2C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016
The man behind the mill
Iconic miller puts
his employees and
customers ¿rst
“So whatever you wish that others would do
to you, do also to them, for this is the law and
prophets.´
Moore uses the laser pointer to circle the
name of the man who said it: Jesus Christ.
“It comes from high authority,´ he tells the
students.
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Telling the story
MILWAUKIE — Bob Moore has a question
for the George Fox University students visiting
his Red Mill. They are business students, MBA
candidates, sharp young people. Later, Moore
agrees the country will be in good hands. Any
time you doubt that, he says, go talk to students.
But now he stands before them like a stern
corporate logo come to life. He is ramrod
straight and looks exactly, intentionally, like the
trademark image on his whole grain products:
White beard, glasses, touring cap, bolo tie and
bright red company vest.
He’s been featured on a Diane Sawyer ABC
News segment and written up in The New York
Times, among many other publications. His
³people before pro¿t´ mantra made Bob’s Red
Mill one of the most admired companies in the
United States. On his 81st birthday he began the
process of conveying the company to his 400
workers through an Employee Stock Ownership
Plan, in which all employees were issued stock
certi¿cates. It didn’t cost them a cent. The ¿rst
round six years ago gave employees one-third
ownership; transfer of a second third is in the
works.
Jan Chernus, vice president of international
sales, takes the Bob’s Red Mill image overseas.
Everything about Bob’s appearance, of course,
but also the commitment to quality, the story of
pro¿t sharing, the Employee Stock Ownership
Plan and how to treat employees.
“We tell that story, we de¿nitely tell that
story,´ Chernus says. “You have to get that mes-
sage out. Without that, it’s a bag of Àour. It’s a
really good quality bag of Àour, but it’s a bag
of Àour.´
It works. Moore has visited many of the
countries where his product is sold. He’s been
recognized on a double-decker bus in London,
approached in airports and hailed from passing
cars.
The Bob’s Red Mill story is one Justine
Haigh wants her George Fox students to hear.
Haigh, a marketing professor, also directs the
university’s MBA program. Too often, students
are directed to focus only on the bottom line,
she says.
“Bob’s whole stance of people before pro¿ts
is a great thing for our students to think about,´
she says. “For them to hear that ¿rsthand is
really meaningful.´
A friend to agriculture
Moore is a friend to Paci¿c Northwest agri-
culture, buying immense quantities of grain,
nuts, seeds and berries from farmers who meet
his quality standards. He is an evangelist for
whole grains and healthy eating. He’s been
known to pound a table and tell his managers,
³We have to get this good food to people.´
He recommends starting the day with oat-
meal made from his steel cut oats. Raises the
blood sugar slowly, he says, and keeps you con-
tented, even ³euphoric,´ until lunch. Maybe toss
on some fruit and a handful of Àax meal. He
autographs his biography with the salutation,
³To your good health!´
Much of the Àour, meal, beans, breads, bak-
ing mixes and soup mixes he sells are organic,
and the company has a growing line of glu-
ten-free products. Bob’s Red Mill won’t use
GMOs; it tests every shipment of corn and
soybeans.
He buys locally and sells internationally.
Bob’s Red Mill products are on the shelves in
80 countries, from Kenya, Egypt, Australia and
Mexico to India, China and throughout Europe,
Southeast Asia and South America. Labeling
machines at his mill are capable of printing
ingredient and nutritional information in lan-
guages ranging from French to Farsi.
That’s what the George Fox business stu-
dents have come to ask about, but ¿rst he has a
question for them.
³Where’s all the cookies?´ he demands, and
breaks the generational ice.
World Headquarters
If Portland’s self-reverential foodie move-
ment traced its roots, it might ¿nd itself off
Highway 224 in the blue-collar suburb of Mil-
waukie, 8 miles from downtown. Bob’s Red
Mill was locally sourced and offering organic
and gluten-free products before they became
hipster buzzwords.
Farmers and co-ops who sell to Bob’s Red
Mill ¿nd the company ¿rm but fair.
³They don’t fool around,´ says Tom Wil-
liams, who with his brother, Ray, owns Williams
Hudson Bay Farm in Milton-Freewater. They
?
9-1-WHAT?
THE BEST OF THE WORST CALLS TO ASTORIA 911 DISPATCH
Time on his mind
Courtesy of Bob’s Red Mill
Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukie.
farm about 3,000 acres on the Oregon-Washing-
ton border and sell organic wheat and corn to
Bob’s Red Mill.
Williams says his farm had corn for sale
when the mill needed it, and kept sending
wheat samples for testing until they ¿nally were
accepted. They’ve been selling to Bob’s Red
Mill for about 10 years, and it is their biggest
customer.
