A Conversation With Gordon’ s Celebrating 100 Years
The 1955 management team.
100 Years of Growth
Reaching a centennial anniversary is a testament to longevity and a brand’ s unwavering dedication to core principles that resonate across generations. It’ s a milestone achieved by few, marked by a relentless commitment to quality, integrity, ethics, an innovative spirit, and the agility to evolve alongside societal and scientific advancements. Gordon’ s proudly celebrates 100 years of unparalleled success.
Achieving 100 years is no easy feat so we spent an hour with the fifth founder, W. Everett Mealman, chairman emeritus of the PBI-Gordon’ s board of directors and Allen Baumstark, senior director consumer & commercial sales, to get the inside scoop on how Gordon’ s evolved their offerings and services to deliver unique value to its customers, all while staying true to the core brand principals. At 95, Mealman is a living bridge to the company’ s inception. His unique insights not only illuminate the remarkable history of Gordon’ s but also embody the resilience and innovation that have been the hallmark of its century-long legacy.
Mealman will celebrate his 96th birthday in September, and he isn’ t planning on retiring. It’ s possible that he’ s the only person alive who was around when the company started. Building relationships is part of his unrivaled success as a
AcreageLife. com leader, entrepreneur, and mentor to many people over his long-tenured career.
The People and Relationships Define Gordon’ s Legacy
Mealman told AcreageLife that he doesn’ t plan to slow down.
“ From my point of view, I really value the relationship I have with the employees of our company. It keeps my mind working. I’ m not chairman anymore but still on the board.”
For many years, Mealman always made it a point to meet with each new employee personally. Baumstark said,“ I know when I was hired, and I think almost every salesperson who has been hired since then has met with Mr. Mealman. They talk to him and he tells them a little bit about the company’ s history, his expectations and the expectations of the rest of the employee-owners.”
That is just one of many examples of how Gordon’ s reinforced its“ brand” over the last century.
When asked about his favorite aspect of his job, Mealman immediately cited his relationships.
“ I always loved to walk around the office and talk with some people, different people in different areas of the company. And that, to me, was one of my favorite things to do. I might walk into somebody’ s office and say, what’ s new today? What’ s
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