Jay Lucas is on a mission to make Flags of Valor a household name recognized by families and schoolchildren.
A business that makes American flags is a bit different from the companies in the portfolio of the private equity fund the Seacoast entrepreneur runs with his wife, Karen, which focuses on beauty, wellness and personal care products.
But this one has special meaning for the couple, who have long supported veteran causes.
About a year ago, Lucas received a call from a Marine friend who told him about a Virginia company that makes handcrafted wooden American flags and hires veterans and their spouses to produce them.
Flags of Valor, founded by two former special operations pilots, was looking for an investor to help it grow to the next level.
“The next week I actually got on a plane and went down to Virginia. I spent an entire day with the two founders, Brian Steorts, and Joe Shamess. What I learned was that it’s a phenomenal company,” Lucas said during a recent interview.
At its factory Winchester, Virginia, Flags of Valor makes large wooden flags for wall display, wooden flag coin holders, desktop flags, military service flags and other related products.
Lucas is most excited about the wooden flag-building kits the company makes for children that are packaged with an instruction and activity book that includes the historical information about the flag and the United States.
“It teaches them about freedom, about our values, our core principles as Americans and what makes this country great, said Lucas, whose son, Lincoln, is a flight instructor for the Navy.
“If we could instill in this next generation this knowledge and relationship with our basic American values, we could have a transformative impact on the country over the next generation,” said Lucas, who began his career at Bain and Company.
Since investing in Flags of Valor, Lucas has worked on refining the company’s focus and management team, appointing Harvard Business School MBA and Marine veteran Neil Howell as CEO and a seven-member advisory board that includes New Hampshire notables former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, and former Naval officer Charles Wagner, chairman and chief technical officer of Exeter software company C3i.
Ayotte was already familiar with Flags of Valor: She has one of the wooden flags hanging above the mantle of her fireplace. She received it as a gift after speaking to a group that mentors veterans.
“The flags are beautiful,” Ayotte said. “It’s an opportunity not only to see vets succeed in business but also provide a great product that’s made in the USA for people to enjoy that’s patriotic.”
Flags of Valor previously sold its products primarily through its website.
“We’re expanding our channels right now. We’re moving from simply digital to Amazon as well, but also very importantly into events,” said Lucas, adding that the company recently had a presence at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Texas.
The company also aims to expand its apparel business.
“We’re building out our business-to-business catalog and making it very easy and very user friendly for corporate customers to buy shirts and hats with our logo, both for their employee recognition awards but also for their sales teams,” he said. “That is going to be a major source of revenue for us.”
Flags of Valor recently acquired Combat Flags, another veteran-owned small business, which makes small flags out of combat uniforms. It’s also partnering with Allegiance Flag Supply, which manufactures cloth flags in South Carolina.
The Winchester, Virginia, factory employs about a dozen workers.
“Think of it as a very efficient woodworking shop where there’s a certain genius and innovative spirit in the shop of doing things and figuring things out,” Lucas said.
He would like to see the company expand into the Granite State.
“There’s no better place to build a business than New Hampshire. We’re looking at all of our options right now,” said Lucas, who was the GOP nominee for governor of New Hampshire in 1998, when he lost to incumbent Jeanne Shaheen.
For now, his goal is building the Flags of Valor brand and its mission to give back to veterans. Since its founding in 2015, the company has donated more than $1.7 million to veteran-related nonprofits, according to its website.
“We’re a small company now, but we have aspirations of being a very impactful company and creating an enormous amount of value that we can give back to veterans and hire vets,” Lucas said.
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