By Tyler Stocks

Washington Daily News

In a sluggish economy, most experts agree that being marketable and having a skillset can make the job search seem a little less daunting. According to company President Lindsey Crisp, Carver Machine Works seeks to help individuals learn new skills and prides itself on having quality employees.

CMW partners with Beaufort Community College and East Carolina University to provide scholarship opportunities to promising students who are eager to learn new skills and have a career.

The company’s commitment to the community and to their employees led to it receiving the Business of the Year award at the Washington-Beaufort Chamber of Commerce annual awards banquet on Feb. 4.

“We were really excited to get this award; I’m very fortunate to work with folks who embrace change,” Crisp said. “To be acknowledged by our peers and members of the community means a lot. I was really proud to bring that plaque back. We take a lot of pride in what we do.”

A father and son who specialized in pump refurbishment founded the company in 1976. Today, the business has expanded and manufactures equipment and components for the military, paper plants and phosphate companies.

“We are fabricators and we weld, machine and mechanically assemble components for aerospace, pulp, heavy equipment and petrochemical, phosphate mining. We repair pumps and centrifuges and even build specialty components in the submarines,” Crisp said. “We really reinvented our company eight years ago. We started with pump repair and now we do more in the defense and nuclear industry.”

For 2014, Crisp said he hopes to expand the business and continue to produce quality products for the multiple industries the company serves. Employees who have ownership in the company also share this commitment to excellence, he said.

“We’re a 100 percent, employee-owned company and our workers have a high level of engagement to our success. The quality and the pride of our workers is something that really separates us from everybody else,” Crisp said.