Wilbur-Ellis Marks 100-Year Anniversary With Eye To The Future
June 29, 2021, will be the official 100th anniversary of Wilbur-Ellis.
The company traces its roots back to 1921, when Brayton Wilbur Sr. and two friends founded Wilbur-Ellis in a two-room office in San Francisco on California Street. The company’s headquarters remain on that same street today, but over the past 100 years Wilbur-Ellis has grown into a leading international marketer, distributor and manufacturer of agricultural products, animal nutrients and specialty chemicals and ingredients, with 4,400 employees spanning the globe.
The past 12 months have been a celebration for the family-owned company, as it reflects on this 100-year milestone, while also keeping an eye on the future.
CEO John Buckley remembers the day company leaders made the decision to go forward with the celebration despite the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not a decision made lightly, but it’s one he’s glad they made.
“The big thing I’ll remember forever is the decision to celebrate. We had to ask ourselves if celebrating was even appropriate given the pandemic,” Buckley says. “We decided to go ahead, and it was the best decision. But we had to adapt and do everything virtually. The result is that we ended up engaging folks in a way that we wouldn’t be able to if we were doing it face-to-face.”
The company posted a lot of information about its history on its 100th anniversary website, including a decade-by-decade look back at the milestones along the way.
“One thing I observed is how many lessons learned along the way are still relevant today,” Buckley says. “At many points in our company history, I see decisions that were made that reflect our values today and how we still do business.”
He says it was poignant to mark this milestone during a global pandemic because it illuminated in a different way how resilient the company is, which has enabled it to celebrate this rare achievement for a privately-held company during an exceptional time.
During the pandemic, as the company pivoted to a virtual celebration and the needs of communities intensified, the focus of the celebration also shifted to “giving back,” Buckley says. Wilbur-Ellis began a Giving Program to benefit the Red Cross.
Each month questions were posted to the 100th anniversary website. And for each response from employees, their kids, and friends of Wilbur-Ellis, the company added to a donation for the Red Cross. The donation amount will be announced on the 100th anniversary, June 29 – building on a $100,000 donation made in 2020. Wilbur-Ellis also adapted its traditional annual food drive to a fund drive that raised $30,000 through employee donations and company matching funds, assisting hunger relief organizations worldwide.
Another favorite project was gathering favorite recipes from Wilbur-Ellis employees, the extended Wilbur family, and friends of the company. Those recipes have been compiled into the “100 Years and Cooking” recipe book, which is available to everyone on the 100th anniversary website.
New Innovation Award Challenges Student Teams to Help Feed a Growing World
As a legacy of the 100th anniversary celebration, on June 29th the company will publicly introduce the “The Wilbur-Ellis Innovation Award.”
This new award invites teams of college and university students to propose innovative ways to feed a growing world population.
“The global population is expected to grow by 2 billion people by 2050,” Buckley says. “So, there’s a real need to identify innovative new ways to feed more people. With the Innovation Award we’re engaging young people to help address this critical challenge.”
The student team that submits the best proposal will win a $25,000 award, and there may be additional $5,000 honorable mentions.
“We think this is an exciting program for young people, and we also hope it brings increased interest and talent into agriculture,” Buckley says.
