Placing religion over revenue

RICHMOND, Va. -- A grocery store won't sell beer and is shuttered on Sundays. A bus company shuns lucrative casino runs up the East Coast. An investment firm eschews blue chip shares, preferring only stocks that benefit the church.

A primer on how to fail in business? Hardly.

These are positions taken by companies that choose to operate on their owners' Christian principles. Sure, they could make more money if they didn't practice what preachers preach. But these businesses have found a loyal clientele willing to support companies that place values ahead of profits. Tom Winston has done well enough emphasizing religion over revenue. For years, Winston drove a bus, and he regularly shuttled eager gamblers from Richmond to Atlantic City, N.J. In 1984, while driving through Little Rock, Ark., he met a man sitting on a park bench who told him about God. The experience so moved him that Winston became a fervent Christian and vowed to change his life. "I decided at that time to do the things He would approve of," Winston said. Taking poor people to casinos to gamble away what little money they had didn't seem to be part of God's plan, so Winston quit. "A majority of people going there are poor people, desperate people," he said. "They are looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and I refuse to put people through that." In 1986, with $500 to his name, he started his own company, Universal Tours. "I decided I didn't want to use my gifts to lead people astray," he said. "We decided that we weren't going to do gambling tours." Winston also banned smoking, drinking and swearing on his coaches. He puts free Bibles on the seats for his passengers to read. Winston's tough rules haven't scared away customers, more than half of whom are not active Christians. Winston owns three buses, has seven employees and $500,000 in annual revenues. "We haven't grown as quickly as some of the other carriers because we are limiting ourselves in the marketplace," he said. "But when I go home, I feel good about my job and this business, and my employees feel the same way." Businesses managed with an eye to God tend to be small because they limit their markets, said Charlotte McDaniel, director of the Center for Business, Religion and the Professions at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. "You have more freedom to define what can go on, and you don't have to answer to shareholders," she said. Running a business that doesn't offend religious principles isn't unique to Christians. Islamic banks and investment firms have to carefully structure themselves so they don't pay out interest, for instance, since Islam bans interest as usury. Another business that tries to place values above dollars is Ukrop's, a Richmond-area supermarket chain that won't sell alcohol and closes every Sunday. Ukrop's competitors offer more convenient hours and sell beer and wine, but Ukrop's dominates the Richmond market anyway. In the Richmond Times-Dispatch 1996 survey of area supermarkets, Ukrop's had 36 percent of the market, while its nearest competitor, Food Lion, had 24 percent. "People relate to certain values and they go and buy there because of that," said Robert Trumble, professor of management at the Virginia Commonwealth University school of business. "When I moved down here, there wasn't one person who didn't tell me to shop at Ukrop's." Robert Ukrop, the company's chief operating officer, said his policies were shaped by his parents and their religious beliefs. "My parents and biblical principles were close to home," he said. "They were just treating people the way they wanted to be treated." Even though Ukrop's is privately held, it could have a tough time expanding into new markets because of its policies, Trumble said. Richmonders are familiar with Ukrop's and accept the way it operates, but shoppers in other cities may not be as understanding. "In large metropolitan markets, things become much more impersonal," Trumble explained. Businesses are not likely to turn in great numbers to the Bible as a management guide, but some companies are quite frank about their intent to make a niche for themselves among religious people. One of them is the Catholic Investment Trust, an investment fund operated by Wright Investor Services of Bridgeport, Conn. The fund, which is scheduled to open in May, is aimed at investors who want to put their money into companies approved by the Roman Catholic Church. "This doesn't appeal just to Catholics," said Walter R.Miller, executive director of Wright's. "I'm getting calls from various groups who are not Catholics who are interested."

Copyright 1997
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