HR1319 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1319 LRB095 21475 KXB 51013 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are pleased to congratulate the staff of the Furst-McNess Company on the 100th anniversary of the agribusiness and consumer goods institution; and

WHEREAS, Frank E. Furst, an attorney and the son of pioneers to Stephenson County, and Frederick W. McNess, a pharmacist and transplant to Freeport from Ohio, combined their talents to a singular and novel business concept in 1908 with the founding core values of quality, safety, and innovation, epitomized in the first self-regulating policy of sanitary safety seals on every product and instituted decades before any government regulation required they ensure the integrity of their products and offer this added layer of protection for their customers; and

WHEREAS, The confidence of these two founders who came of age as entrepreneurs in an industrial town was mirrored by local investors, salesmen, and customers, the farm-to-farm direct sales company that started on $21,000 became one of Freeport's most prominent industries, known for its extracts and spices (and its premium ingredients, including Madagascar vanilla beans), and entered the international stage almost immediately after its founding; and

WHEREAS, The Furst-McNess Company moved to the Sunlight Laboratory in 1919, undertook a 60,000 square-foot expansion of in 1929 (the year the stock market crashed) and another 60,000 square-foot expansion in 1948, and completed a nearly $2 million renovation of the building on Clark Street in 1980; and

WHEREAS, An early commitment to quality, safety, and innovation has consistently been manifested over 100 years with the development of a new tablet making process during World War II to supply the U.S. Army with vanilla tablets, to eliminate the vice of vanilla extract and its alcohol content in war zones, and won the Freeport manufacturer the majority of war contracts because of its efficient tablet making, producing nearly one billion vanilla tablets during World War II, which became an export business when the government sold its surpluses; the themes of quality, safety, and innovation have consistently recurred, when the company launched its vitamin and mineral premixes in 1958, and was one of the first to develop computerized programs for ration-balancing in the 1980s; and

WHEREAS, The Furst-McNess Company acquired Miracle Feeds in 1992 from John Labatt Limited to become a North-American based, multinational company with offices in London, Ontario, and with the knitting together of two organizations, became a niche market player in the distribution of ethanol and biofuel residuals, for the first time offering livestock producers a complete feed (vitamin and mineral premixes, along with commodities), and now is a beacon in the agribusiness industry, with a vision for helping to build sustainable models in agriculture; and

WHEREAS, Following the success of its production of Spike O'Dell's Bite Your Butt Mustard, a collaboration with the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, Wis., the Furst-McNess Company returned to its roots in the consumer goods industry in 1997 when it unveiled the Terrapin Ridge line of gourmet condiments, including Wasabi Lime mustard before wasabi products had been incorporated into American foods; manufacturing continued in the consumer goods vein with products sold under the McNess trademark, and with private label production for two Fortune 500 companies; and

WHEREAS, With the acquisition of the family business, Aero Group in 2003, the company showed its committed to technology as a core value, and now offers broadband and Voice Over Internet Phone Services (VOIP), as well as computer networking for commercial and business clients; and

WHEREAS, The family business has entered its fourth generation, maintaining its headquarters in Freeport and giving back to the local community in each generation, and has survived the trials of history over the course of one century because of its commitment to enduring values of quality, safety, and innovation, and its adaptability to changing marketplaces in new eras; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the staff of the Furst-McNess Company of Freeport on the 100th anniversary; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Martha Furst, President and CEO of the FurstMcNess Company, as a symbol of our esteem.