Weaver’s of Wellsville is proud to be a fifth generation family owned company. We have created a legacy of being a reliable distributor of fine products. Recently we held brainstorming sessions to identify the values our company exemplifies. We arrived at the core values of Transparency, Expertise, and Pride. During this process we also identified a guiding one-line goal for our company: Helping Build Your Legacy Since 1889.
Our customer base is not made up of companies with publicly traded shares or funded by large private equity firms. It is companies like Christman’s Meats, a family owned and operated butcher shop in Oley, PA who does the volume of a large supermarket’s meat department. It is companies like Kennie’s Markets, an employee owned chain of supermarkets near Gettysburg, PA known for their excellent service and commitment to local products. It is companies like Stellato Boys Produce and Deli in Wenonah, New Jersey, a fine deli run by three brothers who are committed to always putting family first. I could list hundreds more, but I fear I would lose the attention of the reader.
These stores are all building a legacy to carry on beyond them, and they are doing it against the headwind of further consolidation of large firms. We at Weaver’s of Wellsville want to be facilitators of this legacy. We often quip that we can’t succeed without successful customers, so our first objective is always to ensure customer success before thinking of our own short term financial gain. Building a legacy is not an act of high pressure short term sales. It is fostering relationships that are mutually beneficial.
A great example of this concept occurred on a recent store visit with one of my territory sales managers. A customer of hers told her she was not happy with a particular sub roll we sell and wanted to switch to a competing brand. The particular brand the customer wanted is one that only ships fresh from the manufacturer, without the use of a distributor like us. Rather than argue, my sales manager offered to contact the competing company for the customer. Her reasoning was that people come to this store expecting the best quality, and we are better off losing one item out of one hundred to ensure the customer continues to operate a successful company.
We are proud of the legacy we have built, and we look forward to continuing to build the legacy of others for another 133 years.