CO-FOUNDERS DENISE SHIELDS AND STEPHEN PIRNS

A local company started by a pair of Huntersville entrepreneurs has landed on Inc. Magazine’s list of America’s fastest growing companies. Landing at 1,562 out of 5,000 companies, WamBam Fence was in 2,000 square feet of warehouse space on Bailey Road in Cornelius.

The company now has 18 employees and revenue in excess of $7 million a year.

Co-founders Denise Shields and Stephen Prins live in Huntersville with their own families. “Some assume we are married but we are definitely not,” Shields explains.

Their company, which relocated to Lake Norman from Canada about 10 years ago, makes a professional grade fence product that do-it-yourselfers can assemble without digging holes or pouring concrete. It’s less expensive than the fencing available at the big box stores.

They were in Cornelius from 2009 to 2018, but ended up on Reames Road, just south of the Northlake mall after their third-party logistics provider had financial difficulties.

Background

Their no-dig fence offers an easier and quicker way to install. In fact, the system is patent. A dig-less internal fence post relies on a “leveling donut” to adjust it as needed, until the DIY-er is ready to sleeve over it with a visible fence post.

They ship directly to homeowners across the country. The flagship WamBam Fence line is sold exclusively through wambamfence.com, eliminating the mark-up at bix box stores.“We are small, creative company, completely focused on serving our customers and having fun,” Shields says.

The challenge

Their third-party logistics company—they handled warehousing for WamBam—was going out of business.

“We had one week to find a new place for our product—and there was a lot of it,” Shields says.

“We knew it was time to jump into our own warehousing so we had to find a 50,000 square-foot building that was ready to be moved into in literally five days,” she explains.

Availability was extremely slim around Exits 23, 25 and 28.

Their new building near Exit 18 didn’t displace employees too badly as most live at the lake.

“It all boiled down to quick availability, and of course a reasonable price,” Shields says.

She credits employees for making a difference – “exceptional teamwork in our office and warehouse, our entire team is focused.”