When in 1997, the marriage of Christina Pens-Dune broke up, she had two small children — 5 and 9 years. To keep a roof over her head and feed her family, she did the almost impossible — created a company with $20 million annual turnover and 55 employees.
«I had no choice, says 53-year-old Christina. I had to do something to make it all work.»
Company Hometown Trolley produces retro-trolley — copies of those, which transported passengers in American cities decades ago. In the year produced more than 100 trolleybuses which send around the world.
They are buying tourist companies and municipalities that want to decorate the centers of their cities and attract passengers. Trolleybuses are sold throughout the USA, Canada, South America, UAE, Netherlands, Australia and South Korea.
All production is located in a town with a population of less than 2 thousand people in Northern Wisconsin.
In fairness it should be noted that Kristina Pence-Duno not started the business from scratch. The production of trolleybuses were only a side business for her husband, but then he produced only 10 cars a year for one client from Florida.
Christina after the divorce took almost all familiar tools (about $500 thousand) to build your company. Soon, she had released 30 new vehicles a year, and in 2014, received the first major contract for Chicago, began to compete with the plants 10 times larger than her own. It was also due to the fact that its trolleybuses by 65% made of American parts, which allowed municipalities to use Federal grants to purchase them.
In 2016 Kristina Pence-Duno bought its biggest competitor, the Corporation’s Supreme Classic American Trolley line. In 2017 she was named «Person of the year» among small businesses in Wisconsin.
«It started out as survival, recalls Christine. — I was just trying to pay the bills and feed the children.»
The ONLY woman owned manufacturing business nominated for #MOTY @wimoty, congrats CEO/President Kristina Pence-Dunow!! pic.twitter.com/6SEXW7EPjF
— Hometown Manufacturing (@HometownTrolley) February 24, 2017
