The Produce Company's Rapid Rise
A look inside the financial health and expansion plans of White Bluffs' premier cooperative grocery chain.
About 35 of the 66 local stockholders in The Produce company chain of stores were present Thursday afternoon in Codding hall to listen to a financial statement of the company’s business for the past year, by General Manager E. M. Sly. The report showed that the company did a business for the year amounting to $852,100, divided among the four stores: Kennewick, Prosser, White Bluffs, and Finley. The net profit for the year was $16,133.71, from which a ten per cent dividend was declared. Since starting business on April 1, 1909, the company has declared 67 per cent in cash and 30 per cent in stock dividends. General Manager E. M. Sly predicted that in two years the company would be doing an annual business of half a million dollars.
“The Produce company has increased its business each year since it was incorporated, and in his talk Mr. Sly predicted that in two years it would be doing an annual business of half a million.”
The Produce Company was an early model of the cooperative spirit in the Columbia Basin. Today, the agricultural legacy of that era is reflected in the massive, industrial-scale irrigation projects that dominate the same landscape.
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