The following article originally appeared in the 2009 Summer issue of Hometown Magazine.
Paul F. Britt admits that he has lived a charmed life. After graduating from college with a degree in Business Marketing and Management, he eventually went to work for a bank in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. When that bank was bought out by a “megabank” (mentioning no names here), he discovered that his only way to climb the ladder in the newly structured company was to move away from his ocean haven—and he just wasn’t going to do that. Instead, he took his stock options from the bank, bought a dump truck and started his own landscaping business called Nags Head Gardeners.
“My first job was with Campbell’s Native Nursery in Franklin,” says Paul. “So I was basically groomed and oriented to be a landscaper—it’s always been my hobby and passion.” After helping a friend for a year, Paul realized there were big opportunities for landscaping in the Outer Banks and decided to go out on his own. He started doing a few small jobs that evolved into a pretty good business. “I worked for a custom home builder primarily and ended up doing a lot of oceanfront custom-construction jobs,” says Paul.
After 10 years of successful landscaping design and installation along the oceanfront, Paul realized that his mother, Sue Whitley Britt, was getting to the point where she could use some extra help. But she didn’t want to move out of the home that Paul’s father, Walter Junius Britt, had built for the family before Paul was born. So he asked his mom for “permission to return home,” sold his business in North Carolina and took a job with Smithfield Gardens as a landscaping designer.
“I enjoy being in Courtland a lot more than I thought I would,” says Paul. “I’m back in the house I grew up in—the house my dad built—so that’s very special to me. I never thought it would mean that much to me years ago when I was away from home, but it really means quite a bit to me now.”
Paul is also surprised at what he calls “the uncanny thread” that connects his family’s long relationship with Bronco. “My dad worked at Union Camp before it was International Paper for 38 years and he was one of the original members of the credit union that started there. My mom became a member because of my dad, and in helping her with her finances, now I’m a member there. Everything has come full circle.”
Giving credit where credit is due, Paul admits that his joining Bronco was partially because of the service he received there. “I take a check to Bronco every month for my mom, and one teller, Tanya Copeland, used to say, ‘You need to consider coming here yourself.’ So when I needed a loan for a motorcycle, I applied at my old bank first, then I applied at Bronco. Diane Johnson worked so quickly that she had loan approval for me before I even heard anything back from my old bank—a place where I had worked for 15 years! So I talked with Diane about how I could move all of my accounts to Bronco. It’s not only more convenient, it’s a better deal—fewer fees, lower interest, better accounts. I’m an ex-banker myself and it’s not a hard choice when you look at the fact that you can save money. And Bronco is local. I just like the fact that you’re dealing with a smaller institution in this day of huge, megabanks where you don’t even know who you’re dealing with and nobody can make a decision.”
So if you ever see a man on a motorcycle heading to or from Skunk Hollow, you can be sure he’s got a great big grin on his face under that helmet. “I can’t believe how well everything has all rolled together for me without much of a plan on how to make it all work,” says Paul. “Everything has fallen into place very nicely.”
