CONVEYING WITH EXPERTISE

Mainline Conveyor Systems President Terry Smith moves the company forward
with innovative practices and drawing upon employees’ longtime experience

The staff at Mainline Conveyor Systems have a level of experience that goes above and beyond the norm. Many of its employees have worked in the industry for multiple decades,
experts in their field, even before Mainline was founded. Since purchasing the business three years ago, President Terry Smith has worked to utilize that experience and added additional
modern technology with a goal of growing the business to the next level.

GROWING UP THE LINE

Mainline Conveyor Systems opened in 1991, founded by Roger Brown, and located off State Road 144 in Mooresville. The business originally sold parts for conveyor systems for
corrugated box manufacturers. Over time, the business grew from a parts manufacturer to a system manufacturer, making full conveyor systems for the corrugated box industry and installing those systems. Today, Mainline does everything in-house, starting with raw steel and ending with a fully assembled product.

Smith purchased the business from Brown in 2022. He had worked for Brown when he was a young teenager, getting to see the beginning stages of making parts and how those parts
came together. He came back during college and interned for a semester in the office. He maintained the relationship over the years even after leaving to spend the first part of his career with Hewlett-Packard and later Exact Target/Salesforce.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial at heart,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to have something that was mine. I had worked up until a point where I was successful in my own right in the technology space and looking for more. I was at a point where I could walk away and leave my previous team and boss in a good position at Salesforce. I felt like I could make an impact, bring in some of those lessons I learned in technology to bear here.”

The company already had a strong foundation and Smith wanted to improve upon that. “The great thing was it had been a successful business for a number of years with no financing, no debt, cash positive and well respected in the industry,” he said. “But there was this opportunity with technology, with process, with people, to improve up and grow upon what was already in place. Roger wanted to run a business, run it quietly and let word of mouth speak for itself. I am taking the opposite approach. I want to be a leader in the community. I want to be known in the community. I want to use marketing and technology and everything I learned in the high-tech world to grow that side of the business.”