69-Year Tradition Broken : Owl Companies Reach Outside Family, a First
Three generations of the Burden family have held the presidency at the Owl Companies for the past 69 years. First was Dewey, then his son, Joe, and most recently Greg.
Tradition was broken Wednesday as the Newport Beach firm named Fred Port to the presidency.
The family went outside in part to aid a major reorganization and expansion but mostly because the Burden clan is not a big one. Since Joe retired in 1981, his only living son, Greg, has been running the company, which is one of Southern California’s largest asphalt and gravel makers, with 1987 sales of more than $100 million. And Greg’s oldest child is just 9.
“It’s the third generation, and that’s time for someone else,” said Greg Burden, 36, who gives up the title of president but remains chairman and chief executive officer of Owl.
Port, 46, and Burden said that, like brothers, they often communicate without speaking. Because of that closeness, Port said he isn’t concerned about treading slowly in a family-owned company.
“That’s why I like it here. They want me here to take action,” said Port, formerly chairman of Newport Beach-based Santa Anita Development Corp., which was a publicly traded company until 1987.
Port’s first plan with Owl is to give greater autonomy to the company’s five subsidiaries, which make asphalt, gravel and ready-mixed concrete; build missile silos; provide military maintenance support; build small power plants, and develop commercial land.
“Our businesses are really so different. They don’t quite fit under a tight umbrella,” Port said.
Port and Burden also plan to buy firms in coming months, but only those that would fit well with Owl’s family-style leadership.
“Last week, we rejected an acquisition that looked quite promising. It wasn’t that they weren’t big enough or didn’t have contracts; the chemistry just didn’t work,” Port said.
That family style dates back to 1919, when Dewey Burden started his business by hauling produce to Los Angeles’ central market.
“He was the first to arrive after midnight. They called him the ‘Night Owl,’ that’s where Owl came from,” said Cal Allen, president of Owl Rock Products, the gravel and construction materials subsidiary in Arcadia.
The business expanded from produce hauler into heavy construction and engineering. But in the early 1980s, Greg Burden sold off the trucking company that started it all because of the recession.
“That was my grandfather’s founding business,” Burden said. “It was very hard to do.”
Businesses Remained Together
With the exception of the trucking company, Owl’s main businesses have stayed together in the face of this decade’s trend toward consolidation by large, public corporations.
Although Port declined to discuss specifics, he described Owl as profitable and said sales range from $100 million annually to $200 million, depending on the strength of the construction business.
Port said in recent days he has toured the company’s 11 plants and spoken with many of Owl’s more than 400 employees. He concluded that a sense of family and tradition were the company’s greatest assets.
“The thing that we better not lose is the employees’ pride in working for a family-owned business,” Port said.
