It began as a “side project” in McDowell County in 2001, but Cucumber & Company is now a player in Beckley and the national arena of video production and Web design.

In the past year, Cucumber owner Dwane Muncy has met publicity needs for major local clients and customers in California, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Canada and Oklahoma.

Area clients include Hayden and Hart, Kramer Security and Investigations, Lewis Chevrolet, Hometown Subaru, Sanschell, United Way of Southern West Virginia, Bluefield Regional Medical Center, WorkForce West Virginia and several politicians.

The company is a product of hard work and Muncy’s love for video production.

“The reason I like video is because you take all these pieces you know in your head are going to look good together, and no one else knows,” said Muncy. “You’re sort of like psychic, because you can read the future.

“Everyone else is going, ‘That’s not going to work. That’s crazy.’

“But then you get it together, and it works,” he said.

Muncy started Cucumber & Company in his parents’ home in Cucumber, McDowell County, after he graduated from Concord University in 2001.

Over the past eight years, he’s built it from a tiny wedding video production company to one that has a high definition studio and a clientele list that includes local business icons and gubernatorial candidates from other states.

Now housed in a fourth-floor suite of the United Bank building on Main Street, Cucumber & Company boasts high-definition video production equipment, powerhouse computers, and a team that Muncy says is “one of the best” at producing commercials and designing Web sites.

Muncy said video production is the driving passion behind the business.

In order to get his business in gear, Muncy — a die-hard wrestling fan — took his video camera to lots of frilly functions when he first started Cucumber.

“I was doing baby beauty pageants, weddings and small, very small, school functions,” he recalled.

Since weddings and pageants didn’t pay the bills for the more ambitious video projects Muncy wanted, he took a day job as a network administrator at a Pineville mining company.

“I used that to kind of fuel this side project (Cucumber) I got going,” he recalled. “And the weddings kept coming, and graduations, and I was able from that work I did at the coal company to start contracting that out to other people, too.”

Before he knew it, Cucumber & Company was a video production and a computer services company.

He was gaining more and more computer services clientele.

“My main goal that whole time was to have something to do to pay for the video,” he said. “I would find myself sometimes with months and months of only computer, no video jobs.”

In 2003, a car dealership took notice of the fledgling production company and commissioned Muncy to produce a commercial.

“That got me another car dealer in Beckley, so I had steady income from this,” Muncy said.

Muncy said Cucumber produces commercials, political ads, instructional videos, documentaries, and marketing videos for clients.

The company also produces a weekly television show, “Mountain State Wrestling.”

The show is currently in its fourth season and airs Sundays at 11 a.m. on the local FOX television station.

Cucumber & Company designs billboards, brochures, Web pages and produces radio commercials.

Muncy said he’s “through with weddings.”

“In 2006, I did 37 weddings. In 2007, I did two,” said Muncy. “I’m finished doing weddings.”

More information on services at Cucumber & Company is available at www.cucumberandcompany.com or by calling 304-250-0123.