Dixie Cullen Interests, a Houston-based industrial storage, export preparation and transloading company, is a three-time Fast 100 finalist ( including this year) and has spent three years on HBJ's List of Fastest Woman-Owned Businesses.
It all started in 1995 when a couple coincidences aligned for Catherine James, the founder and CEO. "I had been in the machinery and plant relocation business, and I wanted off the road," James said. "There was a customer who got their permits pulled and needed to store equipment. A truck driver told me about a building, and it all came together."
The company has grown rapidly since then, expanding to include quick-turnaround storage, unpacking containers coming in from the port and loading them into trucks, storing sensitive electronics in a special climate-controlled unit, and other services that clients requested.
"If it's big and ugly, we handle it. There’s a joke around here — the client will say, 'Can you reach into your magic bag of tricks and figure this out?'" James said. "But I have a very good team. They can make things happen. They're willing to put that extra work into it to make projects run more smoothly."
This can-do attitude has earned James clients like Exxon Mobil Corp., who used Dixie Cullen's services as the company carried out its massive move to its new campus. Another client is Phillips 66, as the company builds its Freeport and Sweeny petrochemical plants. Those two clients have fueled a lot of the company's growth, James said.
Dixie Cullen is currently building a second, 80,000-square-foot facility and expanding its climate-controlled unit by 20,000 square feet. Its in the final stages of earning a foreign trade zone certification that will allow for equipment from overseas to be stored at the company's facility.
"There aren’t a lot of warehouses in Houston that have foreign trade zone status that can also handle heavy machinery and equipment," James said, adding that the Port of Houston has been advocating on the company's behalf to get the designation. "That’s why the port was so eager to help; they are seeing us as a resource for them. I can see it adding another 30 percent increase in growth next year in the project cargo department."
For the next several weeks, HBJ will introduce you to the Houston area’s 100 fastest-growing private companies based on revenue growth from 2012 to 2014 — culminating in our Houston Fast 100 Awards. Our blogs will present the companies in random order, and the rankings and revenue growth for each company will be revealed at our event on Sept. 17. Click here to register for the event.
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