Mount Pleasant Magazine 6.3

152 / 164

| | 150
assets. He was prepared to sell his
stake in Detyens Shipyards if Starke
refused the offer – sort of.
“Red was 65. I gambled that he
wouldn’t want to buy me out,” Stew-
art said. “We did $22 million in sales
in 1989 and $44 million the next year
and never looked back.”
And he’s never stopped trying
to help others succeed, whether by
offering money, advice or both. His
original objective was to have a posi-
tive effect on the lives of 10 people, a
goal he has far exceeded.
“I bet on the who, not on the
what,” he explained.
For example, Stewart cited the
case of Matt Wilson, an artist from
Greenville who now lives in Park Cir-
cle in North Charleston. Stewart put
him on the payroll as the company’s
resident artist and provided him with
a shop where he can work his magic.
Now he makes metal models of the
ships that visit Detyens regularly for
repairs and maintenance. Jim Shultz,
who also has a shop at Detyens, fash-
ions metal reliefs of the drydock for
the company’s customers.
These two artists are producing a
few of the “pickles” Stewart provides
for his customers. He explained with
a story about a sandwich shop that
included a pickle with each sandwich
it sold. One day the restaurant’s own-
ers decided they would be better off if
they charged 50 cents for the once-
free pickle. As a result, the eatery lost
a lot of business.
The moral of the story, according to
Stewart, is “Just give them the pickle.”
He follows his own advice by
providing his customers with other
extras besides models of their ships
and of the drydock. He also gives
Detyens T-shirts to crew members
and newborn clothes emblazoned
with the Detyens logo to employees
or customers who welcome young-
sters into the world. In addition,
Stewart’s customers can learn how to
hit a golf ball farther from three-time
Voted Best French
Restaurant 2016
Lunch Tuesday - Friday 11:30am - 2:30pm
Dinner Tuesday - Sunday 5:00pm - 9:30pm
Brunch Saturday - Sunday 11:00am - 3 :00pm
Sea Island Shopping Center
1220 Ben Sawyer Blvd., Suite I,
Mt Pleasant, SC
843-216-3434
Classic French Cuisine
Over 20 Wines
by the Glass
Creative Cocktails
Wine Wednesday
$10 off ALL bottles of Wine ALL day!