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Rhino Tough Down Home Press At least two things have been too tough for the Wall Street sharks to devour. One is a rhino with a blue hide and a flamethrower for a horn. The other is Billy Prim, the man who raised that rhino. In 1994, Billy organized a propane cylinder exchange company in Boonville, NC, and named it Blue Rhino. Today colorful Blue Rhino cylinders with their flaming horn logos are in tens of thousands of stores across the country, instantly recognizable by millions of backyard chefs. The story of how Billy got them there, and kept them there, despite attempts by powerful people to discourage him—and even derail his company—should inspire millions more. After visiting Wall Street as a young man in his twenties, Billy had dreamed of building a company from the ground up and taking it public—using the bedrock business values and know-how instilled in him by his father and grandfather in their farm supply and grocery store. Their deaths when Billy was a young man barely out of high school devastated him, but he steeled himself and took the helm of the family business, enlarging and expanding it. He went into the bulk propane business and opened several convenience stores. When backyard barbecuers asked him to refill their propane cylinders, Billy began an exchange business as a sideline. When it took off, Billy wondered if this could be the business he could take to Wall Street. Powerful business leaders and moneylenders said it couldn’t be done. Some of his original investors pulled out, and Billy’s own president tried to oust him. But the nay-sayers didn’t realize the grit and tenacity Billy developed from his father and grandfather. He took the company public in 1998 and its stock soared. But after a false story planted in the Wall Street Journal sent the stock plummeting, Billy had to summon all the strength, wisdom, and character that his father and grandfather had given him to see that Blue Rhino survived.
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