Families of influence: Fruitful labor

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It has been said that Roy Stauffer Sr. taught his children how to work, but he never taught them how to stop. This is the thought that today drives the force of a $73 million company in Lancaster County.

Stauffer founded what would become SKH Management Co., which trades as Stauffers of Kissel Hill and owns six retail locations of supermarkets and garden centers throughout the midstate. The firm is based in Warwick Township.

When Stauffer passed away at age 47, his children took charge of the family business. Nine of his 12 children are still living. Four of them have held ownership of the company over the years, but only one of them remains involved.

Paul Stauffer, 65, is the firm’s president and director of marketing and branding. He took a leadership role with the company in 1963.

“Our father taught us that if you don’t work, you don’t eat,” Paul Stauffer said.

He can remember being 6 years old and spending a day from sunup to sundown selling products at a local farmers market to earn his food.

“There’s a tenacity there that’s bone deep,” said Jere Stauffer, the son of Roy Stauffer Jr. Jere Stauffer, 54, is chief operating officer of the company’s garden division and the director of its training division. His father is one of Paul Stauffer’s brothers.

Stauffers of Kissel Hill is in the midst of a growth period, with its recent agreement to acquire two Country Market Nursery locations. The stores are in Upper Allen Township, Cumberland County, and Derry Township, Dauphin County.

The company is also preparing to build its largest supermarket and garden center. A 71,600-square-foot grocery store will open by August at 301 Rohrerstown Road in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County. The existing 15,000-square-foot store there will be remodeled into a 32,000-square-foot garden center once the new supermarket opens. The garden center portion of the project will wrap up in 2009.

With this growth, Jere Stauffer said he expects the company’s revenue to top $100 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year. Its staff should expand from about 900 employees to about 1,200 by fall 2008.

“Expanding into Harrisburg and adding garden centers is certainly important for us, as far a stronger name and brand-awareness,” Jere Stauffer said. “One of the clear objectives (of the company) is to remain privately held and to have involvement with the family.”

Three other family members retain ownership of the company. Two of Jere Stauffer’s brothers, Jeff and Eric, play important roles in the business.

Jeff Stauffer,

49, is chief operating officer of the firm’s supermarket division and the firm’s secretary. Eric Stauffer, 41, is chief operating officer of the firm’s supermarket division, too, but has different responsibilities than Jeff Stauffer.

Donovan Oberholtzer, 52, serves as the company’s chief financial officer and the chairman of the board. His father, Jay Oberholtzer, married into the Stauffer family and was an owner from 1959 to 1996.

There is only one owner of Stauffers of Kissel Hill that is not related to the family by blood or marriage. Steve Gallion, 55, is the chief operating officer of the company’s nursery division.

“We adopted him,” Paul Stauffer said with a chuckle.

Gallion has worked for SKH Management in one capacity or another since he was in grade school, Paul Stauffer said.

The rest of the company’s owners have been working for the business since then, too. Donovan Oberholtzer’s first memory of working in the store is filling baskets with potatoes in his bare feet after coming in from playing.

“There’s no separation between the family and the business,” Oberholtzer said. “Your business is part of your family.”

The company’s ethics are built on the principles of a Judeo-Christian or conservative Mennonite background, Jere Stauffer said. Each of the owners is or has been involved in the committees of various churches at different levels.

“We want to run a business that is glorifying to God,” Jere Stauffer said. “The glue that holds a family business together is a commitment to the same ideals.”

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Stauffer-family timeline

1932: Roy Stauffer Sr. opens a roadside market stand along the Lititz Pike in Lancaster County.

1937: That stand burns down. He moves the stand to where SKH Management Co.’s headquarters are today in Warwick Township.

1953: Stauffer Sr. passes away. His wife, Florence, takes ownership of the business, and their oldest son, Roy Stauffer Jr., runs the business.

1956: Stauffer Jr. forms a company partnership with his brother-in-law, Jay Oberholtzer.

1959: Earl Stauffer joins his brother and brother-in-law in the business. The three buy the firm and incorporate it.

1961: Another Stauffer brother, James, becomes an owner.

1963: Paul Stauffer, the youngest Stauffer brother, becomes an owner.

1964: SKH opens a fruit stand and Christmas-tree lot along the Oregon Pike in Manheim Township.

1970: SKH opens a store on Rohrerstown Road in East Hempfield Township.

1971: SKH opens a store at 370 New Holland Pike in Upper Leacock Township.

1983: SKH opens a second garden center in York County.

1985: The original store in Warwick Township relocates down the road.

1985: Roy Stauffer Jr. retires.

1986: SKH opens a garden center on Linglestown Road in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County. Earl Stauffer retires from the company.

1986: The Rohrerstown Road store burns down.

1988: That store is rebuilt.

1989: SKH opens a garden center in Hellam Township, York County.

1989: The third generation of the family gets involved in the business. Jere Stauffer, son of Roy Stauffer Jr., joins as an owner. Jere’s brother, Jeff Stauffer, also joins the company as an owner. Donovan Oberholtzer, son of Jay Oberholtzer, also joins as an owner. Ken DeWalt, a non-family member, joins the company as an owner.

1996: Jay Oberholtzer retires.

1997: DeWalt leaves the company to join the ministry.

2000: SKH opens a garden center in Dover Township, York County, which replaces the one that was built in the county in 1983.

2001: Eric Stauffer, the son of James Stauffer, joins the firm as an owner. Steve Gallion, a non-family member, joins the business as an owner.

2005: James Stauffer retires. SKH closes its store in Upper Leacock Township.

2007: SKH enters an agreement to buy a total of two Country Market Nursery locations in Cumberland and Dauphin counties.