Peckham Industries defied the odds.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2024, the New York-based company with operations across five states is a business that spans four generations of the Peckham family.
A 2010 Businessweek report indicates that only 3 percent of family businesses in the U.S. ever transition to a fourth generation – and only 13 percent are even passed along to a third.
Yet, here’s Peckham Industries. Still going strong.
“I don’t think anybody could have anticipated [celebrating 100 years], including my dad,” says Gregory Peckham, general manager at Peckham Industries who represents the fourth generation of the family in the business. “We’ve just been unbelievably fortunate with the times, our people and our opportunities.”
Values that sustain
Damian Murphy, who succeeded Gregory’s father, John, as CEO in 2021, is the sixth CEO in the history of Peckham Industries. Three of the company’s CEOs over the last 100 years originated from outside the family.
According to Murphy, sustaining a family business through that dynamic – as well as across four generations – calls for an effective strategy and buy-in from employees.
“It’s not easy to do,” Murphy says. “There certainly have been hiccups or challenges along the way to make sure that ownership – wherever it lies – finds alignment to make sure the cultures and the values continue to be carried forward.
“[With] Peckham, there has always been somebody in each generation that wants to carry the flag,” he adds. “Certainly, Greg’s dad has been the one in the third generation that took that mantle. It certainly wasn’t easy to make happen, but it was a focus. It has to be a focus.”
As Murphy describes, sustaining a family business like Peckham Industries across a century is a testament to the people the company employs. For Peckham, its people have long upheld the company’s core values of safety, integrity, dedication and efficiency.
“Safety and integrity are two values that most companies aspire to, and all companies should live to,” Murphy says. “You should ensure you have a safe workplace and you take care of, as we call them, our friends and family.
“But you also have to have integrity in what you do,” he adds. “If you can’t trust the business partners you deal with, that’s a no-go.”
Murphy argues that dedication and efficiency – two other core values at Peckham – are at the heart of being in business.
“You’ve got to take care of your customers through service and quality, and be dedicated to meet their needs,” he says.
The same goes for producers like Peckham Industries as it pertains to the communities they serve.
“If you’re not dedicated to your communities in the right way, that license will be revoked,” Murphy says.
Efficiency is another key ingredient to success over a 100-year period, he adds.
“You’ve got to make sure you’ve got efficiency about what you do, because we are in competitive marketplaces,” Murphy says. “We have to make sure we can produce at a cost that makes sense for us to get to the profitability or the value that we want to deliver.”
Still, without buy-in from employees on these core values, few, if any, family businesses could reach a fourth generation or have a 100-year history.
“My grandfather talked about how amazing the dedication [was] that people have offered our family and the business over the years,” Gregory says. “People really have taken it and treated it like they owned it. That’s been the driver of any of our success over time. It’s having such an amazing and dedicated group that acts like a family that just wants to see this business succeed and see us grow.”
According to Gregory, more than 200 Peckham Industries employees are on pace to reach their 20-year milestone over the next five years. Three employees have been with the company for 45-plus years.
“It’s been part of our culture since my grandfather and my great-grandfather’s time,” Gregory says. “People come to be part of this company – and stay. They do treat it like it’s their own, carrying that ownership and values forward.”
