alissa

Danny Moon is no stranger to adversity. As a student, circumstances forced him to leave high school in exchange for a full-time career. Then in 1968 he founded his own steel trade business out of a dire need for financial help when his son was born. Beating all the odds, this tradesman worked tirelessly to provide for his family through his new company. Looking back, the effort was well worth the tribulations that he endured, for the future that he has built for his family and others along the way is ultimately priceless. Throughout their growth, Commercial Steel [...]

A true Amherst County landmark sits on Route 130 in an unassuming cinderblock building. Well known in the local community—but now a destination for those from near and far—Woodruff’s Store, Café and Pie Shop has a lengthy history in the county. Long before Southern Living magazine wrote of the “best apple pie ever” (leading to the little store being featured on national TV), Wyatt Woodruff, a freed slave and Civil War Veteran, opened the first Black-owned business in Amherst County just across the street.  The present building has been home to many businesses, and got its start when [...]

The town of Amherst, Virginia, is home to a timeless treasure of a business: Hermle North America. With a century-long history of perfecting their craft of clockmaking, this German-rooted company only continues to flourish as the years tread on. Now under the third generation of family-based Hermle management, the organization has faced a multitude of challenges on their way to worldwide success. Their history of pivoting to reinvent themselves seems to be at the centerpiece of their fame, and is a huge factor in what has made their small business grow into so much more. With a parent company in [...]