Ingram's May 2024

PAYLESS CASHWAYS Year Founded: 1930 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo. Sector: Construction Number of Employees: 18,000+ (peak)

RUSSELL STOVER Year Founded: 1923 Headquarters: Kansas City, Mo. Sector: Manufacturing Number of Employees: 2,300

Half a century before there even was a Home Depot, and long before Lowe’s broke out of its regional focus as a North Carolina hardware concern, do-it-yourselfers in the Midwest turned to Payless Cashways for one-stop-shopping with their home improvement needs. Founded in Iowa in 1930 but Kansas City-based since 1977, it was among the first larger-format stores to make DIY a thing. At its peak, it operated nearly 200 stores within a 22-state footprint, had more than 18,000 employees, and cracked the Fortune 500 lineup. Its early success came from a strategic decision to focus on cash sales rather than bear the risks inherent with selling to builders on credit—the company formed, after all, just months after the stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression. After World War II, with millions of GIs returning home and a housing boom in the works, the demand for materials skyrocketed. Finances, though, not sim- ply emerging competitors, would eventually take it down.

Russell Stover Candies traces its inception to just over a century ago, when a one-time farmer by the name of Russell William Stover made the leap to a sweeter line of work. He hit it big with development of a frozen treat that’s still around: The Eskimo Pie. Stover would later sell his interest in that enterprise in 1923, relocate to Denver and with his wife, Clara, began selling boxed chocolates made in their kitchen at home. In 1931, they chose Kansas City for a new corporate home, and eventually the confectioner was knocking out 11 million pounds of candies annually, selling through 2,000 department stores and 40 corporate locations. Stover died in 1954, his wife sold the company for $7.5 million in 1960, and it stayed in the family of the box vendor who bought it from her, Louis Ward, until 2014. That year, when sales reportedly hit $500 million, Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli acquired it from the Ward family.

SEABOARD CORP. Year Founded: 1959 Headquarters: Merriam, Kan. Sector: Agribusiness, Transportation Number of Employees: 23,000+

SECURITY BENEFIT Year Founded: 1892

Headquarters: Topeka, Kan. Sector: Financial Services Number of Employees: 600

One might think the biggest public company in a metropolis of 2.2 million would stand out among the corporate crowd, but Seaboard Corp.’s subtle presence here—you almost have to be looking for that modest brick office building in Merriam to notice it—reflects the focus of an enterprise focus that is global, not parochial. While just a few hundred souls populate the headquarters here, the firm has more than 12,000 employees on the payroll around the world. Last year, it posted revenues of $9.52 billion, drawn from its extensive operations in various agribusiness disciplines, including hog and poultry production, maritime shipping, grain processing and commodities trading. Its shipping operations extend to the Caribbean, and Central and South America, and is milling/trading footprint hits Africa, Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Robert Steer, the current CEO, is the first to take the company’s leadership from outside the founding Bresky family.

From individuals planning for their retirement to busi nesses that provide savings tools for their employees, all the way up to administrators at school-district scale, Security Benefit is a national leader in retirement-savings tools and technology. High-net-worth investors also are part of the financial muscle that comes from more than $51.6 billion in assets under management for this Topeka-based company, which helps chart secure financial futures through a suite of services that focus on market growth, principal preservation, retirement income and estate planning. It’s been an im pressive run since the company was founded in 1892, when 11 business leaders each threw $1—yes, one dollar—into a pooled insurance fund. Doug Wolff is now CEO, having taken the helm from Mike Kiley, who became CEO in 2010. Together, they directed an impressive turnaround following the financial crisis of 2008.

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May 2024

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