Alabama's Yella Fella

12 May 2023

Alabama's Yella Fella

How Jimmy Rane transformed a pressure-treated lumber company into a major player and stayed true to his hometown roots

Re: Jimmy Rane (OPM 11)

Topics: Economics-Goods and Commodities Leadership-Leadership Style Business Ventures-Business Growth and Maturation

Photo credit: Auburn University

In 1970, Jimmy Rane (OPM 11, 1986) took over a tiny treated-lumber business in Abbeville, Alabama, that was hovering near bankruptcy. Its owners, Rane's in-laws, had died suddenly in a car accident. Over the next five decades he transformed Great Southern Wood Preserving into a $2 billion company with a recognizable brand in one of the most commodified industries. The story is told in a recent Forbes article, "How a Crime Fighting Cowboy Became Alabama's Only Billionaire."

As president and CEO, Rane set about building the brand; he took inspiration from an HBS case about Frank Perdue's efforts to brand chicken with the tagline, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." From the 1980s and 1990s, Rane sponsored NCAA football teams and hired college coaches (including Auburn's Tommy Tuberville) to pitch his product, Yella Wood. He also created the "Yella Fella," a crime-fighting cowboy that Rane portrayed in television commercials. Each ad, broadcast across the South, functioned as a mini-episode. Each of the four seasons ended on a cliffhanger, to build anticipation for the next one, according to Forbes.

And while Rane could have relocated the business to Atlanta or Houston for a gentler tax bill, he maintained Great Southern's headquarters in his hometown of Abbeville—population 2,000. The company did acquire several plants throughout the Eastern United States between 2007 and 2012, and now has 15 facilities in 12 states. That cleared the path to major customers like Home Depot and launched a phase of record growth. Sales have more than doubled since 2016, thanks to the remodel and renovation booms set in motion by the pandemic.

"It's a far cry from the earliest days, when Rane was still treating the wood himself and the company was ‘completely busted.' Back in 1971, in need of a lifeline, he asked the Bank of Abbeville for a $5,000 loan. ‘I walked in there in my coveralls, nasty as hell,' Rane remembers. ‘The banker told me, "You're going to ruin your life." But he knew if he turned me down, he was going to end up with a treating plant.' Seems like things turned out all right for both of them."