Sometimes the sweetest business successes are home grown.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a big deal when a prominent company announces they’re coming to your city.
I remember when a national grocery chain decided to move to Ruston. There was a press conference. Then, the company built an impressive store on a prime piece of real estate. They held a flashy ribbon-cutting. Smiling politicians made references to “jobs, jobs, jobs.” There were glowing predictions of increased sales tax revenue!
Fast forward five years. The store was gone and the building sat empty, producing exactly $0 in sales tax for the local economy. (At least now the building houses a beautiful library and events center.)
Compare that story to two stories of homegrown growth.
In 1955, my 29-year-old father joined forces with two other young men to buy Frymaster from its founder.
He later said, “In evaluating how the company stood, I counted 29 manufacturers offering fryers…as far as I could tell, Frymaster was the smallest.”
At the time, the company employed about 40 people in its junky looking, Shreveport plant.
But, over the next three decades, he helped Frymaster go from last place to first place. They won such prize accounts as Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds and Walt Disney World. After a 30-year run, he sold the company to its current owner, Welbilt.
And just this week, Frymaster announced an $11.5 million expansion. That’ll mean 47 new jobs plus an estimated 66 indirect jobs in Shreveport and a revamped manufacturing facility.
I never worked for Frymaster or my father (unless you count my three-month tour as a minimum wage factory grunt the summer before I went to college…), but I have always been drawn to homegrown successes.
My current employer, The Argent Financial Group, began in 1990 as a three-person spin-off of the Ruston State Bank trust department. Today, Argent employs 575 financial professionals across 19 states and oversees some $165b in client assets.
As my friend Kyle McDonald, Argent’s founder and CEO, is fond of saying, “We can’t do everything we want to do IN Ruston. But we can do anything we want to do FROM Ruston.”
Every business owner and civic leader knows it’s smart economics to try to attract new businesses to your city. And it’s especially exciting to hear rumblings about a Fortune 500 company that’s considering investing millions to have a footprint in your area.
But let’s not overlook the local entrepreneur who’s willing to see what others do not yet see, and risk what others will not risk, to bring to reality a dream only they can visualize.
That’s the recipe for an overnight success…that takes 30 years.
Congratulations, Frymaster! Well done, Argent!
- S. One other thing the Frymaster story reminds me of…every business, even homegrown ones, eventually reaches a moment of transition – a sale, or a handoff to the next generation. My own father faced it after three decades. Most owners will too.
So, if you’re starting to think about selling your business or passing it along, give us a call at Argent Advisors (318-251-5858). Helping owners navigate that move – the financial side and the emotional side alike – is some of the most rewarding work we do.
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