Page 38 - NECO News

That buying group with NECO is part of what allowed us to
focus on our business. They’re the
education piece. They’re the ones
that helped us and guided us.
~ Dave Souter
NEAG Chapter Dealer Feature
Baron’s Major Brands:
Facing Challenges, Finding Solutions BY JANET WEYANDT
FOR NEARLY 70 YEARS, Baron’s Major Brands has thrived in a changing business climate by being willing to adapt to its customers’ needs. Now in its second generation, that philosophy is as strong today as it was when brothers Donald and Fred Baron opened their doors in 1947.
The business began as a TV store in Lawrence, Massachu- setts, after Donald Baron put his experience as U.S. Navy radar technician to work. Both brothers served in the Navy, and the store quickly grew from just TVs to TVs and antennas, to in- clude Whirlpool appliances.
A few years after Donald and Fred started the business, their younger brother Ray came on board and helped keep the business running during the tough economy of the 1970s. They opened a second store in Salem, New Hampshire, and quickly decided that was where fate was leading the business.
Because New Hampshire has no sales tax, customers be- gan doing most of their shopping in the Salem store. Now Baron’s Major Brands has seven New Hampshire locations in addition to a wholesale operation.
By the time Souter’s generation began acquiring control in 2007, the business had four loca- tions under two different names: Baron’s TV and Appliance, owned by Don Baron, and Major Brands, owned by both Ray and Don Baron. Ray ran all four stores, and nephew Souter was store manager in Salem. His cousins, Mike Baron and Brian Ellis, were also working in the business. The three cousins
are now in charge.
“The real challenge is in transi-
tion,” Souter said. “This is where
so many businesses fail. Because the youth wants to take over because they’ve got dreams of making it bigger and better, and the existing ownership says, ‘I’m pretty comfy.’ It’s a process. We hear it all the time with other dealers who are in the same struggle. It’s a lot of mental agony working with your family because family is first. It was a long process; it took many years. At the end
Dave Souter, vice president of Baron’s Major Brands and the nephew of the Baron brothers, started working in the store when he was about 10.
“I swept the floors when the floors were dirt floors,” Sout- er joked. “My uncles were great business guys, always on the move, always doing things, very enterprising.”
38 NECO News DECEMBER 2016