Natchez &8212; Call up one of the area&8217;s most unknown, but arguably fastest growing, companies and you&8217;ll hear a slightly disconcerting greeting &8212; &8220;Bad Boy.&8221;

First-time callers are often taken aback by the name/greeting.

But resist the urge to be cute with a witty comeback. They&8217;ve probably heard it before. Besides, they don&8217;t have time for lots of foolishness; the telephone is ringing off the hook and they&8217;ve got a runaway train of a business to catch.

Only three and a half years after Bad Boy Buggies was formed, the company is poised to double last year&8217;s revenue by hitting $18 million in sales for 2006 and ready to expand its overseas operation.

So what is a Bad Boy?

To the layman, a Bad Boy Buggy is a souped up golf cart. Although its early models did begin life intended for leisurely drives on the back nine, this one is built from the ground up to be used by Bad Boys (and girls) everywhere.

In simplistic terms, a Bad Boy Buggy is a powerful, all-electric, 4-wheel drive all-terrain vehicle.

The vehicle is the brainchild of two Natchez men, Bubba Kaiser and Joe Palermo. The two formed the company in 2003 based on a creature that Kaiser had developed to help him move around during hunts without spooking his prey.

Today, the machines are built from the ground up, using a few parts from vendors in Asia and the key components from American manufacturers. The components are assembled, tested and shipped from a facility at the Adams County Port.

&8220;What I consider the guts of the machines are all American made,&8221; said co-owner Jim Willard.

With 31-horsepower motors and 15 inches of ground clearance, the little buggies can tackle lots of rough terrain. Hitting a top speed of 16 mph, the buggies can cruise for up to 32 miles on flat terrain per charge or 20 miles on typical hunting terrain.

Base models sell for $8,450 and can be outfitted with a handful of accessories including a gun rack and winch.

Multiple hats

Today, the company is owned by Palermo, Jim and Selah Willard, Ken Beesley Jr., Tom Mansell of Dallas, Johnny Dale and Pat Burns.

Just don&8217;t ask any of them what their title with the company is. They don&8217;t know and they don&8217;t have time to care.

&8220;We&8217;re not big on titles,&8221; said Jim Willard. &8220;I guess I&8217;d be like the general manager here?&8221;

&8220;We wear many hats here,&8221; Selah said.

Ken Beesley Jr. points out, with a laugh, that he was called on to install a toilet in the office on one of his first days.

Despite the modest leadership, the Bad Boy Buggy is quickly making a name for itself across the country, though many people in Natchez have never heard of it.

&8220;We talk to folks all over the place,&8221; said Selah Willard. &8220;I just shipped three to South Africa and we&8217;ve sold several in Europe, too.

&8220;We&8217;ve just kind of like flown underneath the radar.&8221;

Perhaps that quiet growth is tied to the Bad Boy&8217;s sales motto: Our competition never heard us coming.

Bad Boy, good seller

In a short time, Bad Boys owners have become good at developing relationships with nationally recognized hunting and outdoor celebrities.

&8220;What&8217;s really got us to this point is our relationships with the hunting professionals,&8221; Jim Willard said, adding that the company has partnership agreements with Real Tree and Mossy Oak camo manufacturers.

Such strategic marketing efforts along with building a group of nearly 100 dealers across the country &8212; mostly in the Midwest and Southeast &8212; have been the key, Selah Willard said, to the amazing growth.

&8220;It started out as a good idea and a backyard project and it&8217;s just grown,&8221; she said. &8220;Last year, we had about $9 million in sales, this year, we&8217;re projected to do about $18 million.&8221;

Last year, the Natchez facility shipped approximately 1,250 buggies, this year the company expects to sell 2,500.

&8220;Next year, we believe we&8217;ll be at 3,500,&8221; Selah Willard said.

With the doubling growth, the owners say they haven&8217;t really had too much time to either enjoy the success.

&8220;The learning curve is huge, but it&8217;s so exciting,&8221; Selah Willard said. &8220;We all love to wake up in the morning. It&8217;s just exciting. We never know what we&8217;re going to be doing each day, but we love it.

Still, the market has not been saturated yet, the owners say.

&8220;I&8217;m sure at some point the growth will level out, but we haven&8217;t scratched the surface yet,&8221; Selah Willard said, pointing to huge areas of the country that have yet to be tapped for dealerships.

&8220;It&8217;s got potential. The demand is there,&8221; said husband Jim. &8220;We&8217;re still at the ground floor. The main thing we&8217;ve got to do is keep putting money back into it right now.&8221;

Despite the strong sales, the development of the product is still under way, Jim Willard said.

&8220;We&8217;re trying to get more efficient,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re making improvements to the machine.&8221;

In addition to broadening the hunting and outdoor market, Jim Willard said potential growth areas might include marketing to the construction industry and even state and national parks.

Silent, powerful and staying

Despite being a business that many local people may not know exists, Bad Boy Buggies makes an impact on the economy, co-owners say.

In addition to employing more than two-dozen people in the office and manufacturing facility in Natchez, they also employ two full-time truck drivers to deliver the products.

&8220;Just this year, we&8217;ve had at least 50 overnight stays that stayed in local hotels,&8221; Selah Willard said about the business&8217; impact locally. That&8217;s not counting this weekend&8217;s conference that brought nearly 100 dealers and others associated with the business to Natchez.

&8220;We&8217;re in the process of having a wholly owned factory in China,&8221; Selah Willard said. The facility would help compliment the array of parts already built overseas by outside vendors.

The overseas production of non-critical parts, Jim Willard said, was critical to making the price of the buggies low enough to be affordable.

&8220;If we hadn&8217;t gone to China, we&8217;d be out of business,&8221; he said, adding that he plans to keep the final assembly and critical parts manufacturing in the U.S.

For Selah, who handles much of the shipping and receiving work, the overseas work is interesting and was a challenge at first.

&8220;United Mississippi Bank took a chance on us,&8221; she said. &8220;We now do a lot of international wires &8230; and they definitely stepped out of their comfort zone for us.&8221;

For Jim, who in addition to his self-professed general manager title also manages building relationships with the professional hunting community, the company may still be flying under the radar, but it will be flying for a long time to come.

&8220;When Bubba and Joe first started, they didn&8217;t get any credibility,&8221; Jim Willard said. &8220;Here we are three and a half years later and I&8217;m positive that we&8217;ve turned enough heads in the business to make people think that we&8217;re going to be around for a while.&8221;

For more information visit www.badboybuggies.com