Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
At an awards gala Thursday in Fort Wayne, two area businesses were named winners of the Northern Indiana 2002 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Kip Tom, Tom Farms LLC, Leesburg, won in the small manufacturing category; Norman and Dorothy Snyder, Warsaw Party Shops Inc., Warsaw, won the award in the retail category. More than 400 people attended the event.
The small manufacturing award was presented to Tom by Mike Kubacki, president and CEO of Lake City Bank. In his acceptance speech, Tom cited his parents, family and employees as being key factors in his success as an entrepreneur.
The Snyders' award was presented by Charlie Smith, Lake City Bank. Dorothy Snyder said, "We left corporate life 25 years ago and wanted to start a business of our own. Norm and I walked into a small card shop and after commenting on the store, the person waiting on us asked us if we wanted to buy it." She thanked Lake City Bank for their advice and support over the years, and their children, Dave and Dana, and their families.
Tom Farms, near Leesburg, is a progressive business organization that uses state-of-the-art technology and business methods in its national and international business operations. Tom Farms started in 1948 when Kip Tom's parents operated the family farm with traditional livestock and crop production. Today its core business is the production of seed corn for Pioneer Hi-Bred International. It is the largest supplier of seed corn products to Pioneer, and operates 8,100 acres in northern Indiana and another 1,500 acres in Argentina.
As the company has grown, new technology has been incorporated, such as bar coding to track lots of planted seeds and tracking weather service, soil samples and nutrient analysis data. It continues to grow, taking the lead in research and development of new production technologies and moving into the manufacturing of consumer products, while adding more production units globally.
Tom Farms values employees, with evaluations and incentives tailored for each. It employs more than 500 teen-agers from the local area to assist in seed corn detassling.
Tom serves on a variety of commissions to provide his expertise and serves on advisory boards for DuPont and Syngenta. He also is a member of several service organizations, including the Lions Club, Masonic Temple and the Shrine.
Warsaw Party Shops started with a small down payment on an existing Hallmark store. With that foundation, they have built successful businesses that now operate five Gold Crown Hallmark stores and an outlet/warehouse location in four northern Indiana cities. The Warsaw stores have grown from 1,250 square feet to almost 12,000 square feet today. Gross income has grown from $100,000 a year to more than $4 million, and they employ 94 full- and part-time employees.
While most Hallmark stores are known for greeting cards and small gifts geared toward women, the stores created by the Snyders led them to add male-oriented items, such as Harley Davidson and NASCAR sections and Purdue University and Indiana University memorabilia. The Warsaw store also contains a room with Thomas Kinkade art and sitting areas, and a grand piano that sits in the center of the store.
In 1996, the company opened the only Hallmark Ornament Museum in the world. The display contains more than 3,500 ornaments, representing every Hallmark ornament made for sale since 1973.
The Snyders learn about new techniques and trends by attending advance retail training seminars, visiting other retail stores and holding staff meetings to generate new ideas. They received the 2000 award for small business given by the Chamber of Commerce and are involved in 4-H fair activities, the alumni associations of their colleges, Habitat for Humanity and Indiana tourism.
Two other area business were finalists in the awards: Terry J. Cripe, Cripe Excavating Inc., Syracuse, and H. Anthony Miller, Instrumedical Technologies Inc., Warsaw.
The Ernst & Young entrepreneurial awards were created 15 years ago to recognize and honor the accomplishments of men and women outside the corporate world who make significant contributions to the economy as entrepreneurs.
The group of seven judges was chaired by Smith, and included Terry L. Tucker, Maple Leaf Farms Inc., Milford. Tucker has the further distinction of being the first judge from northern Indiana to participate in the national competition later this year in Palm Springs, Calif.
Nationally the awards are sponsored by NASDAQ, USA Today, CNN and the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Lake City Bank is the gold sponsor from northern Indiana. The silver sponsor is Barrett & McNagny LLP Attorneys, Fort Wayne, and the media sponsor is Business People magazine.
