Bad Boy Buggies preparing to move into Stine building

By Jennifer Edwards (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Saturday, May 31, 2008

NATCHEZ — No one looks forward to moving day. Except maybe for Bad Boy Buggies CEO Jody Foster.

After just a month of renovation and a smoother-than-expected move, Bad Boy Buggies will begin production work in its new location on U.S. 61 South. The office operations are expected to begin there in mid-June.

Bad Boy Buggies are essentially souped- up golf carts that allow for quietly getting into a hunting location. The company is fairly young, only being formed in 2003, but great demand for the product created space issues that had to be addressed if growth was expected to continue. That led owners to begin looking for a new location that allowed them to keep up with production demands.

“A new facility allows us to run a sizeable operation and gives us the ability to double production in the next year if the need arises,” Foster said.

“We will be able to do all of our receiving, production and shipping out of this one location.”

The renovation work is a joint effort between Bad Boy Buggies, the building owner, Cappy Stahlman and contractor Edgin Construction. Foster estimated the construction and renovation work to cost several thousands of dollars but because of the coordination between the three entities construction is right on schedule.

The move from their old warehouse location in the industrial park, near the Adams County Port, to the new location, the former Stine Lumber Company building, will give the company more than double the warehouse space and production space and will allow Bad Boy Buggies to add exciting features to the business, Foster said.

One of these features is a showroom that will house specialty merchandise such as shirts, backpacks, hats and other items that had to be sold through vendors before.

The showroom will also showcase new models the company has developed.

“We won’t be set up to sell new buggies but we will have merchandise that wasn’t available here before,” Foster said. “We will have demo buggies and scratched and dent models for sale, too.”

Demo buggies are buggies that the company has donated to professionals and celebrities to use on television shows and in other ventures that have been swapped in for new models.

After the demos are returned they will go up for sale.

The new location will also allow for easier quality control work as a test track is being built behind the manufacturing and showroom location.

The test track will be used to for the first ride the buggy takes after coming off the assembly line and will also be used for research and development of new products and components.

“We used to have to take the buggies to ranches and other private property to test them but now we can do that on-site,” Foster said.

“The track will be like the ones that you seem at Hummer dealerships,” Foster said.

Moving out of Natchez wasn’t an option — even after demand got so high — and the availability of the U.S. 61 location made staying at home a possibility.

“Because the company started in Natchez and everyone who works here is from Natchez we weren’t going to move,” Foster said. “We have also gotten such good support from the county and city and our local bank that we wanted to keep the operation at home.”

On another level, the new location has allowed Bad Boy Buggies to add employees and to makes plans to continue to grow.