10 minute read
Carraway Office Solutions picks Ayden to consolidate operations
Central to service
Hayden and Burney Carraway, from le , hold a sign used by Burney’s father, Sidney, a er he started Carraway Typewriter in 1962.
Carraway Office Solutions picks Ayden to consolidate business
By Donna Marie Williams
For more than 60 years, Carraway O ce Solutions has been meeting productivity needs for eastern North Carolina. Today, with its business consolidated and centrally located in Ayden, the company continues to grow and prides itself on providing exceptional products, support and customer service.
It has its roots in Greenville starting 1962 as Carraway Typewriters. e business began with Sidney Carraway, who desired to provide his customers with better service than he was able to provide while working at a large o ce equipment and supply company.
“He just felt like the customers were not being treated as he would want them to be treated. He talked to my mom about it, and they decided to start Carraway Typewriter,” said Sidney’s son and current owner, Burney Carraway.
With his wife Bernadine in hand, Carraway Typewriter continued to prosper through the years under Sidney’s leadership.
“We started o selling typewriters and then as the o ce equipment industry evolved it went into fax machines, computers and then copiers. We went from Carraway Typewriter to Carraway Business Machines in the late '80s. I bought the company in 1994. at’s when we changed the name to Carraway O ce Solutions,” Burney said.
“I grew up in this industry. I grew up in this business. I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and have been blessed to be able to do so.”
Burney has worked for Carraway for most of his life.
“I le in the late '80s and I moved to Raleigh to work for a Fortune 500 company. I learned the copy business there and worked there for a couple of years. I met my wife and then we moved back to Greenville to get married. I came back and went to work for the family business,” Burney said. e business expanded to Kinston in 2003 with the purchase of Daughty’s O ce Equipment, which operated under said name until the consolidation of both o ces to its new Ayden location in 2022.
“We were very close to the Daughty family. We had worked together over the years. We wanted to keep the Daughty name alive out of respect to them,” Burney said.
With the business now in Ayden, Carraway is in a better position to serve their clients.
“Ayden is centered right in the heart of our eastern North Carolina territory. It was the perfect t. With the new highways and bypasses … we’re still the same distance to Washington and a little closer to New Bern. We wanted to be able to
serve our clients that Daughty’s served as well. We’re about 15 minutes from Greenville and about 18 minutes from Kinston, so strategically placed right in the middle,” Burney said, adding he had been looking for buildings in Ayden for some time before the former PNC bank building at 233 W. ird St. went up for sale.
“ is building became available, and it just ts us perfectly. It’s been a great move. Our clients are excited for us. ey’re still getting the same if not better service.”
AT HOME IN AYDEN
Since opening in Ayden, Carraway has received support from the Ayden community.
“ e people over here have been very friendly. Within the rst week the postmaster stopped by … He came by and introduced himself. (Members) of the police department came by to introduce themselves and remen stopped by. You don’t get that in the larger towns.”
Carraway O ce Solutions serves more than 14 counties located in eastern North Carolina and provides equipment, o ce essential needs and services.
“We sell copiers, printers and all the solutions that go with those. We sell shredders and we sell a lot of folding machines. Our primary focus is copiers and printers,” Burney said.
Carraway provides service to local government agencies, law rms, churches, nonpro ts, home o ces and to mom and pop shops.
“Whether you need a small little tabletop or 25 to 50 machines, we give everybody the same service. e people that have one copier for a small family business, we take care of them just like we do the large manufactures,” Burney said.
“Our primary brand is Kyocera, but we can o er supplies and some support for other brands … Our service technicians have been doing this for so long they can work on just about anything.”
Carraway prides itself on customer service and provides a promise of two-hour service response time.
“Our slogan is we are a client rst company. Our philosophy is a little di erent than some of our larger competitors. Our goal is to make a client and not a sale. We’re truly looking at your business and how we can best utilize our products and our services to make your business better. It’s about making a long-lasting relationship with our clients and everybody in our company understands that,” Burney said.
“Whether they call in for a service call or they call in for toner or they call to upgrade a piece of equipment, everybody here is going to treat them with integrity and respect.” is philosophy has carried Carraway through for more than 60 years and has allowed them to retain customers that have been with the business since it rst opened.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
Operating for 60 years, provides its challenges, one of which has been dealing with technological changes in the industry. Carraway understood that this is a must if the business was to be successful. ey also knew that in order to provide the best service, they would have to o er the best products and know how to service them.
