2016 Business Class: Jared Enterprises Inc. (Top Honors)

Jared Enterprises Inc. is 10 years in, but its beginnings stretch back six decades and the next generation of the company is centered on commercial development for years to come. The veteran Brentwood Center is a case in point: Jared Enterprises is planning a multimillion-dollar renovation for its new retail darling, and the addition of a stand-alone Starbucks is the cherry on top.

Financial Performance
Reinvestment comes on the heels of the firm’s fourth straight year of record top-line revenue growth and profit margins up to 26 percent. In 2015, the Jared family made the fourth-largest investment in company history with its acquisition of the 150,000-square-foot Brentwood Center across from Battlefield Mall.

“With hard work, comes a reward,” CEO Curtis Jared says plainly. “We’re a hands-on company. We work well together and the financial results follow. If you’re just focused on financial performance, you’re letting all the small details slip through the cracks.”

One detail secured is the design for the Starbucks store. Starting in late 2014, Jared began working his way up the Starbucks chain of command and personally negotiated terms with the renowned brand.

“Starbucks is done a little differently. We worked through plans, a lease before it’s done and a test fit,” he says. “We’ll tweak it for them. They want to make sure it’s done their way.”

Innovation
Outside of Springfield, the company last year redeveloped a neglected retail center in Lebanon. Jared Enterprises saw potential, and after an acquisition the company made an investment in the low seven figures to renovate the property adjacent to Interstate 44. For feasibility, officials created a community improvement district with the city for the renovated Lebanon Marketplace.

“Since we’ve taken it over, working with the city with tax incentives, we’ve landed national tenants that brought new services, jobs and sales tax revenues,” Jared says. “Now, we’re talking about developing some additional ground that came with the property.”

Community Involvement
Jared Enterprises is the remaining branch of various family owned businesses that started in 1948 and included Consumer’s grocery stores and Cody’s Convenience Stores.

With that history, Jared says he is following in the footsteps of his father and board chairman, Jerry Jared, as an active volunteer. Curtis Jared serves on almost a dozen boards and committees, including as board treasurer for the OTC Foundation and on a capital campaign committee for Developmental Center of the Ozarks.

In 2015, Jared Enterprises donated $1.7 million to charity – evidenced by the Jared Neurosciences Center name on the Cox South patient tower.