After almost six years in operation, Pioneer Design & Marketing has captured the Small Business of the Year title awarded by the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce, while Juve Integrative Medicine & Wellness achieved recognition as 2023 Start-up of the Year.

Besides saluting these innovative newer businesses, the chamber during its annual meeting and awards celebration Tuesday evening, Jan. 18, 2024, also recognized a business and a business leader that have been setting standards for decades. The Sack Company, in business for 78 years, received the Employer of Year designation, and Ray Hendley, who remains active in Hendley Properties, which he founded more than 55 years ago, was awarded the Bruce Yawn Lifetime Achievement Award.

The celebration’s theme of “Raising the Bar & Celebrating Trailblazers” was accented by western apparel. Most of the 240 tickets sold were represented by individuals who attended the reception and banquet at the FoxHall in the West District, the mixed-use development that last year also became the new home of the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber’s headquarters.

A chamber board member, Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero, presented the Start-up of the Year award.

“At Georgia Southern we are keenly aware just how important startups are to this community,” he said.  “They are indeed the lifeblood of our community, bringing people, ideas and culture together, sparking innovation, economic growth and vibrancy.”

He noted that the university through its Business Innovation Group, based in downtown Statesboro, provides support and resources for entrepreneurs and new businesses.

Juve top start-up

The award is meant for a chamber “member business in the start-up phase of development that has demonstrated innovative products or services, exemplary customer service and community involvement,” Marrero noted before announcing Juve Integrative Medicine & Wellness as the honoree.

Charanne Pittman, a family nurse practitioner who previously worked in an established family practice and has 20-plus years experience in health care, founded Juve, which held its grand opening last March. Also located in the West District, Juve offers services related to weight loss, body contouring and natural supplements including IV infusions, as well as skincare and other aesthetic and holistic health services.

“Our goal at Juve is for every patient that we see to leave us better than they walked in because we treated them with compassion and integrity,” Pittman said, accepting the award. “That’s the cornerstone of what we do.”

Pioneer Design

“Small businesses are the drivers in the community,” said Amber Stewart, with Renasant Bank, as presenter of the Small Business of the Year award.

To qualify, a member business should have fewer than 50 employees and have experienced revenue or job growth while providing innovative products or services and demonstrating “exemplary customer service and community involvement while encouraging and providing for professional development of staff,” she noted from the criteria.

This year’s Small Business of the Year started in May 2018 with two employees. But Stewart said the vision for it goes back further, to the founder at age 9 or 10 designing barbecue labels on a computer for his grandfather.

When Pioneer Design & Marketing was announced as the winner, that founder, Sean Fox, came forward.

“We’ve spent the past five years partnering with some of our neighbors, businesses both large and small, to try to help make Statesboro a little better and a little more beautiful,”  he said. “So to  be recognized in this  way is a little surreal and very much  appreciated.”

Over those five years Pioneer has worked with nearly 300 companies, “some worth billions and some barely beginning,” he said. “But the thing I’m most proud of isn’t the work we’ve done or who we’ve done it for. I’m most proud of the team.”

Pioneer now has 14 employees. He thanked them all, and also his wife, Bethany.

The Sack Company

Pittman, the Juve founder, soon returned to the microphone as presenter for the Employer of the Year Award. Not for start-ups, this one is for a member business that has been in operation under its current ownership for at least three years.

This year’s recipient “has been in business for much longer, over 75 years,” Pittman noted.

Companies favored for the award are expected to exhibit “dynamic diversity, equity and inclusion policies, community involvement, staff learning and development opportunities, employee-focused feedback programs and positive workplace environment.”

When The Sack Company was announced as Employer of the Year, its President and CEO Paul Roesel came forward and said, “I just want to say how flattered and appreciative we are to be able to receive this award, and our employees, team members, are truly our most valuable asset.”

He noted that the company has grown to employ 350 people, making it one of the largest Bulloch County-based employers.

“We have always taken that as a responsibility in that we consider ourselves good  corporate citizens  and try to give back to the community and always  be in tune  with Bulloch County,”  Roesel said.

Founded in 1945 by Harry Allen Sack Sr., the company was purchased by his brother-in-law Albert Roesel and a partner after Sack died in 1956, and has remained a family-led business. Roesel became sole owner in the 1970s and transferred control to his sons Paul and Philip in the early 2000s. The company does electrical, plumbing and heating-and-air contracting and installs equipment, primarily in heavy commercial and industrial applications.

Lifetime Achievement

The Bruce Yawn Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by Stuart Gregory on behalf of Bulloch Solutions, presenting sponsor for the celebration.

“Wow, what an honor presenting this award is … recognizing a distinguished individual who honors visionary leadership, who had made a tremendous impact on those in the community, and  who  has raised the bar for every developer here. ,,,,” Gregory said. “He is the example for development done right. … Please help me give a standing ovation and  well-earned congratulations to Ray  Hendley.”

He founded Hendley Properties, now primarily a rental and property management company, in 1968 as a real estate agency. It now provides about 500 rental housing units in complexes such as Greenbriar, Hawthorne Court, Village at Midtown, Fountain at Mulberry, Walnut Grove and others, plus individual homes. 

Hendley, 86, did not attend the evening event, but a video had been prepared of him expressing his appreciation and saying that his wife, Laura, and their five children and others who have worked in the business deserve much of the credit.

“And besides all that … if God didn’t bless what I do, I don’t think it would have amounted to anything,” he said.

His daughter, Ginny Hendley, now property manager for the company and a recently installed Statesboro City Council member, accepted the award on behalf of her father, calling him, “the realest, most humble, kindest gentle soul” whose impact has been to make many people’s lives better.

As company president, he still comes to work two hours a day, she reports.

Other awards

The chamber’s Nonprofit of the Year award went to a charity that funds other nonprofits, the United Way of Southeast Georgia.

The Leadership Bulloch Alumni award goes to graduates of the chamber’s leadership development program that gives participants a closer look at various aspects of the community. Jeremy Wilburn, assistant director for marketing and communications in Georgia Southern’s campus recreation and intramurals department, completed the 2018 Leadership Bulloch class and now helps with the Youth Leadership Bulloch program. He also provides photography services for chamber functions and was taking pictures of the awards presentations when surprised to have to switch roles and accept the award.

Sara Russell was named Ambassador of the Year for her work in the volunteer team that does outreach and member-business relationships work for the chamber.

Chamber President Jennifer Davis delivered the annual report, and 2024 Chamber Board Chair Michelle Davis gave a preview of the year, taking over from 2023 Chair Chad Wiggins who presented awards to board members and chamber sponsors.