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Challenges kept up, and he kept fightingCharles C. DuBois Age: 41
Position: President of Standard Process, 1200 W. Royal Lee Drive, Palmyra Company at a glance: 210 employees at manufacturing and packaging plant and farm, all in Palmyra. Founded in 1929 by Dodgeville native Royal Lee. Products: Vitamin supplements in capsule form made from dried plants and meats that are reduced to powder. Sales: $62 million projected for 2005; $56 million in 2004; about $20 million in 1995. DuBois' background: Joined Standard Process in 1989 as plant engineer. Became executive vice president in 1993. Named president in 1995. The DuBois family purchased Standard Process in 1996. Education: Bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Marquette University, 1988. Master of science in engineering management from Milwaukee School of Engineering, 1998. Personal: Married for 10 years to Leslie A. DuBois. Children: Julia, Simone, Charlotte and Jack. Q. Was it a challenge taking over the company at age 30? A. It definitely was. ... My father died in March of 1995. So that's where (I took over). ... I don't know if I was ready for it at the time, but there really wasn't anybody around at the time that really wanted to step into that role. Q. Was it difficult taking over the company and dealing with your father's death at the same time? A. Absolutely, it was a huge challenge. My dad was a great guy and I really loved my father. I think he's the reason I'm so successful today. He really instilled a great work ethic in me. I was always kind of looking up to Dad for guidance and everything else and not really ready to take over. Q. How did you get through it? A. I think it was pure willpower and I wanted to make him proud. It was just that somebody had to step up to the plate and be strong. I just always thought, "Dad, I can prove to you I can do this. I can work hard and be successful and make this work." In 1995, a little later on in that year (after my father died) was when my aunt passed away. And my aunt was the one who owned 100 percent of the stock in the company. Her direct descendant was my father. And from my father (the company would go to) myself and my older brother from an inheritance standpoint. Since my father passed away before she did, there was what they consider a generation-skipping tax to pay for the inheritance of the company. So to inherit it, we were faced with about 80 percent tax. We ended up going through an absolute mess. It was a nightmare. I ended up in September of 1996 actually buying the company from the estate. We defaulted on inheriting it. We just couldn't inherit it. We would have had to sell the company to inherit it. We took out a loan at the time and said we hope we can pay it back. It's been a challenge. Q. What were some mistakes you've made running the company? A. As an engineer, you can look at a system and you can re-engineer it. You can improve it. You can figure out all the things that are wrong with it and put all that intellectual property into it to make it better. You typically know the results. I think the (challenge lies in) people and managing people and dealing with the different personalities and everything. I just find that is one of my biggest challenges. I think one of the biggest things I needed to do in 1995 was I needed to build up a management team to really take this company to the next level. We hadn't reinvested in talent in people in a long time. But the company was growing and building. That was a real challenge. I realize I can't make all the decisions anymore. We're so much bigger than we were back then. Q. Back then did you feel that you could make those decisions yourself? A. I think so, but I probably shouldn't have been. If I would have had a lot more help, they would have been better decisions. Q. What have been your biggest triumphs in the last 10 years? A. The fact that I was able to even make it through all that stuff. ... Just securing the future of this company for at least the next generation. It was bleak. Faced with what we were faced with, the only answer was to sell the company. If we hadn't been able to get the loan and get all the different parties to agree ... it was a challenge. Q. What are the company's goals right now? A. It's not only to secure our position in the industry as the leader in the health-care professional market, but to really expand that. To establish a real presence in the research area. Our customers are mostly chiropractors that have been more supportive of the holistic approach to healing than medical doctors throughout the years. But medical doctors are really starting to take interest in this as well ... so that's kind of an area that we want to keep going towards that and keep improving in. Q. Why do you only sell to health-care professionals rather than retail? A. It's just that we've got a really great segment. A great niche. But it's a great segment in the market and we do it well. We provide that education (about the products) to the docs and there's that word of mouth amongst them. They see their patients getting better, so from a repeat customer standpoint, once we get our foot in the door, it's a no-brainer. ... We have a very loyal customer base. Q. What are some obstacles to achieving those goals? A. There's always the regulations that are out there. But there are so many people who look at this industry and think it's so unregulated. ... The model that we currently sell to is ... the practitioners and they resell to their patients. Medical doctors don't typically follow that model. They've got a lot of interest in our products, but right off the bat, they say, "No, we don't want to stock the products and we don't want to look like we're biased towards one thing or another." That's a real challenge for us. Q. How do you get around that? A. It's something that's really difficult. Right now, if a medical doctor recommends our products, they send (the patient) to somebody else (who) carries them. We have accounts that are pharmacists. I think the Internet is one of our biggest challenges today. ... We don't want Standard Process to become just a retail product you can buy online. We think that a doctor really should look at you and assess your nutritional needs. ... We're trying to keep a professional distribution network. Q. Why do you think people have that perception that the supplement market is unregulated? A. I think because there are so many companies out there that are making false claims. ... It's really unfortunate. Those select few ruin it for the whole industry. There's a big philosophical difference between our products and a lot of the products that are out there. We take the approach that (our products) are whole foods and you feed the body what it needs to rebuild itself. It's not magical, but so many of our competitors are using high-dose synthetics and they're getting reactions from the body. But they're not rebuilding the body for the long term. So our approach is a little bit different. Q. How do you differentiate yourself from the companies that make these claims? A. It's really bringing science back to what we're doing. It's proving through research and sound fundamental principles that have value. It's not going off half-baked and making all sorts of unsubstantiated claims. We're very conservative about the claims that we can make. That's exactly what the letter of the law says. In dealing with people and a product that people ingest, there's always that added complication. And the product should be safe. Q. What do you like about doing business in Palmyra? A. It's a nice Midwestern small town. The people are friendly. They're hard workers. It's really nice because in this community, as an employer, we can have huge impact on the standard of living around here and everything else. Q. What do you dislike about doing business in Palmyra? A. It's not necessarily Palmyra, it's the location. Sometimes it's hard to get people. We can draw from the surrounding communities, but that's a little bit of a challenge. Q. What do you do to relax? A. I don't know about relaxing, but I've got four kids. ... The kids really take up about 90 percent of my extra time, and I love it. We all love water sports and stuff like that. ... We've got a family cabin up in northern Wisconsin, in Lac du Flambeau. ... I'm into hunting ... pretty much anything. But it's been a little limited the last 10 years. Probably my No. 1 passion, that's still very hard to give up, is snowmobiling. madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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