Why would someone give up an 18-year teaching and coaching career to start a company that supplies concrete to the building industry? In the case of Chip Herring, it was a big decision but one that he made without a lot of difficulty – he wanted to return to his hometown of Wilmington and the family and friends that he missed.  He also wanted to leave a profession that he had come to feel was failing to achieve its primary purpose.

Herring grew up in Wilmington when, as he said, “College Road had two lanes, and the only major things on it were the college and K-Mart.”  He attended New Hanover High School and went on to Guilford College in Greensboro, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education and played football. He liked working with kids and knew he wanted to be a teacher.  When he graduated in 1979, he began teaching high school biology and physical education and coaching high school football, something he would do for the next 18 years.

For the first five years of his teaching career, Herring taught at Randleman High School, located between Greensboro and Asheboro.  One of Herring’s students at Randleman was the granddaughter of North Carolina native and NASCAR superstar, Richard Petty.  For the next 13 years, he taught in Gaston County, west of Charlotte, at Bessemer City High School and Southpoint High School. And Herring genuinely enjoyed teaching and coaching. “I was being paid to do something I loved,” he said; “it wasn’t work, it was fun.” So why would he leave a career in which he was happy and doing well?

Herring says a combination of two things prompted his decision to leave teaching. “Number one, I wanted to come back to Wilmington. This is my home. I come from a large family and I wanted to be around them. That was the primary reason,” he said.

“The secondary reason was that I had become disappointed with the education system. My disappointment was with the administration. The best interests of the kids were not paramount. It got frustrating.”

During the summers of the last six years he taught in Gaston County, Herring and his son would return to Wilmington and work for his brother’s company that supplied concrete to the construction industry. “I did it to supplement my income and to be around my family,” Herring said. “I also wanted my son, Josh, to find out what physical labor was like and to learn a work ethic.”

In May of 1996, Herring made the decision to leave teaching and return to Wilmington, at which point he began working for his brother full time. He would continue working for his brother until 2005, when he founded his own company, Pirate Concrete.

With 15 years of part-time and full-time experience working in the concrete business, Herring was well-positioned to launch Pirate Concrete.  The name was chosen because Herring’s nephew, Jason Burke, who is his business partner, is a graduate of East Carolina University.  Herring’s son, Josh, who joined the company in 2006, is also an ECU graduate, as is Herring’s wife.  ECU’s mascot is a pirate. And, while the company is just four years old, Herring, his nephew and his son have more than 40 years combined experience in the concrete business.

Herring says that Pirate Concrete offers two types of service to the building industry. “We do what’s called ‘flatwork,’ which is driveways, sidewalks, patios, porches and slabs.  We also do decorative work, which includes engraving, staining and scoring, logos and graphics, stamping, overlays and textured skins.”  He adds, “The decorative work is the fastest growing segment of the concrete industry. Jason and Josh handle our decorative projects, and they can do some remarkable things. They can make concrete look and feel like wooden planks or ceramic tile or bricks—or many other high-end surfaces. And the cost is much less than the real thing.”

So many people have had the same response to Pirate Concrete's decorative creations that the company's marketing materials carry the line, "I can't belive it's concrete."

Of the many industries to be adversely affected by the current economic recession, housing and construction has been particularly hard hit. Herring says that Pirate Concrete has been affected too, but he remains optimistic about the future. "Instead of laying anyone off, we decided to have everyone work fewer hours," he said. "I think it's going to pick back up."

Pirate concrete has worked for many contractors in the tri-county area on a variety of projects including Magnolia Greens, Waterford, St. James, Winding River, Landfall and Old Pointe.