Chalk up another victory for Utah over arch economic development rival, Colorado, as Wells Fargo Armored Service moves into its new state-of-the-security-art complex in Salt Lake City Wednesday, a facility that will serve as the company's regional headquarters, formerly in Denver.
The new complex will be the control center for all of Wells Fargo's operations west of Colorado, said Calvin L. Murri, vice president and general manager of the western region. The regional office moved in 1988 from Denver to temporary quarters in Bountiful, then to a terminal at 220 Rio Grande Ave. out of which Wells Fargo has operated its local armored transport division since 1972.The company had outgrown that space, said Murri, and went to work with Mayor Palmer DePaulis and the Shelter the Homeless Committee to vacate those premises earlier than planned to make space for a new women's shelter for the homeless. The mayor praised Wells Fargo's efforts in the move.
"Because of Wells Fargo's cooperation, the city has been able to move quickly ahead on the new shelter," the mayor said. "They set an excellent example of government-business teamwork which results in a much-needed program to serve the needy."
The new California Avenue terminal - one of nine such regional centers Wells Fargo operates across the nation - sits on slightly more than an acre of very secure land. Murri said he is presently negotiating with the city to retain the razor wire atop the fence around the compound. Although the wire violates zoning codes, Murri doesn't believe it offends anyone in that industrial corridor.
The new building, leased through Commerce Properties Inc. from F.C. Stangl Construction Co., has a 12,000 square-foot security area for loading, handling and sorting money. It also has a 2,500 square-foot maintenance area for trucks and equipment and a 1,500 square-foot office mezzanine, all of which are accessed through highly secure, bulletproof "man trap" doors. The complex also has two large vault rooms, one for storing bullion and currency and another for sorting coins.
According to K. Scott Green, assistant vice president for sales, financial institutions are getting out of coin processing and wrapping - along with other "back room" business - and that service is increasingly being taken over by armored transport companies such as Wells Fargo.
He said servicing of bank automated teller machines (ATMs) is also a large growth segment of the business. Wells Fargo, which operates 155 branches in most of the 48 states, has moved aggressively to become the nation's largest servicer of ATMs.
It's the special cargo it moves that makes Wells Fargo Armored more than just a trucking company. Currency, coin, silver and gold bullion are glamorous enough, but once in a while the company is called upon to haul more than just riches.
A Wells Fargo armored truck once transported rock star Michael Jackson to a concert, and the world's largest gold nugget was safely escorted to the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas via Wells' big red trucks.
Armored cars have also gained a romantic notoriety in "caper" films, particularly those depicting the notorious 1950 heist of Brinks Inc. in Boston. (Brinks, incidentally, is the nation's largest armored car service; Wells Fargo is second and Loomis Inc. is third. Armored Transport, which operated out of Salt Lake City about five years ago, is no longer in business here.)
The Wells Fargo name carries a large dose of glamour itself, stemming as it does from the original company formed at Sutter's Mill in 1852 to transport gold out of the fabled gold strike that sent thousands rushing to the gold fields of California hoping to make their fortunes.
The original Wells Fargo company eventually went out of business when the stagecoach fell victim to the railroad, said company spokesman Joe Allen. But the name lived on in legend, much like the Pony Express. Today, Wells Fargo is allowed to use the name for its armored services, and California's Wells Fargo Bank is allowed to use it in the financial services industry. The two companies are linked only in the shared name. The bank uses the stagecoach for its logo and the transport company, the Pony Express rider.
Wells Fargo, based in Atlanta, Ga., is a subsidiary of Baker Industries Inc., which bought the armored transport and coin auditing business of Wells Fargo & Co. in 1967 from American Express. Baker Industries reported sales in 1989 of $1.25 billion. In addition to the Wells Fargo Armored, the company operates Wells Fargo Alarm Services and Wells Fargo Guard Services. Other Baker subsidiaries include Pony Express Courier Corp. and Burns International Security Service.
Baker Industries, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., is, in turn, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Borg Warner Corp., which went private in 1987 in a $4.5 billion leveraged buyout by senior management. Analysts today term it one of the more successful buyouts in history, said Green, with the debt significantly reduced over the past two years.
The new Salt Lake headquarters for Wells Fargo will be home to 24 armored trucks and some 75 employees, all of whom must undergo extremely rigorous security and background checks and there is ongoing drug testing. "We hire people who have a high degree of integrity," said Murri.
Although there have been crimes involving armored cars in Utah, there have been none involving Wells Fargo vehicles, said Murri. Nor, to his knowledge, has there been gunfire involving any local armored firms.
"We've had some in Denver and there's been quite a bit back East and in Florida that we attribute to the drug issue, but not here," said Green.
All Wells Fargo drivers and guards _ each truck always has a team of at least two men and sometimes three or four depending on the cargo _ are licensed to carry and use firearms in the performance of their duties.
Murri terms armored services a growth business, not so much in the trucking end, but in the ancillary services, such as coin wrapping and serving ATMs and other remote banking sites, now being provided to financial institutions.
"Last year was a record for us in earnings and profits," said Murri.