Company Expansion
Since 1982, Southwestern has partnered with, acquired or established companies around the world for a total of 16 companies within the corporate family. These companies' services range from non-profit fundraising to public speaking to consulting to financial services to insurance and real estate. Since regaining independence in 1982, Southwestern revenues have grown from $24 million to more than $350 million.
In 1982, Southwestern acquired Favorite Recipes Press (FRP) from Fuller and Dees as a custom book publisher focused on cookbooks to be sold for the purpose of fundraising. FRP later expanded their custom publishing services and was renamed Southwestern Publishing Group in 2011. Also in 1982, Carl Roberts, who began in the summer sales program, established a career services and executive search company called Southwestern Business Resources.
In 1989, Scott Roy, who started in the summer sales program, founded the supplemental insurance company Family Heritage along with Howard Lewis under Southwestern.
In 2002, Jeff Dobyns, who started in the summer sales program, founded Southwestern Investment Group, currently the largest Raymond James Financial affiliate. Also in 2002, Southwestern Consulting was established by Rory Vaden and Dustin Hillis, who each started in the summer sales program, and by Gary Michaels, a twenty-plus year veteran of Great American Opportunities.
In 2004, Southwestern Company acquired majority ownership of Wildtree, a direct-sales company whose all-natural gourmet culinary products are sold through home tasting parties.
In 2005, Southwestern Company established GEC, a summer work experience program for qualified students around the world to participate in work opportunities in the United States.
In 2007, Pat Roach, a fifteen-year veteran who started in the summer sales program, established Southwestern Real Estate, a residential real estate brokerage.
In 2012, Great American acquired the assets of QSP making Great American the largest school fundraising company in North America.
Read more about this topic: Southwestern Company
Famous quotes containing the words company and/or expansion:
“It’s given new meaning to me of the scientific term black hole.”
—Don Logan, U.S. businessman, president and chief executive of Time Inc. His response when asked how much his company had spent in the last year to develop Pathfinder, Time Inc.’S site on the World Wide Web. Quoted in New York Times, p. D7 (November 13, 1995)
“Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)