Relatively speaking: Family businesses balance tradition with technology.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Statistical Data Included

THE ALMOND TOFFEE FORMALA THAT CHET ENSTROM SPENT DECADES perfecting in his Grand Junction basement as not changed in three generations, and Doug Simons says he will never tamper with the recipe handed down by his grandfather-in-law.

Butter, sugar, almonds, chocolate and salt. The ingredients are no secret. It's how they're heated and cooled in the copper kettle and then dusted with finely chopped almonds that makes the toffee great. But the toffee recipe is probably the only aspect of Enstrom Candies that hasn't changed. That, and the strong influence of family on the enterprise.

In 1965 Chet assumed a state Senate seat and sold the company to his son Emil and daughter-in-law Mary Chet's granddaughter Jamee and her husband, Doug, bought the business in 1993 and continue to run the company today. Chet's grandson Rick and his wife, Linda, manage the Denver retail operations.

"We've been a 'big small company' for a few years, and now we're beginning to make the transition to a 'small big company,'" Doug Simons says. "There are differences, like putting in middle management. We're not a mom and pop anymore."

To get an idea of how Enstrom has grown, consider: The amount of candy the company sold all year in 1979 now is likely to be sold in one day during the holiday season.

The Grand Junction company produces more than a half-million pounds of toffee a year, employs 70 people, generates annual sales of $10 million, and has shipped to all 50 U.S. states and more than 50 countries. About 8.5 percent of sales derive from the company's Web site, www.enstrom.com.

Chet, who died in 1992, would be amazed at what's happened to the mom-and-pop operation he opened with his wife, Vernie, back in 1960.

"He used to look at this and shake his head," Simons says of the Enstrom factory and storefront -- the Candy Kitchen -- that was built in 1989. "He was just so tickled, but just so amazed at everything going on, technology-wise, so proud of what had happened to his little candy factory" Vernie is amazed as well. She's 97 and still living in Grand Junction.

"I'll tell you, it's really an honor to be carrying the torch for past generations, and it's also exciting to look at the prospect of getting the company to a fourth generation," says Simons. "We're just blessed with a really good business."

Enstrom Candies ranks 23rd on ColoradoBiz's inaugural list of the state's top family-owned businesses.

The companies, ranked by number of employees, range from Coors Brewing Co., which has 5,800 employees and generates annual sales of $2.8 billion, to Hickok Marketing Group, a public relations firm in Centennial with five employees and annual revenues of $620,000.

Coors leads the list in other categories as well, including number of years family owned (128) and generations the business has been in the family (5). Colorado State Bank & Trust is the only other 5th generation business on the list.

Our criteria for including companies on the list are the same as those of Family Business magazine, which annually ranks the largest family-owned businesses in the United States. (Coors ranked 65th on that list.) The criteria:

* A single family controls the company's ownership.

* Members of the controlling family are currently active in top management.

* The family has been involved -- or seems likely to remain involved in the company -- for at least two generations.

Although 80 to 90 percent of U.S. companies could be considered family-owned by the above criteria, multi-generational companies like Enstrom, Coors and Colorado State Bank & Trust are rare. According to Family Business magazine, fewer than 30 percent of family businesses make it to the second generation, and only 10 percent survive to the third.

Barry Hirschfeld has shepherded A.B. Hirschfeld Press of Denver into its third generation, but he accepts the possibility that his two sons will not opt to carry on the family's 95-year tradition.

"I have two boys, neither of who seems to be interested in running the family business," Hirschfeld says. "I guess if I had my way, I'd love to maintain the tradition. But you hay to realize people have their own aspirations and goals, and you have to respect that. My dad never forced me and ... I think there's a good chance my sons won't go into the business."

Barry's grandfather, A.B. Hirschfeld, the son of an immigrant farmer from Russia, started the company in 1907 with a $35 hand press. Son Ed took over the business from there. Barry at first seemed unlikely to carry on the tradition, as he pursued a bachelor of science degree from California...