Generations have kept their feet on the ground, writes Denis Gregory.
It seems everyone has a favourite crash-and-burn story of a family business.
The yarn often goes like this: the first generation of the family creates the business, the second generation makes it a success and the third generation squanders it all away.
The Baxter Boot Company is a notable exception. It's been around for more than 150 years and is still owned and controlled by the same family at Goulburn, in the NSW Southern Highlands.
The company sells its products throughout Australia and New Zealand and, although just finishing a contract to supply footwear to the Australian Defence Force, has won new contracts with the NSW and Victoria police, as well as NSW's rail and ambulance services.
Henry Baxter began the business after working as a shoe repairer for Henry Teece at Goulburn, and then buying him out. He believed Goulburn was the ideal site for a boot factory because of the ready availability of hides from the local abattoir.
Henry turned it into a proprietary company in 1913 when he moved the factory from the town flat to the present premises near the showground.
There were seven brothers in the family and four worked in the business. Company chairman Brian Baxter was the third generation after his father Harold, and his son Marshall is now managing director.
Marshall Baxter said Baxter's major advantage was the company had only two shareholders himself and his father. He was in the fortunate position of not having large shareholder meetings telling him what to do, how to do it or demanding higher profits.
"With our company now we can have a shareholder meeting at the dinner table," he said. "And I like that.
"The decisions I make, whether they are right or wrong, don't get dozens of shareholders upset.
"When Henry Baxter started the company back in the 1800s he had seven sons and they all went into the business. In the next generation, which was my father's, there were 32 shareholders and my father and cousin Doug Baxter ran the company until Doug left to run MGM in Australia, or something like that, and my father ran it.
"Then, back in 1979, my father and I were in the position to buy out the other family shareholders which then brought it back to one family and that made running the company much easier."
Mr Baxter said manufacturing in Australia was becoming much harder because of overseas competition. Manufacturing high-quality products helped sales but that depended on the market.
When the market stopped wanting to buy Australian-made Baxter boots, the company would have to look at making them offshore.
Baxter, which employs about 25 people on the factory floor, now imports some footwear for new markets it couldn't otherwise supply.
But the company would always be there whether it made or imported its products, Mr Baxter said.
Marshall Baxter has two sons, Toby, 18, who is having a year off after school and will go to university next year to study commerce, and Harry, 14, who is still at school. Mr Baxter said it was up to them whether they went into the family business.
"There will be no pressure from me to rope them in because if you do that to children who don't want to be roped in, it can cause a lot of friction," he said.
"It could possibly be the demise of the business because they would not be interested in it.
"Toby might want to go into the money markets or something else so I won't be pushing him.
"Another point is, after kids have been away at boarding school, do all of them want to return to the country?
"Years ago it was expected children would automatically come into the family business but these days you have to take an intelligent approach."
Mr Baxter said he probably would be disappointed if the family chain were to be broken after 150 years but had to be realistic.
"My father came into the business but he always wanted to go into radio or TV, while I just loved it," he said. "I started working here after school when I was 14 doing small repairs and I still love it."
Help at hand
Family Business Australia offers support for business of all sizes from first generation start-ups to sixth generations and for those with annual turnover from $100,000 to more than $500 million.
The association offers family businesses improvement opportunities, helping them achieve their commercial and personal goals and to understand and resolve their issues.
Help is available for developing effective strategies for business and family life, preparation of workable succession plans, understanding and managing conflict resolution and negotiation, communications and support, building relationships within the business network and planning for later life after the business.
See www.fambiz.com.au.
