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By Kris Harrell

Terrell Enterprises, Inc. is celebrating 50 years of business and providing furniture for the southwest area on Jan. 2.

The business plans to commemorate their anniversary with a tree planting, mirroring the planting they did to celebrate the new building their business was in. 

“We’re going to plant [the] tree when the weather changes,” said Beth Huggins, the general manager of Terrell Enterprises. “We’re going to plant a tree in the front yard, because we had to take down the tree last year that has been there since they opened.”

Founded by Bobby and Mary Lou Terrell, Terrell Enterprises, Inc. began with two items: Sico mobile cafeteria table and Charles W. Rice window shades. Now, Terrell Enterprises, Inc. provides school furniture like auditorium seating, chalkboards and gym floor covers, and office furniture like AV equipment, conference chairs and tables. 

In the beginning, Terrell Enterprises Inc. was operating in the back of the Terrell’s pizza parlor, Pasquale’s. Bobby Terrell would handle deliveries and installation while Mary Lou Terrell managed the books in the parlor’s back office. 

“[Bobby] was working with American Seating Company, they were based out of Atlanta, but Mr. Bob Burnan, who was our representative from Sico, came down one day,” Mary Lou Terrell said. “He came fairly often and checked on things, but he came down and he told Bobby. ‘If you can make this much money for another company, what do you think you can do for yourself?’ So that’s how we really got into the Terrell Enterprise business.”

Since then, the business has been passed down to Bobby and Mary Lou Terrell’s son, Al Brannon, who serves as the Terrell Enterprises, Inc. CEO after Bobby Terrell’s retirement. 

Mary Lou Terrell still serves as the owner, working alongside her son, Al, as the business continues to serve the Alabama and upper-Florida area. 

“[Al] is really the hub, everything goes through him… he is the decision maker for the company,” Huggins said. “He’s led us through trials and errors and we’ve come out on the other side of it. We had a good year this past year.
“He put in the work – in the years – to make his family business what it was. Mr. Bobby [and] Ms.  Mary had created it, but Al brought the vision together and it is what it is today because of him.”