TOOELE — In his youth, Troy Winder watched the TV show "The Outer Limits" and played in big boxes that doubled as spaceships.
Now, boxes are his livelihood.
"Kind of ironic, isn't it?" Winder laughs. "There's nothing better than a big, solid box."
And there's nothing better than a growing business.
Winder, 35, owns Boxes Inc., a small company that solicits businesses for all sizes of used boxes, turns them inside out, reseals them and then sells them all over the country. It's a family affair, with dad, daughters and one son pitching in. And Winder says there is no Dumpster-diving involved.
"That's the biggest misnomer," he says.
Winder has contracts with at least 20 Utah businesses that produce scrap cardboard. Finished products are trucked all over Utah and as far away as California, Vancouver, Chicago and Missouri. With a same-day or at least next-day delivery commitment locally, Winder will sometimes use his own pickup to ship his boxes.
"There's not too many businesses in this country that can do that," he said.
While boxes are the boon of his financial existence, life wasn't always cardboard and contracts.
Eight years ago Winder left a job as a cook, pursued a career in sales and eventually fell into starting his own business last year after researching the recycling and sale of boxes. "I thought it could be done a little better," he said.
So last May he moved into a 7,500-square-foot space inside a 45,000-square-foot building at the Utah Industrial Depot. Already he has expanded into a 14,000-square-foot area and expects to double in size within two months by utilizing rail service into the depot for deliveries. In short, "boxes are big business," said Winder, whose timing couldn't be better.
Utah's economy is healthy, said Michael Finnerty, director of the Utah Small Business Development Center program. Currently, Utah harbors more than 60,000 "small" businesses. Small is roughly defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration as any retail or service business producing annual gross revenues of less than $5 million or any wholesale or distribution company with fewer than 500 employees.
But a healthy economy, Finnerty said, is only the icing on the cake for businesses in Utah. "What's driving Utah's small businesses is population growth." Survival is another thing.
"I think that any time a business can grow and prosper in this state, everybody benefits," Finnerty said. "But everybody shares in the failure of a business, too."
And when one vacates a building, declares bankruptcy or takes its business elsewhere, Utah loses, he said. "We need to continue to support these businesses."
So far, Winder is having no trouble finding support. From an 18-wheeler full of boxes bound for the East Coast to the dad who wants boxes to build a fort for his kids or the movie company that needs boxes for a set, word is spreading. His Web site, www.boxesincorporated.com, is under construction. And located at the ground floor of a burgeoning industrial depot, future business may be as close as next door.
"I'm gunning for (Bill) Gates himself," said Winder, hopeful he'll be the low-tech equivalent of the high-tech giant.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com