“We had to adapt, or we wouldn’t still be in business, but where we started out, you know, selling typewriters and then word processors and computers. Now all your copiers are networked, so whereas the rst copiers were basically you laid a piece of paper on the glass, hit a button it printed it out that page, now your copiers are scanning the les scanning the emails scanning the applications people are printing from their phones,” Burney said.
“We’re just very blessed with an amazing sta . All our sta have been with us for a very long time and they’re very good at what they do. As technology has changed, they’ve learned what they’ve needed to learn to be ahead of where we needed to be. Our Kyocera manufacturer has done a great job in preparing us for the new technology and o ering the newest applications and so ware that go with our products. With our manufacturer’s help and with the great sta that we have we just always been able to keep ahead of that.”
Burney has come a long way from working with Carraway Typewriter when he was 9 years old.
“In the summers we would go into schools around us. is
The staff at Carraway Office Solutions includes, from le , Burney Carraway, Hayden Carraway, Kate Berry-Dixon, Vanessa Mayo, Biggi O’Neal, Christina Berry-Dixon and Curtiss Baker.
was back when they had typing classes. We would go in and clean the typewriters at the end of the school year and get them prepared for next season,” Burney said, adding he continued working at Carraway throughout high school and during the summer months of college.
He remembers fondly the years he spent learning and working alongside his father and even though both his parents are now deceased, he greatly appreciates their leadership in the business.
“It was like working with my best friend. I learned so much from him. We got to travel a lot together to the Outer Banks, Hyde County among other places,” Burney said.
“My dad was the kind of person — he didn’t like the word retire — so he was a part of the company and would come in (under my ownership). He did that up until he was about 75 or 76, and a lot of times if I was traveling to one of his old territories, he would ride with me.”
He valued his father’s passion for the company and his ability to turn a client into a friend. Like his father, he loves the daily interaction with customers.
“I get to talk to new people and meet new people every day and being from eastern North Carolina I know all the back roads. I know where all the great restaurants are and very rarely and am I just in the of ce for a full day,” Burney said.
“I saw my father interacting with people at a very young age and how what he did for a living a ected them in a positive way. I saw how he took clients and they ended up being friends. I just love that because you can never have too many friends.”
GOD AT THE HELM
Burney still holds his mother’s advice and guidance as valuable, as well. She served as the bookkeeper for about four years and remained on sta also when Burney took ownership.
“She made sure I had a good foundation, and I could always call her and ask her any questions. She knew more than or as much as our CPAs,” Burney said.
He also continues to keep the founding philosophy of customer service alive all while putting God at the helm.
“Our belief is if you treat people the way you want to be treated, it will be a blessing to you and be a blessing to them. at’s how my father and mother started Carraway Typewriter and that’s how I’ve run Caraway O ce Solutions,” Burney said.
“Our business — it’s really God’s business. He allows me to do this so I’m doing it to his glory. at’s how me and all our employees treat our customers from the person that answers the phone to take a supply order to the person going out to x a service call or the way we treat our clients.”
Having the business built with a rm foundation, Burney knows that he will continue to build upon it in years to come.
“Our plans are to grow the services that we o er and have more people marketing for our company. We want to get our message out. Right now, we are a million-and-a-half-year dealership. We want to push up to three or four million,” Burney said.
He is also excited to have his eldest son Hayden working alongside him — just as he did with his father.
“Hayden started traveling with me when he was 8 weeks old. He and I and our other two children grew up helping in the summers and things like that. He has been with us for ve years. Hayden has an entrepreneurial spirit and so when the opportunity arose for him to start selling with us
Burney Carraway learned the business from his father, Sidney, and now Burney’s son, Hayden, is helping the company grow.
and helping us with marketing, it was a great t and this move has been very exciting for him,” Burney said.
“ ere’s a big learning curve. I had to learn it by working with my dad. Hayden’s learning it now. He has a lot of the same questions I asked my father like why do we do it this way or when are we going to do this. I’m now getting that back. It’s very rewarding to see one of your children come and be a part of something you’ve always believed in and only God knows what he’ll be able to do here. With Hayden’s ideas in his entrepreneurial spirit, I can’t even speculate where he can take this company.”
