Nash County-based company unique in being employee-owned, faith-based

Brett Swails Jr. enjoys getting up on weekday mornings and commuting to his job.

Swails of Roanoke Rapids is a welder who for about a year and half has been working at Freedom Industries, which is an industrial contractor headquartered off East Old Spring Hope Road between Nashville and Rocky Mount. The company is an employee-owned, faith-based business.

Asked why he decided to join Freedom Industries, Swails said, “They had a better working group.”

For Swails, working at Freedom Industries isn’t just about an hourly wage, it’s also working together with a good group of people with similar core values.

Swails also spoke of feeling, as a part owner of the company, that he has an obligation to do his part to care for and keep up the buildings.

Overall, Swails said, “We’re a team.”

Tommy Parks of Rocky Mount has worked about 4½ years for Freedom Industries and is currently the company’s supply chain manager.

Parks was with a company in the midst of closing down.

Of Freedom Industries, Parks said, “I didn’t know a whole lot about the company at first, but a friend put a good word in for me.”

Getting that first foot in the door made all the difference for Parks.

“When I got here, I realized what the company stood for — and felt like it was a great fit,” Parks said.

Part of his job includes making sure employees in need of new hand tools can readily get them from a well-stocked inventory room on the premises.

“It’s a big morale booster,” Parks said of having such a service for employees. “Their faces light up every time they walk in there.”

Freedom Industries President and CEO Derrick Vick on Thursday morning led a tour of the property.

The company was founded in 2004 as Freedom Electric by Doug Ezzell and at first operated just off Kamlar Road before eventually being relocated to its current location, where an expansion and an upgrade occurred. In 2014, the business switched to being 100 percent employee-owned, and in 2021, Ezzell retired from being CEO of Freedom Industries.

Vick, in an interview in his office prior to giving the tour, emphasized what he sees as the benefits of being on the Freedom Industries team.

“When you work in an employee-owned company, you have a voice,” Vick said. “We share the numbers. We are an open book. We want our employees to feel and think like owners because they are.”

Vick said that the company in 2023 peaked with close to 350 employees and that currently the company has about 200 employees. Vick also said that a major renovation of the administrative building occurred within the last six months.

Being a faith-based company started with Ezzell, with its mission statement being based on Scripture, Vick said. The mission of the company emphasized working with one’s whole heart as if working for the Lord and not for men, said Vick.

Asked where the Freedom part of the company’s name came from, Vick said that was in Ezzell’s heart and is based on Scripture, too.

“And we think people are attracted to a place that just truly cares — and doesn’t just say it but backs it up in how we live our lives,” Vick said.

Vick gave the tour after meeting with employees. Vick holds a once-monthly meeting called “Missional Thursdays” to bring in a representative of a local charity aligning with Freedom Industries’ vision and values.

During last week’s meeting, the employees heard from MaryAnn Knarr-Avery, who is one of a team of people who organized the 2023 Ride of Honor motorcycle event to honor veterans. More than $21,500 in funds were raised.

Part of the funds raised went to help support having recently held a Camp Cocoon in Nash County. Camp Cocoon serves children and their families who have experienced the loss of a loved one. Freedom Industries had contributed $5,000 to help make Camp Cocoon a reality at Ashlyn Stables in Nashville.

Knarr-Avery showed the Freedom Industries employees a large image resembling a thank you card that the participants signed expressing appreciation to the company for sending them to the camp.

Nash County Commissioner Sue Leggett said she is proud that Freedom Industries has been successful. In a phone interview Saturday, Leggett talked about a neighbor of hers being a longtime employee of the company who enjoyed working at a place where he had a stake in the company.

“That is one thing that I did pick up, that he had pride in the fact that it was employee-owned and that he had a vested interest in making sure that the business was successful and that he did a good job,” she said.