndominiums and residential renovations has been a core component of General Shelters’ buildings for decades.
“two cats from Arkansas talked him into building his own.”
89
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker