Families keep businesses humming
By 7:30 a.m. on a rainy November morning, Reeder’s Auto Service Center in Portage is already full of employees, customers and, of course, vehicles. Even during the hustle of a busy morning, the employees all greeted each other and cracked a few jokes as they started their day.
Celebrating 60 years in business and always family-owned and operated, the Reeder family is proud of their Portage connection. “My Dad, Jim, was in business in the early ’60s in Valpo, but he foresaw the growth potential of Portage, and he was right, and here we are all these years later,” said Jeff Reeder, owner. “Portage has been very good to us.”
Reeder’s was started by Jim Reeder, who passed away last year. His son, Jeff, now owns the business; grandson Jake is chief operating officer; and grandson Jeremy is a technician.
“My dad was the No. 1 Standard Oil dealer in Indiana year after year in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He built this all up,” said Jeff, standing underneath a large wall hanging photograph of the three generations of Reeders, taken prior to Jim’s passing. “He is our patriarch. This is all because of him.”
“It’s pretty cool to have three generations of customers,” said Jake Reeder. “As a young kid, I would always be down here. Most of the customers now, I still refer to as Mr. or Mrs., because that’s how I knew them.”
Reeder’s Auto Service Center
and Samuelson’s Insurance, another multigenerational Portage business, as well as other family businesses, keep the local and national economy chugging along.
Family-owned businesses are critical to the U.S. economy, according to statistics on the website for the Ohio-based nonprofit the Conway Center for Family Business. About 35% of Fortune 500 companies are family-controlled, the website noted, and small businesses, including many family-owned firms, employ just over half of U.S. workers.
Additionally, the site notes that more than 30% of all family-owned businesses make the transition into the second generation; 12% will still be viable into the third generation; and only 3% of all family businesses operate at the fourth-generation level and beyond.
Recent research indicates, however, that the first transition has dropped to 19% in the last five years, according to the website. This could be because millennials do not want to take over the traditional family business, but perhaps sell and use the proceeds to start a different, but still family controlled, enterprise.
Jake Reeder spent several years in Colorado after graduating from Portage High School, but ended up coming back sooner than expected. “I actually came home for a wedding and ended up seeing a lot of customers and it triggered something in me, and I wanted to come back and be a part of the legacy.”
Last May, Reeder’s Auto Service Center built a large expansion and doubled their size. They now have 26 bays, six of which are used for quick services like oil changes. “We use the quick services to bring in the younger generation who are motivated to work in this industry and learn our ways,” said Jake, who said they have hired high school students from the mechanical and diesel programs at the high school.
“Training is very important to us. We keep up with training in the latest equipment and scan tools. Our focus has always been on diagnostics, and we want to keep that tradition alive,” said Jake.
Reeder’s has 27 employees, including general manager Mike Liesch, who has worked for the family for 21 years. Jeff Reeder was Liesch’s soccer coach when he was 7 years old and, in fact, Liesch and Jake are now brothers-in-law as they married sisters. “The reason I’m here is because it’s actually fun coming to work,” said Liesch. “There’s a real family atmosphere here.”
One of Reeder’s 10 technicians is Phil Line, who met Jeff 26 years ago and has been working for him almost 25 years. “I have grown up with the family, watching the boys grow up. I’m like the ‘cool dad,’” said Line. “You’re not just an employee here, you are part of the family. You have to respect the people you work for, and that’s what has kept me here all of these years.”
Samuelson’s Insurance is another long-standing small business in the area. Fourth generation family and veteran-owned, they have served the Portage community for 96 years.
“My great-grandfather started the agency in his house on McCool Road in 1926,” said current owner James Hazzard. “When he passed away in the ‘50s, his son-in-law, Charles Lorenz, took over and then soon after, his grandson Kenneth Lorenz joined the business.”
“It is amazing to me to look back and know that, even before I came on, there were 84 years of employees that built this business before me,” said Hazzard.
“I was serving in the military and my daughter was born while I was overseas, and something clicked,” said Hazzard. “I wanted to be closer to home and family, and here I am, and I have now owned the business since 2019.”
“Portage has been an outstanding place for our business. It is a blessing to be a part of this community. We can help and give back to the city as well, by helping out area nonprofits and athletic teams as much as we can,” said Hazzard. “After all, this is where we raise our families so we take pride in giving back.”