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PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Handing over the keys to a decades-old family business must be tough.
In a state where 80 percent of businesses are family-owned, that’s quite a legacy to maintain. But with no one left to take over, many establishments must either sell or close.
It happened in Maine’s biggest companies. In the year In 2015, LL Bean named Stephen Smith as its first CEO, someone who wasn’t family or had been there for years. Dead River and Getchell Brothers Ice were sold to out-of-state interests in December.
Legacy businesses have survived various economic downturns, and are now battling a global pandemic. With statewide labor shortages, they are looking to attract some foreign workers or seek government assistance. But for two Presque Isle business owners, the key is trying to preserve what local families have spent decades building.
Having an exit strategy is important, but only 13 percent of family businesses have one, according to the Family-Owned Business Enterprise, Maine nonprofit. The probability that a business will pass from the second to the third generation is only 13 percent.
Alden and Pat Rathbun As they prepared to retire in 2016, there were no family members to take over the 70-year-old Rathbun Lumber that Alden’s father founded. Then-manager Jamie McLaughlin bought it because he didn’t want to close the store, where he had operated for 16 years.
In December, months after the death of second-generation owner Lionel Theriault, the family decided to sell Theriault Equipment. The John Deere dealership had been in business for 63 years and had a harvest equipment in Vermont. Buyer: United Ag & Turf Northeast, run by former Harvest owner.
“I can see all the stress that comes up in the sales process. People tell me about concrete floors they poured in the 1940s,” said Scott Miller, president of United Ag & Turf Northeast.
Miller helped manage the purchases of 17 appliance dealers from New York to Maine — and dealt with the emotions each family felt when deciding to sell.
“It’s hard for family members to go to a place that was once theirs and find it different,” he said. And when families want to go or can’t afford it, they face letting their legacy die.
“The reality is that the businesses we’re trying to prevent are dying,” Miller said. “[It’s] Succession planning. As owners are looking to retire or sell, how does this business stay open and serve the community?”
Miller spent a lot of time in Presque Isle, which he called the heart of Aroostook County. He began sweeping floors at a John Deere dealership in Vermont and later started a harvest equipment business with his business partner. In the year They decided to sell in 2012 and had a strong relationship with Theriault Company.
The deal is now complete. More than anything, Miller Co. wants to continue business as usual and retain all employees who aren’t ready for retirement.
He knows the struggle because he has been at both ends. And no matter how it’s handled, the transition from one owner to another is difficult.
We will do everything we can to ensure this [things are] “We got along well, but change is change, and that’s the hard part for us to understand,” Miller said.
Like Miller, McLaughlin knew the company he was taking over because he had worked there for several years, three of them as a manager. So the Rathbuns had a plan when they talked about retirement.
“I didn’t want to see it disappear. They were at retirement age and wanted to sell. It was a right time, right place thing, really,” McLaughlin said.
The family was happy to know who the buyer was. And because he knew the business and the community knew it, there weren’t many paths to a successful transition.
One of the first things we did was remodel the store and increase the product lines to keep up with what customers wanted.
But since Covid-19, the real challenges have been rising material costs, supply chain delays and – above all – finding enough people to work. Rathbun has lost some longtime employees to retirement, but that’s to be expected, McLaughlin said.
Now he wants to keep a full staff of seven.
“We sold ourselves for service. We’re the little guy, that’s how you win,” he said. It was a big challenge with helplessness, but we’re all in the same boat.
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