Family Business Awards — Business Transformation: Honoring flexibility and ingenuity

WINNER: Mercer Canyons

Location: Prosser
Employees: 36

Everyone in this family has always liked to build things, says Mercer Canyons CEO Rob Mercer. It was never a question that you would sit idle.

That entrepreneurial spirit brought the Mercer family to the lower Yakima Valley from Illinois more than 125 years ago. Theyve farmed here for four generationsputting down deep roots, first in livestock and later, after embarking on an ambitious irrigation effort in the Horse Heaven Hills, row crops and vegetable processing. In 1972, Don Mercer, grandson of the patriarch, Willis Alford Mercer, took Mercer Ranch in a new direction by planting Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines, making the Mercers one of the first families to plant and grow vinifera in the state.

In 2004, Bud Mercer and his sons, Rob and Will, sold their carrot-processing plants and the Mercer Ranch name, and launched Mercer Canyons, which continues to grow vegetable and farm crops in addition to operating an expanding vineyard and winery operation. Bud Mercer died in 2010. Under Rob Mercers leadership, Mercer Canyons has cultivated a focus on wildlife enhancement and sustainable farming, providing some 1,500 acres of managed wildlife area and several organic crops. The company also partners with Washington State University to conduct research aimed at improving long-term sustainability of Washington state vineyards.

Robs brother Will is a part owner and cousin Pete works for the company and participates in a phantom stock program. Even Rob Mercers 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twin son and daughter have already put in time working in the vineyard. While its too early to think about whether they will succeed him, he says, he works with their future in mind. L.W.