Family Business Awards -- Legacy: Honoring multiple generations of progressive management
WINNER: Stemilt Growers
Location: Wenatchee
Employees: 1,200 full time, 2,500 during cherry season
Every Wednesday morning, members of the Mathison family meet for a breakfast at the Wenatchee Springhill Suites hotel. West Mathison brings a status report on Stemilt, the family-owned and -operated fruit grower, packer, shipper and marketer. Then the Mathisons, some of whom are exclusively shareholders and others who also work for Stemilt, break bread and talk about everything from company matters to children to weekend plans.
“A lot of family businesses don’t work on being a family,” says West Mathison, who became Stemilt president in 2005. “Without a doubt, these meetings have been a real powerful structure for us.”
The ties that bind the family together and to this region go back to 1893, when the first Mathisons homesteaded on Stemilt Hill. In 1914, Thomas Cyle Mathison began planting apple, pear and cherry orchards, which he passed on to his son, Chris Mathison. When Chris was killed in an irrigation accident in 1947, his 21-year-old son, Tom Mathison, took over.
Times were challenging. By 1958, Tom Mathison grossed only $88 for a 100-ton cherry crop. When he discovered that poor packing caused his fruit to be damaged on the way to big urban markets, he built a packing shed in 1962. Supervision of this step resulted in better quality control and better prices. Neighbor farmers asked him to pack their fruit, too, and he added this work to the newly incorporated Stemilt Growers. He went on to build and buy state-of-the-art apple-, pear- and cherry-packing facilities in Wenatchee. His sons joined him in heading up the farming side of the business. And when he retired, grandson West Mathison took the helm.
The business has continued to grow and evolve. Today, Stemilt is the nation’s largest supplier of sweet cherries and a leading supplier of organic tree fruits as well as a leader in sustainable agriculture through its Responsible Choice program.
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