Trailblazers: 10 companies building Utah.

• Author: Slaughter, William R.
• Position: On the Cover - Company Profile

Utahns have a well-deserved reputation as smart, industrious and hardworking. We are, after all, the Beehive State. On our state flag, the word "industry" underscores the meaning of the bold beehive, chosen by early pioneers to symbolize the community they sought to establish in the Great Basin. Today, it gives us a visual metaphor that expresses those values of hard work and cooperation that allowed Utah's pioneers to prosper in the harsh Western frontier. The work ethic that characterized the early community-building in "Deseret" territory remains alive and well in modern Utah. Cooperation, perseverance and, yes, hard work are the common-characteristics of-each of the following businesses. They share a tradition of excellence, service and innovation while promoting a positive image of Utah.

America First Credit Union

Rick Craig

On the evening of March 16, 1939, 59 employees of the Fort Douglas Civilian Corp. gathered at Salt Lake City's Newhouse Hotel to organize the Fort Douglas Civilian Employees Federal Credit Union. The new credit union began with assets of $25 donated by Local 650 of the National Federation for Federal Employees. Every two weeks, 25 cents was deducted from each member's paycheck, and within weeks, the renamed Fort Douglas Civilian Employees Credit Union counted $100 in assets. By year's end, there were 79 members with $788 in total assets.

The birth of the not-for-profit, member-owned Fort Douglas credit union was, in part, a reaction to the growing national loss of trust in banks caused by the 1929 stock market crash. As the credit union prospered, it grew to include civilian employees of Ogden's Defense Depot, Hill Air Force Base and the Naval Supply Center at Clearfield. This expansion resulted in a 1947 name change to the Federal Employees Credit Union.

In 1984, credit union membership was opened to anyone in Utah, and the name was changed to America First Credit Union. Subsequent legislation has restricted membership to residents in the five counties along the Wasatch Front, federal employees, or the family of current members. AFCU is Utah's largest credit union, with 46 branches from Hyrum, Utah to Mesquite, Nevada. America First ended 2002 with 322,998 members and $2.4 billion in assets. CEO Rick Craig notes that the credit union's guiding principle has been "to meet the financial needs of our members by offering great service, convenient locations, highly competitive products and high levels of technology at a better price than our competitors."

Associated Foods

Rich Parkinson

Salt Lake City-headquartered Associated Foods is a cooperative wholesale distribution company serving some 600 independent grocery stores and supermarkets throughout the West. Its expressed purpose is to help independents battle the national chains, not by going head-to-head, but to "beat them store to store," as CEO Rich Parkinson puts it, with aggressive and progressive services and products. "We competing against sameness, the bland cookie-cutter approach used by the chains," says Parkinson. The key problem is to unite sometimes very individually minded independent owners. Parkinson notes that the cooperative has "learned the importance of listening and compromising."

Associated Foods was organized in 1940 when Donald P. Lloyd, then president of Utah Retail Grocers, convinced 34 grocers to contribute $300 each to organize an independent collective warehouse. He saw a need to combat a trend of big companies, overrunning the under-capitalized small grocers.

The cooperative now employees 1,400 people and ships out over 750 truckloads of groceries a week to its member stores. It also provides marketing research, store design, real estate analysis, retail accounting, space management, retail training, insurance, printing and customer service.

Arctic Circle

Gary Roberts

President/CEO Gary Roberts explains Arctic Circle's longevity and success with a phrase he often shares: "The customer is king." However, Roberts says, this is not just an empty phrase, "It sums up how I really feel. "To be sure, hard work and long hours have combined to allow the company to expand into eight states since its 1950 start. Today, the company maintains 83 stores (57 franchises, 26 company-owned) throughout the West. Prominently displayed in each store is the company slogan: "More than satisfy...