The category of family-owned businesses includes enterprises of all types and sizes. Some of the best-known and best-loved companies are owned and operated by families. In fact, it’s hard to imagine New Jersey without, say, Calandra’s or Goya or Hartz Mountain Industries. And most New Jerseyans can name local businesses that they patronize regularly that may not be known to the residents in other parts of the state.
So, in a real sense, the strength of New Jersey’s economy depends in large measure on the strength of family-owned businesses. At the same time, those businesses, like many other enterprises, face unprecedented challenges.
Higher costs, geopolitical uncertainty, shifts in regulatory requirements, and the fickle nature of consumer tastes and habits — all these factors can bedevil even the best-run companies. Family businesses face the same challenges, and then some.
For example, transitions and succession can be fraught when dealing with family members. And it can be exceedingly difficult to leave workaday worries at the office, the shop or the factory when everyone in the household has the same concerns.
Recruiting and retaining talented workers is difficult for companies with extensive human resources departments. And many family-owned businesses have such professional staffs; but convincing non-family members to join a family business can be even more difficult, with candidates wondering if they have a future in the company.
In short, it’s tough out there for everyone and even tougher for the men and women running businesses that they’ve just started themselves or those trying to protect the profitability and legacy of enterprises established by their forebears decades ago.
In the pages that follow, readers will get to know businesses whose owners and operators have thrived and continue to succeed in these trying times. They represent the backbone of the state’s business community, from health care to hospitality and real estate to retail and beyond.
The profiles, presented alphabetically, also reveal several themes – perhaps the most prominent being the values that inform business decisions and that the current generation learned and is passing down. As always, let us know what you think about the businesses profiled here. And tell us if we missed any companies deserving the same recognition.
– Jeffrey Kanige
Email: [email protected]
Methodology
The Power and In the Lead lists are compiled by the NJBIZ editorial staff based on our reporting throughout the past year with input from experts in a variety of fields and recommendations from our readers. The staff looks for people who have gained public attention – and perhaps acclaim – for their professional accomplishments and public service. Each list identifies individuals who, through their efforts, are helping to make New Jersey a better place to live, work and do business. Honorees are not necessarily better at their jobs than others in their profession, but they have contributed meaningfully to the advancement of the public interest through their work and/or community service.
