John Lyman on managing the family business - for eight generationsMiddlefield's Lyman Farm Inc. - better known to apple-lovers as Lyman Orchards - has been a mainstay of the same family since 1741, spanning eight generations. Today at over 1,110 acres the family business includes a fruit orchard, two world-class golf courses, a retail store and a variety of seasonal events. BNH spoke with John Lyman III, executive vice president and secretary/treasurer, about what it takes to keep a family business going and growing, managing change, farming and the future of agriculture in Connecticut. Your family has been farming since 1741. When was the business incorporated?
In 1949 - that was my grandfather and his siblings. We have a board of directors and officers in charge of the company. Steve Ciskowski is our president and CEO and I'm executive vice president. The board is made up of nine members, four of which are family members [including Lyman]. Currently I'm the only active family member in the day-to-day business; we have three others on the board. Our stockholders - over 180 - are for the most part all family shareholders. We started farming in 1741, before there was a United States. There was no Middlefield at that time; it was Middletown. We were a typical New England self-sufficient farm.
When did things start to change?
We started to get into more specialization in the later 1800s. Around 1870 one of our family members [William Lyman] discovered a unique gun sight technology and that became known as the Lyman Gun Sight. It was a family business until the early 1960s [when] it was sold off but it still retains the name [now Lyman Products of Middletown]. But agriculture has been the mainstay for all these years.
Do you and the other family members feel pressure having to continue this legacy? You couldn't just go off and become a doctor or something - or can you?
I think that we feel a responsibility because of that heritage and tradition. In my case I did feel that; [but] the rest of the family members are not involved currently. But there is a lot of pride in the tradition with the family group. Growing up on the farm has a lot to do in my case with coming back into the family business.
Lyman is also known as home to a couple of pretty good golf courses.
The first course was built in early 1967 and opened [with a] full 18 holes in 1969. It was built on land that was dairy land. We had a dairy business until the early '60s, [when] the family decided we weren't going to stay involved in. The idea of using the land in a different way came along and we hired Robert Trent Jones to design a course. Looking back, that was a really smart move because he's an icon in the golf industry. We couldn't have hit it at a better time; in the mid-1970s golf just took off. We were very successful with it and we built another 18 holes and opened it in 1994.
How is golf doing today?
It's much more competitive. A lot of golf courses came online and the industry got overbuilt. Demand has been relatively flat. We're getting new golfers, but not as a high a pace as those leaving [the sport]. The economy since 9/11 - we've seen some different dynamics.
Since the farm started there have been a few depressions and many recessions. How have those kinds of problems affected management of the business and the family dynamic?
Over the years there's been a number of challenges and difficult times. They give confidence to us that we've been able to persevere over difficult times. Our attitude is that this is another difficult time, and we'll take care of the fundamentals and get through it. Our shareholder group has been very supportive. When you're predominantly a weather-based business, you don't know from year to year what kind of year you're going to have. We have to continue to find ways to mitigate those risks. What we've demonstrated over the years is the ability to be creative, to change if necessary to adapt. That's been the legacy that stands out most of all - the ability to re-invent the business over the years.
How did some of the 'farmtainment' features like the corn maze and the retail operation get started?
I give a lot of credit for who we are today to my dad. He was president from 1955 and retired in 1997. I got back in the business in 1980. When he came back from college and got into the business we were a dairy business [and] a wholesale fruit business. He recognized that things were changing and we had to get closer to the customer and into retail. He built a sales room on the side of our packing house. He wasn't interested in the dairy business. He was open to the golf course, sales did so well we expanded and put a bakery in. He was willing to get out there and see what others were doing. Over the years we just transformed to more of a retail focus; that's where pick-your-own and the mazes have come in. If you're going to be good you have to be innovative.
How many employees do you have?
We have 1,100 acres. We employ at peak [season] about 200 employees, year-round about 65 employees. We've been involved in apple picking with a guest worker program of the Department of Labor. We bring in offshore labor for the harvest; we've been doing it since the 1960s.
Haven't many family farms exited the dairy business because it is so labor-intensive?
No question. Our business is so seasonal and the a lot of the jobs are unskilled, but they are critical jobs. Labor is really important to us in terms of having a good available labor force. In an urbanized state that's going to be more and more of a challenge.
What's the prognosis for the next generation's involvement?
Up until now the next generation's been really summer employment. As a board right now we're starting to ask questions about just that and thinking how to get the next generations involved. I have a son who just graduated from college; he's a mechanical engineer, he's working in that field.
He's not working on developing an automated apple picker?
There you go. I'm confident we have a number of people who are coming along who can do very well [managing the business]/ We have evolved into a more sophisticated business. We've really benefited from our non-family managers, and we have to be respectful of what they do if we want to get a family member involved.
There seems to be a movement toward consumers wanting local produce and food products. Is that impacting your business?
There's no question that is a big movement. It's helped our retail business, our pick-your-own business. People are really interested in coming to the farm. We do sell to supermarkets. Big Y is a big customer for both pies and we sell apples to them as well. We work with a broker called Red Tomato and are growing our apples in a certified ecological way, called 'eco-apples,' they're selling to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Pies [are] the fastest-growing part of our business in the last ten years. Big Y is one of our major customers, they've been great. They have done a great job in supporting the local producer and local farmer.
Is state government a good partner in supporting local farming?
I think Connecticut has been on the forefront in some ways. We're not as big as some of the 'ag' states, [but] we've had a great department and it's been very effective in getting the word out about 'Connecticut Grown.' One of the great success stories has been the growth of the farmers markets. The agriculture industry in Connecticut has been in a little bit of a renaissance in the last five or six years. Despite some of the challenges, a number of our dairy producers are some of the more efficient in the whole country. The ones that have been able to cut their costs and make the investments are really at the top of the industry. Our green industry, greenhouses, we're tops in New England.
Farms are usually pretty small family businesses. Can they thrive long-term?
The challenge is continually to create enough opportunity for the next generation. One of the ways Connecticut farmers have been able to do that is to sell more directly to the customers and get more of that dollar back to them. There are a lot of [family farms spanning] three, four, five generations in the state. There's also been a number of new people coming in [to farming]. That's been one of the most exciting things - very much niche markets, maybe not a full-time job. There is a lot of opportunity. Ten years ago people were saying, 'I don't know how long there will be agriculture in the state.' I think there's a different viewpoint today.
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