165 Years of Material Handling
As I’ve mentioned previously in this space, one of the features in the October 2010 issue of The MHEDA Journal is going to commemorate MHEDA members who are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. One such company is Cross Bros. Co. in Rochester, NY. Yesterday I had a chance to speak to its President/CEO, Tom Pavone. I did some research about the company beforehand, but I still found out a lot about the company I didn’t know. For instance, the company’s name comes from founders William and Oliver Cross (as you may have guessed, they were brothers) in 1845. What I didn’t know: The company is still under Cross family ownership! It’s now in its 6th generation.
It’s rare to find many companies that make it even to a 3rd generation. In fact, an oft-cited statistic says that only one-third of family companies are passed down at all, and only 13% are passed down to the third generation. So to make it to 6, that’s pretty impressive. Another interesting fact: Pavone is not part of the family. He’s only the third Cross Bros. president in 165 years to not be part of the family. Apparently when they were looking for a new president in 2008, the family owners decided to look outside the family in order to inject some new perspective into the company. It’s an interesting position to be put in, though Pavone is making the most of it. He says the company has rebounded in 2010 after a subpar 2009 (who didn’t have a subpar 2009?) and is expecting big things in 2010.
As you can imagine, a lot of interesting things can happen in 165 years in business. Even though it didn’t start out in material handling (it started out in leather products), customer demand and company innovation have led it to become a full-service systems integrator. It’s really a fascinating business, and I urge you to read the Member Profile in the next issue of The MHEDA Journal when it comes out in October.