“They test everything, it’s very, very com-
plex,´ Williams says. “If it meets their stan-
dards, they want it. If it doesn’t, they could care
less.´
The mill and distribution center cover
320,000 square feet and is self-contained, with
lab work, grinding, mixing, bagging, market-
ing, graphics, sales, construction and mainte-
nance done in-house. The glass doors proclaim
it Bob’s Red Mill “World Headquarters.´
A mile up the highway is a combination
retail store and restaurant that is packed six days
a week, closed on Sundays. On Fridays during
lunchtime, Moore and longtime executive assis-
tant, Nancy Garner, drive over from the World
Headquarters and play duets on matching Stein-
way grand pianos. Bob often sings. “I couldn’t
live without music,´ he says.
µ3HRSOHEHIRUHSUR¿W¶
Using a red laser pointer to highlight a Pow-
erPoint presentation, Moore reviews his oft-told
story for the George Fox students, His ¿rst busi-
ness was a service station. He had a grain mill
in Redding, California, then retired and moved
to Oregon intending to study Greek and Hebrew
so he could read the Bible in its original lan-
guages. He stumbled across a mill for sale and
couldn’t resist starting up again. He was doing
well, then an arsonist burned it down in 1988.
Started over, and here he is today.
“I wouldn’t recommend failure,´ he says
dryly. “But if you have it, it’s not the end of the
world.´
He lets that sit for a moment.
“The story I’m going to tell is about success.´
Moore tells the students he quit reading
Forbes, Fortune and other business magazines.
The end point of every article, he says, was the
accumulation of more money.
“That’s not the goal of my life,´ he says.
He says it is his responsibility as an entre-
preneur to create sustainability and permanence
through competitive wages, health-care bene¿ts
and pro¿t sharing. Doing so makes the employ-
ees vested in the company’s success, he says.
Moore shares with the community, as well.
Among many gifts, he and his wife gave $25
million to Oregon Health & Science University
to establish the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute
for Nutrition and Wellness. They gave $5 mil-
lion to Oregon State University for the Moore
Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutri-
tion and Preventive Health. They gave $1.35
million to support programs at the National Col-
lege of Natural Medicine. They gave $250,000
to Zenger Farm of Portland, which hosts school
tours and trains beginning farmers.
Moore clicks the PowerPoint controller to
display what he calls the “crowning Scripture,´
Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule.
It’s Feb. 15, Bob Moore’s 87th birthday, and
he is celebrating with his customers at the retail
store and restaurant. He’s hired a band, headed
by longtime friend John Bennett, to play for the
occasion. Moore estimates he’s had four pieces
of cake.
Customers line up to greet him and wish
him well on his birthday. One of them, Heather
Choy, says her message to Bob is simple.
“I want to tell him ‘thank you’ for revolu-
tionizing the way people eat, and for making
healthy food accessible,´ she says.
Moore rises to thank the crowd and says it’s
“so nice to be appreciated.´
“I hope to make it a couple more,´ he adds
with a chuckle. “Ninety is my goal right now.´
During his last trip to South Korea, a woman
approached him out of the blue and, through an
interpreter, asked to read his palm.
Moore laughs about the encounter. The
woman studied his lifeline and declared he
would live to be 100.
“I think about that every day,´ he says.
He has long been on top of the business
world. He’s made millions and given them
away. He’s admired, respected, even loved.
Employees, unbidden, say he’s like a father to
them. Many have been with him 30 years.
He still comes to work each day. He leads a
tour and turns it into a three-hour lesson on mill-
ing. He visits his managers and peppers them
with questions. He’s ordered 22 new automated
bagging machines and knows every detail of
their installation.
When he hired a woman as the plant oper-
ations manager, the ¿rst female in the post, he
told her to let him know if the men were giving
her trouble. He told her he would knock heads
if he had to.
“I want to know every little thing that’s going
on here,´ he says.
He has no plans to step down. He says Nancy,
his executive assistant, will probably come into
his of¿ce one day and ¿nd him on the Àoor, and
that will be it. He laughs about that, too.
“Why would I want to do anything else?´
Grandma,
take me home
S
o if your 7-year-old grandson ever refuses to buckle his seat belt, call 911.
Seriously, emergency dispatchers are just waiting. They have nothing
more important to do.
It’s not like there are loose goats wandering around. Or horses. It’s been days
— days! — since the last reports of name-calling ...
Follow reporter Kyle Spurr on his 9-1-What? Twitter watch, where a few of
the sometimes head-scratching calls to area dispatch take center stage. The full
feed is at www.twitter.com/9_1_WHAT.
3 W AY S TO GE T
Y O U R CO PY
TOD AY !
OR DER ON LIN E
w w w .DiscoverO urCoast.com /order
S TOP BY ON E OF OU R 3 LOCATION S
A storia • 949 Exchange St.
Seaside • 1555 N . Roosevelt Dr.
Long Beach • 205 Bolstad A ve. E. #2
o r CALL HOLLY LAR K IN S
at 503-325-3211, x227
Em ail: hlarkins@ dailyastorian.com