Signs of Success

An entrepreneur's ups and downs lead to a nationally successful manufacturing company

by LORINDA TOLEDO

Phil Archuletta's entrepreneurial saga began with little more than a vandalized sign and an uncompromising commitment to quality craftsmanship.

PHOTO BY LAURA SMITH

Phil Archuletta holds an engraved Smokey Bear sign.

Nearly four decades later, Archuletta finds it is that commitment that has propelled him to build not one, but two nationally successful businesses.

Archuletta is founder and CEO of three companies -- P&M Signs, Inc., P&M Plastics, Inc. and P&M Lumber, LLC. All three businesses are located in Mountainair, N.M., and go hand in hand with each other to help Archuletta manufacture signs that are then put up all over the United States.

Two of Archuletta's biggest clients are the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But this is all something Archuletta never could have foreseen 20 years ago.

"I had never in my entire life been to Mountainair — I didn't even know that there was a Mountainair," Archuletta said.

With several patents and countless awards, Archuletta has also been involved in the restoration of New Mexico's historical markers since 1971, and is the author of "Travel New Mexico," a book that details the history of the state through the historical markers.

Brought up two hours east of Colorado Springs in a humble home, Archuletta, 61, hasn't let any of life's roadblocks stop him.

In a partnership with his brother-in-law, Archuletta's first business venture, Ojo Caliente Craftsmen, Inc., was born in Ojo Caliente, N.M., in 1970.

Ojo Caliente Craftsmen got its big break making signs for the Forest Service when the federal agency asked Archuletta to replace a sign that had been burned by Reyes Lopez Tijerina, who led a 1967 takeover of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse in an effort to have lands returned to local families.

"A week later, [a forest ranger] came back with a list of about 20 signs," Archuletta said. "So we made him 20 signs more and then a month later he comes back and asked us if we want to sign a contract to make signs with Region 3 of the Forest Service."

Paul Weaver worked for the Forest Service at the time and worked closely with Archuletta throughout his career.

"Everybody could see the sincerity and integrity in Phil," Weaver said. "All of us admired that and wanted to help him to succeed."

But neither Archuletta nor the Forest Service realized the contract they negotiated was illegal. Federal Prison Industries, which provides work experience and job skills for prison inmates, had been designated by the federal government in 1936 as the mandatory provider of signs, furniture and other goods ordered by federal entities.

Archuletta said he believed the mandatory status that the prison industries enjoyed was causing detriment to the U.S. economy because small businesses were not allowed to compete, so he sought help from then-Sen. Joseph Montoya, D-N.M.

"We were just three Hispanics over there in northern New Mexico making a few signs," Archuletta said. "We were no competition for a huge manufacturing operation like Federal Prison Industries."

Thanks to Montoya, Ojo Caliente Craftsmen was allowed to have its contract back by becoming registered as an 8(a) business through the Small Business administration.

The 8(a) program assists small, disadvantaged businesses so that they may compete more effectively.

Once back in the game, Ojo Caliente Craftsmen began making signs for Region 3 of the Forest Service and quickly spread throughout the western U.S.

"By the time Federal Prison Industries realized it, we were already getting to be a pretty big manufacturing operation," Archuletta said. "They decided that they wanted to cancel us out, so we kept fighting them."

In 1981, Archuletta found himself in front of the U.S. Judiciary Committee backed Sen. Harrison Schmitt, R-N.M., Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and then-U.S. Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr., R-N.M. An agreement was reached allowing Archuletta's company to provide signs nationally for the Forest Service.

"Phil is one of the hardest working guys that I've ever known," Lujan said. "Plus he's really a genius with machinery."

Archuletta said he was able to achieve national success because of his high-quality products. Archuletta had learned first-class silk screening techniques for displays and graphics at the 3M headquarters in St. Paul, Minn.

"Once (the forest service) started getting our quality signs delivered on time, all the regions started buying from us," Archuletta said.

By this time, Ojo Caliente also had a long-standing relationship with Valley National Bank in Espanola, and along with it, the backing of its owner, Richard Cook, a New Mexico entrepreneur.

Able to easily obtain funding for their growing business, Ojo Caliente Craftsmen added on a welding operation in 1981 where it made platforms for B-1 bombers. In 1984, the company built a new state-of-the-art sign shop — one that Archuletta did not yet know he would struggle to re-build from scratch 20 years later along with an entirely new business.

Ojo Caliente Craftsmen grew from 30 employees to 65.

"We became extremely successful in Ojo Caliente and Rio Arriba County," Archuletta said. "We were one of the only manufacturing companies that has ever been placed and operated in the northern part of the state."

Then, in 1990, Archuletta ran for Congress and lost to Bill Richardson.

Believing that he would win the election and go to Washington, D.C., Archuletta's brother-in-law had taken over the company, Archuletta said.

"I ended up in Mountainair with $300 in my pocket," Archuletta said. "And I started all over again."

A year and a half later —with Archuletta gone — Ojo Caliente Craftsmen, Inc. went under.

With his sister Maybel Ocaña, Archuletta obtained three buildings in Mountainair in 1991 to house his businesses and negotiated a contract with the U.S. General Services Administration to produce signs for his former customers such as the Forest Service and the state Highway Department.

With $1.94 million in sales last year, Archuletta aims to hit the $2.5 million mark in 2008.

It took him five years to obtain funding to build the new sign shop because of the rural location of his businesses.

But now financed by the Bank of Albuquerque with a 504 loan, which enables small businesses to build a facility and obtain equipment at a 20-year fixed interest rate, Archuletta anticipates the new sign shop will be completed by late spring.

Archuletta said his new 11,700-square-foot, metal fabricated sign shop is exactly like the one he left behind in Ojo Caliente, and will be the first new building in Mountainair in the last 40 years.

"For the groundbreaking, the entire community was there in support," said Sandra Leyba, senior vice-president for the Bank of Albuquerque. "They're going to have a nice facility and they're going to be able to support their families."

Archuletta said he will be able to employ a total of about 35 people. He currently has 19 employees.

In a joint venture with retired Rep. Lujan, Archuletta is also working to get funding for a manufacturing plant for P&M Lumber, which would employ 40 to 65 people.

"Phil was raised in a rural area and he feels that he has a responsibility to provide jobs in a rural area," Lujan said. "And I think he's right."

As he has watched Mountainair's economy begin to grow, Archuletta has kept a political presence as a city councilman and lobbyist who sits on several boards.

Archuletta, also a Republican, was instrumental in convincing President George W. Bush to sign the Consolidated Appropriations Bill in 2004, which took away Federal Prison Industries' mandatory source status, making it easier for small businesses to compete for federal projects.

"I'm determined to bring jobs to a rural community in the middle part of the state," Archuletta said.

Asked what drives him to build his businesses in a rural setting, Archuletta said, "I did it once and I'm totally stubborn to do it again."

Written March 13, 2007

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