At Risser’s Poultry in Lititz, Pennsylvania, a continuous tale of industry leadership is playing out. A father is nearing retirement. While he’s comfortable with what he knows, his son is full of goals and enthusiasm, ready to pen the next chapter of the family’s agribusiness story.

After 43 years, Jeff Risser, who has been a steward of his family’s 98-year-old agribusiness, is transitioning his role as President to his son, Mark.

“I have been a steward of the business for a season of the company’s existence, and now, I’m getting into a season of really stepping back from Risser’s,” he said.

As a teenager, Jeff worked alongside his dad, Bill, and grandfather, Carl, who founded Risser’s Poultry from his kitchen table at his North Board Street home.

“He didn’t really raise any poultry, but what he began in 1928 was recognizing an opportunity to purchase unwanted birds from backyard flocks of local farmers,” said Jeff.

In his youth, Jeff’s role was to help care for the birds Carl purchased from neighboring farms until he had enough to fill a full truckload and deliver them to processing plants.

It was during this time that Jeff learned something about his grandfather’s character.  

“I’ll never forget this one afternoon, we were waiting for everybody to load birds, and I was on the clock at that point. My grandfather saw idleness, so he handed me a roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex and asked me to clean the lights on the trucks and trailers. That really clicked with me, that was the okay, ‘you’re being paid, and you should be doing something’, okay, the lights were not that dirty. Still, he would be encouraging effort into doing something productive, you know, and that stuck with me,” said Jeff.

Over the years, the Risser family, especially Jeff, would pay a lot of homage to Carl’s values and prolific work ethic, which shaped the company over generations, even through Jeff’s father, William “Bill” Risser, and uncle, Mel Herr, who would continue operations as Carl stepped back from the business before he died in 1978.

While Jeff appreciated the agribusiness and the duties of caring for and transporting poultry, and had intentions to return to business, he seized the opportunity to focus on his passion, horticulture. It was a period he credits with building up his identity capital.

“I was given opportunities to do landscape design and sales; it was a lot of customer-facing work, which grew me professionally,” he said.

After graduating from Penn State, Jeff would work in the landscaping industry in the Lancaster area for a decade, until August 1983.

“I was at a crossroads in my life at the time, to either decide whether I’m going to go ‘all in’ in the landscape industry, or return to my roots, and so made the obvious choice to come back to Risser’s,” he said.

However, the following fall would challenge the newest generation, now in the driver’s seat, as they transported birds for the family business. The yearlong Avian Influenza outbreak of 1983 to 1984 would devastate Pennsylvania’s poultry industry with a loss of over 17 million birds and roughly $65 million in economic damage, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

“I made this big step from the security of the landscape industry, and at the time, it was questionable, not knowing what the result of the outbreak was going to be. But the company survived it, and I certainly survived it.”

Jeff would continue to put in long hours transporting birds, traveling in all types of climates, and weather events, including traveling to New England through snowstorms, while maintaining safety and ensuring the birds loaded at the farm would arrive at the processing plant, B & B Poultry Co, Inc., in Norma, New Jersey, in healthy condition.

“There are many memories that I have that are not always pleasant, but memories that remind me that if you don’t have any adverse circumstances, they usually don’t become a memory. It’s those, those moments or situations that really burn into your memory a little bit deeper than normal circumstances,” Jeff said.

During his time driving, loading birds, and gaining frontline experience in the logistics side of the business, Jeff would later make informed decisions, including moving beyond transport to diversify into broiler, egg, and pullet production.

“I felt a lot of weight with making those decisions, because my dad, at that point, was already stepping back, I was beginning to move into a leadership role here with the company,” he said.

While managing all divisions of the growing business, Jeff made the executive call to reallocate responsibilities, delegating and creating new positions.

“In those earlier days of my leadership, I would oversee the production, the sales, all the billing, while my partner, Mike Herr, oversaw the transportation, and as the company grew, I found it necessary to bring on a poultry production manager, an operations manager. By doing so, that allowed me to delegate some of the day-to-day responsibilities,” he said.

