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The Forbes 400
Trailer King Who better to build a fortune in mobile homes than someone who grew up on the wrong side of the ballfield?Under a Cloudless sky in Knoxville, Tenn., James Lee Clayton straps himself into his black Bell 407 helicopter and eases the seven-seater off the ground. The 68-year-old cranks up Eric Clapton on the stereo and winds his way between the Cumberland and Smoky mountains. Twenty minutes later Clayton lands the whirlybird at his summer getaway, a cedar-sided joint fitted out with patio furniture straight out of Wal-Mart.Of his five residences--which include condos in Colorado, Florida and South Carolina, as well as a brand-new 14,000-square-foot house in Knoxville--Clayton says this is his favorite. "I get more thinking done, more work done and have more sex in this place than anywhere else in the world," he declares. "This place" is a double-wide for which he paid $45,000 in 1991. So not every trailer is inhabited by a chain-smoking couple with tattoos. This mobile-home owner is worth $620 million. He made that money manufacturing, selling and financing homes like this one. Padding around the 15-acre site on Fort Loudoun Lake, Clayton describes how his hardscrabble beginnings and an early business failure steeled him to survive in a boom-and-bust business. Conspicuous in the history of Clayton Homes is the near absence of leverage or daredevil growth. At the moment, the mobile-home sector is suffering one of its periodic busts, but Clayton Homes is not suffering like its competitors. Its Big Board-listed shares are down only 33% from their alltime high. The shares of Champion Enterprises, the biggest mobile-home maker, are down 90%. Shares of Oakwood Homes, which during the last boom beat out Clayton in a bidding war for another manufactured housing company, are down 99%. Clayton grew up in rural western Tennessee, the son of a sharecropper. His father borrowed money for seeds, fertilizer and tools, money to be repaid from the proceeds of the cotton harvest. The whole family pitched in to make ends meet. "Picking cotton is one of the most horrible--and boring--things you can do," Clayton recalls. Clayton's mother worked in a shirt factory next to a baseball field. When Clayton and his brother, Joseph, showed up to play, they were always chosen last. "We weren't as good as the other kids because we were working in the field all day while they were playing ball," he says. "We started to realize that we did not dress as well and did not know how to move around socially like the postmaster's son or the banker's son. Our dad worked longer than the other dads did." Clayton was intent on finding a future away from the cotton fields. "There were three ways to break out of that kind of life," he says. "Go to Pontiac and build cars, join the military or make it to the Grand Ole Opry like Eddy Arnold." He chose the latter, spending his nights learning how to flat-pick on the guitar, his fingers bloodied by cotton-picking. Clayton never made it to Nashville, but he paid for his engineering degree from the University of Tennessee by playing on a Knoxville radio station. (He still plays guitar and has serenaded shareholders at annual meetings.) In college he sold his first car, an old Kaiser-Frazer, for $295, and was inspired. Within half a year he had six fraternity brothers working for him, brokering cars out of their frat house. As a junior in 1956, he founded Clayton Motors with his brother, Joe. Soon he was buying up lots and selling used cars all over Knoxville. But he expanded too fast, and when Hamilton National Bank called in his debt in June 1961, he could not pay.
SEC Probes GE's Contract With Welch - 9/16/02 9:30:52 AM ET The announcement comes hours after the former chief said he'd give up use of expensive retirement perks. Genzyme Sees Lower Total Revenue - 9/16/02 9:28:50 AM ET Genzyme warned for a third time this year that slowing sales of its kidney disease drug would hurt results. WorldCom To Cut Roughly 2,000 Jobs - 9/16/02 8:37:50 AM ET The bankrupt U.S. carrier says it will chop 25% of its staff, most of which would fall in Europe. Cablevision Weighs Cable TV Sale, AOL Mentioned - 9/16/02 4:59:43 AM ET Charles Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, reportedly said he was open to selling its cable TV systems. CS Insiders Say CSFB Investment Bank Sale Unlikely - 9/16/02 4:14:49 AM ET The insiders reportedly don't believe their CEO would sell CSFB while valuations are depressed.  |
Rules of the Chase The Forbes 400 A Long Strange Trip
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Market data provided by Reuters. Disclaimer Stock quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes for Nasdaq, at least 20 minutes for NYSE/AMEX. U.S. indexes are delayed at least 15 minutes with the exception of S&P; 500 which is real-time. Forbes 40 Index powered by Telemet. News may include latest headlines from Reuters. |
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