Greenville Awning & Canopy

“My work ethic came from my father,” says Vince. “I’m the fifth of six children and neither of our parents grew up with much money. My dad put himself through college and was what he called a ‘weekend farmer.’ He ran a farm on the weekends and was a traveling salesman during the week. He worked hard to take care of his family and to instill that work ethic in his children. That’s the legacy he left us.”

After earning a degree in business administration and economics from North Carolina State University, Vince worked in banking for eight years, which is where he got the courage to start his own business. “Working with business owners and understanding their financials gave me the confidence to go out on my own.”

Vince Vincent

Greenville Awning & Canopy has been active in the Greenville area since 2004, providing hundreds of awnings to businesses and residences.

In 1994, Vince purchased Scott’s Cleaners, an established dry-cleaning business in Greenville. Over the years, he expanded from two stores to four and added four laundromats. “I enjoyed it, but it was running me ragged, and I had a young family, so I decided I needed to do something else.”

While ordering awnings for his stores, Vince realized there was opportunity for growth in that industry; supply wasn’t keeping up with demand. “There were two awning companies in our area – one in Wilson and one in Rocky Mount – and it was difficult to get them to Greenville to give you a quote. Because they had so much business, it took a couple months for them to do the work,” he recalls. “After getting awnings on a couple of stores, it dawned on me that we needed an awning company in Greenville, a fast-growing area.”

Vince rented a small space in October 2004, hired a welder who still works for him today, and Greenville Awning & Canopy was born. A year later, he sold his cleaning business.

Today, 21 years later, Greenville Awning & Canopy operates with a tightly knit, capable team of 12 employees who custom build and install a full line of fabric and aluminum window and door coverings for homes and businesses throughout eastern North Carolina. While they’ve done work as far away as Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, Vince says their goal is to stay close to home and focus on serving the communities of Greenville, Kinston, New Bern, Williamston, and Washington.

Greenville Awning offers traditional, valance, dome, and retractable awnings, carports, patio covers, shade sails, overhead-supported canopies, and screen rooms. Repeat customers include East Carolina University, ECU Health, and East Carolina Health Systems, to name a few.

Greenville Awning & Canopy can create awnings that enhance a home’s outdoor spaces.

Custom awnings for businesses are a specialty for Greenville Awning & Canopy.

Despite switching to a new industry, Vince never worried about attracting customers. “What I learned through the years is that success comes from opportunity and opportunity comes through relationships. I built this business by building relationships. I coached Little League baseball for many years, which in Greenville is a huge thing, so those relationships gave me opportunities to grow the business by providing a solid product, good customer service, and building on trust. We have wonderful relationships with several large, commercial construction companies, and we have built a great reputation on the retail side through advertising and word of mouth. The phones ring daily for people wanting awnings.”

Vince offers high praise for TowneBank and values the banking relationships that have also helped guide his success. “They are wonderful people, and they’ve helped me tremendously,” says Vince of Greg Steele, Greenville president, a fellow Little League coach, and Glenn Marsh, senior vice president and Greenville branch manager, who sat down with Vince in 2019 to discuss transferring his relationship to TowneBank.

“TowneBank helped me refinance my commercial real estate and set up a line of credit I needed for business,” Vince says. “Shortly after that, Norm Bryant, who is now retired from Towne Insurance, helped set up my insurance coverage. When Covid hit in 2020, TowneBank was instrumental in helping me apply for loans through the Payroll Protection Program. My CPA worked directly with Towne to help me get those loans approved quickly.”

“It was a really difficult time to work through,” Vince continues. “If you’re in business, you need to have people like Greg, Glenn, and Norm to help you through the good times and the bad, and that’s what they did. I am fiercely loyal to TowneBank because of that. They take great care of me.”

For more information, visit GreenvilleAwningNC.com.

Vince’s dog Elmo loves to come to work with him and is always ready to greet customers.