Blending Generations

In expanding through adding positions, it allowed opportunities for Mark, Jeff’s son, and the fourth generation of the family, to see the business and poultry industry in a different lens – of his father’s employees including poultry service technician, Rodney Best, who Mark, as teenager, would ride along to visit contracted farms, collect blood samples, and chick deliveries.

“Doing those ride-alongs with Rodney really gave me good exposure, I got see the birds, and have chances of interacting with the company and the people who contract with Risser’s,” said Mark. “I enjoyed the relationships, the people, and the families that I got to visit. It started with a connection in terms of poultry health, but it expanded into life stuff.”

As he passes the position to his son, Jeff notes that the transition from one generation to the next is one that all families should begin as soon as possible, and that the process can take years, because while the togetherness of a multi-generation agribusiness can be satisfying, it can also be a challenge for each generation.

“Don’t procrastinate with beginning the process of succession planning. It takes time to do it really well. You certainly want to make sure your business transition does not occur at a moment of need, when the older generation becomes ill or incapacitated, and the younger generation feels pressured to step into the business. Being proactive and beginning those conversations early helps ease tensions and the weight of expectations,” Jeff said.

Another element Jeff believes has been key to a generational transition is giving the younger generation time and space to be themselves and do things their way.

“There’s an assumption or expectation in certain families that the children will come into the business, but I never wanted my children to feel that expectation,” said Jeff.  “I wouldn’t trade those 10 years that I wasn’t a part of the family business for anything because it developed me as a person, those years were formative in lessons from work ethic to people management that I learned away from the business and helped me be a better leader for Risser’s.”

For Jeff, it has been a treasure to have both his children, Mark and his daughter, Elizabeth, find their way back to the family’s agribusiness. Like father, like son, Mark’s path back to his farming roots mirrors his father’s, including a brief hiatus working in horticulture and the landscape industry.

 “My dad and I have always enjoyed talking landscaping, plants and gardening, but then one day, we started talking about the industry and I wasn’t sure exactly how to build a career in landscape and that’s when my dad mentioned at Risser’s was in a position that they needed a poultry service technician so, I took it as an opportunity to return,” said Mark.

“It’s important that next generations are given the autonomy to make that decision on their own without feeling pressure,” added Jeff.

As Mark pens a new chapter at Risser’s, from sales manager to co-owner and President, he starts with a strong sense of place and an understanding of the heritage while bringing a fresh perspective to his role.

“I recognize the generations before me, what they have sacrificed and the hard work they invested, and as a leader, I love seeing people grow, watching other leaders on my team grow and gain confidence in what they’re doing. That really energizes me,” said Mark.

While working alongside his father, Mark has come to understand Jeff’s perspective and life experiences, which helped him make decisions that shaped the business. 

“Some of that runs generations deep, including how their parents introduced them to the company when they were growing up and the expectations placed on them. You need to give your parents’ generation some grace and patience in working through a transition, but you should also know when it’s time to speak up, too,” he said.

Mark credits Brian Black, a succession-planning consultant at North Group; his father; and his faith for shaping his leadership style as he took on more responsibilities at Risser’s and prepared to step into his current role.

“I learned a lot of lessons from my influencers, my dad taught me grit, attention to detail, stewardship, and how decisions can have lasting impacts and not to be too short sighted, while Brian, who I met early in my career here, emphasized humility and throughout this period, I found my faith really grounding for me,” he added.

Mark knows that, in his new role at Risser’s, he will inherit not just the day-to-day obligations of a company President, but also be the one to continue relationships that have been part of the success of his family’s agribusiness.

“Generational relationships are fairly common in the farming industry. So, sometimes there is a decision that doesn’t make sense to do it for business, but you do it to protect the relationship and to honor past relationships,” said Mark.

As father and son work toward their new chapters, Jeff is adapting to a new season, and Mark is picking up where Jeff left off, both with a strong sense of their purpose in the deep heritage of their family’s agribusiness.

“I feel at peace. The company is certainly in a good place under Mark’s leadership, along with many others here at Risser’s. I feel that the company is in a good place and that’s a nice feeling about this season that I’m moving into,” Jeff said.

Story written by: Courtney Love, PennAg Industries Association’s Communications & Marketing Specialist.