In the background of this year’s events, Frederick-based companies have celebrated some major anniversaries, including: Food PRO -- 85 years; Werres Corporation – 90 years; Morgan Keller – 65 years; and Wonder Book & Video – 40 years.
Here we share these stories of longevity as encouragement to all companies struggling with today’s economic challenges.
FOOD PRO - 85 Years
In the span of 85 years since 1935 when Frederick Produce Company first started, there have been many challenges the company has endured. Only two years after the Great Depression ended and four years before WWII started, it was a tough time to get a new company going. I am sure our founders could have never imagined that their small produce company with four employees would grow into a $90M company now supporting 150 families.
Looking back from then to now, my advice would be to remember the core values that your company is built on. In our case these are Honesty, Transparency, and Integrity. These core values support the pillars of Faith Family and FoodPRO. Holding true to these values helped us work through many tough times that all businesses face at one point.
Having to understand your industry is an obvious piece of advice but there is one thing I have learned that I would want to make sure all business takes into consideration. If you want your company to survive long term you always need to grow. You will not survive if you stay stagnant and one important piece to growing is that you need to get involved in your local community and local government. You could be a leader in your industry and run a successful business, but federal, state and city regulations and guidelines are a wild card. Pay close attention to outside forces. Get involved in civic organizations and always advocate for your company, the families that count on you and your community. Be smart in your business operations but also be aware of community plans and expectations. And always promote Honesty, Transparency, and Integrity.
Werres Corporation - 90 Years
Werres Corporation has a long tradition of “Customer First” and “The Best Team Wins”. When our customers and employees are happy, we’re happy.
Advice to young businesses?
Continuous Improvement. Study and document processes knowing that they can always be improved- never get stuck in “we always have done it this way”.
Invest in good people and help them grow. Anyone can be taught a skill, but excellent work ethics and the willingness to go the extra mile to learn and do is what makes a great employee.
Don’t focus on the transaction- focus on helping the customer with their problem and the rest will follow.
Morgan Keller Construction - 65 Years
Always remember to focus on your clients, team members, and your community.
Our Mission Statement captures this commitment: “Morgan-Keller Construction delivers seamless solutions through our comprehensive services. Our reputation and longevity continue by making the building experience a pleasure for our clients, team members, and communities.”
We provide our clients with top-notch service and quality, we see our team members as our most valuable asset, and we have always believed in giving back to the community that has given us so much over the years.
The key to success is to keep those assets as your top priority even during the difficult times.
Wonder Book and Video - 40 Years
We have always tried to anticipate what is going to be around the next corner. Being diversified has helped to deal with unexpected adversity in various sectors. Then when some aspect of the business is affected and out of our control, we can pivot to other aspects and focus on improving them instead.
There have been many challenges through out our history. We’ve experienced numerous economic downturns. The arrival (and departure) of competing national corporations required us to find niches they couldn’t or wouldn’t expand in to.
COVID was certainly the most frightening challenge — and a very different problem. We’ve never been closed before. But experience guided us to ask, “What CAN we do while closed?” At the brick and mortar stores, we worked on internal improvements while they were closed (2-3 months). We also brought many store employees to the internet warehouse to keep them employed and to help with online orders. Mail order books were things many people wanted during the darkest days. Business was strong for us (after a couple very bad weeks) during the COVID-19 crisis both nationally and internationally.
Some problems you can work on to improve or fix. Some problems are out of a business’s control (like being closed by official orders.)
Advice to young businesses? Be “nimble.” Be ready to change. Change can be due to new competition, popular tastes altering, technology affecting what or how you market.
Will your company be celebrating a major milestone or business anniversary in 2020-2021? Let us know at business@cityoffrederickmd.gov