Andrew Tepperman
WINDSOR, Ontario — Tepperman's Furniture has been named the Large Business of the Year by the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The criteria for the award include revenue and profit growth, a track record of excellent community relations, environmental responsibility and sustainability, as well as local job creation, good employee relations and a commitment to innovation and customer service and quality.
The chamber applauded the four-unit, family-owned full-line furniture and major appliance retailer for its 88 years of service to the Windsor area as well as for its business model, which includes an in-house family financing plan.
"Employee relations are imperative to Tepperman's success," the chamber said. "Outside of holiday parties, a fantastic employee purchase plan, distributing turkeys and gift cards, TEA Week (Tepp's Employee Appreciation Week), surveys and town hall meetings, they have a robust company-wide mission vision and values program, recognizing four quarterly winners who went above-and-beyond for a colleague or customer and two special annual winners. Employee retention is high."
The chamber's citation added that the retailer is always focused on delivering quality product the first time and for creating an excellent in-store customer experience.
Now in its third generation of family leadership - company President Andrew Tepperman is a grandson of company founder Nate Tepperman - Tepperman's also supports a wide variety of community organizations and the Canadian Scholarship Trust Fund, to which it has donated over C$550,000 in recent years.
"This is the first time we've won this as a company," Andrew Tepperman said. "My father (Bill Tepperman) won the Entrepreneur of the Year award nine years ago from the same chamber."
He added that in some ways, the company honor is more important.
"This is important because it's an award for the whole team," Tepperman said. "We compete against billion-dollar and now multi-billion dollar chains. Our team works very hard to maintain our sales, profit and reputation. This award shows that the family business still matters."
