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Awards for family businesses
Fullerton’s Family Business Council, the Business Journal and California State University hosted a luncheon event on a grand-scale. At the event, prizes were distributed to family businesses for their enterprise right from a designer of clothes inspired by mixed martial arts to a mortuary.
The surprise winners were Irvine-based Silver Star Casting Co., designers of T-shirts, hats and accessories with gothic, tattoo-style artwork. The company is owned and run by Luke Burrett and wife Charis and it recently moved from San Clemente to a larger space in Irvine. No joke-the longevity award was bagged by Hilgenfeld Mortuary who has been operating their business from the same spot in downtown Anaheim for the last 85 years.
The large company award was taken by a real estate owner and developer, Newport Beach-based
Olen Properties Corporation. President Igor Olenicoff owns and runs the company with daughter Natalia Olenicoff, who is vice president of asset management. Natalia and brother Andrei were taught ‘the different types of real estate’ in kindergarten by senior Olenicoff. In the year 2005, Andrei died in an auto accident which prompted Natalia to play a bigger role in the company.
The mid size company award was won by grandmother and founder Frieda Caplan, 86, who’s still active in the company alongside her daughters and granddaughter. They run Freida’s Inc., which is a produce marketer and distributor of Los Alamitos. The small company award was won by National Equestrian Center Inc., which is a Huntington Beach-based horse park and event center.
An Irvine resident, Andrew Truett Cathy, delivered the keynote speech. His grandfather is the founder of Georgia’s Chick-fil-A restaurant chain. The advantage of being a privately owned family business has helped it in expanding itself as an independent business, he said. “We can plan well in advance of the next quarter and we don’t have to report to analysts on Wall Street” he elucidated.