Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | October 28, 2024 | wbjournal.com 35th Anniversary WBJ BY FRED HURLBRINK JR. Special to WBJ Y ou can define success in myri- ad ways: holding your ground; uncompromising ambition; the relentless pursuit of excellence; steady as she goes; staying a step ahead. e one thing shared in common by the most-heralded and well-run companies Worcester Business Journal has chronicled over 35 years is a bit of all these things. As complicated as finding success can be, it oen comes down to the basics: an unde- niable idea; a family legacy of never being satisfied; or a straightforward philosophy. Laroy Starrett, who founded Athol-based toolmaker L.S. Starrett Co., in 1880, may have said it best when he explained the elemental notion behind his business: "To invent some- thing useful that people would want." Not long aer Starrett developed his company's seminal tool, the combination square, Polar Beverages was springing to life in 1882. e scions of Dennis Crow- ley would not disappoint. In 1905, Peter The legacy of ambition Exploring the staying power of six of the region's most enduring businesses Consigli & Sons Masonry began a tradition of building excellence. FLEXcon was born in a rented Spencer garage in 1956, and the McDonough family never looked back. EMC Corp. wasted little time exceeding ex- pectations aer its 1979 founding. And TJX Cos., like WBJ, opened its doors in 1989, beginning its singular quest for dominance. Here we take a periodic look back at these half-dozen headliners – the ups and downs, the achievements, and the important people. What better place to start than the begin- ning? Our beginning: 1989. Two years aer Ben Cammarata was named the first president and CEO of TJX Cos., and months aer its parent company, Zayre Corp., sold its nearly 400 stores to Ames Department Stores, the discount retail behemoth TJX was born. Hired away from Marshall's in 1976, Cammarata was the brains behind TJ Maxx, which opened its first store in Auburn in 1977. By 1987, and with Zayre's fortunes flagging, TJX Cos. – already featuring TJ Maxx, Hit or Miss, and Chadwick's of Boston catalog – was formed as a subsidiary. But not for long. In the wake of nearly $70 million in operating losses in the first half of 1988, Zayre's sale of its entire chain to rival Ames for more than $550 million allowed it to buy out the minority owners of TJX – and set in motion one of the great retail success stories in Central Massachusetts. Zayre merged with TJX in June and changed its name. Soon it would begin trad- ing on the New York Stock Exchange. e same year TJX brought in Cam- marata, EMC found its longtime home in Hopkinton. By 1989, the company's founda- tional memory boards were being usurped by its data storage business – an important development since EMC would experience its second straight year of losses despite having achieved a key goal of co-founder Richard Egan: EMC began trading on the NYSE in 1988. While Neil Young was "Rockin' in the Free World," and Tom Petty was "Free Falling," Anthony Consigli began working for his father, Henry, as a project manager and su- perintendent for Consigli Construction Co. As the 1990s got underway, acquisitions, expansions and transformative products abounded. L.S. Starrett purchased Sigma Optical, a United Kingdom firm that designed and manufactured optical measuring projectors, and formed the Starrett Precision Optical Division. TJX acquired Winners Apparel of Canada, a Toronto-based chain of five off-price family apparel stores, which would grow into Canada's largest off-price retailer of family apparel and home fashions. EMC introduced its flagship product, Symmetrix, the enterprise storage system L.S. Starrett was founded in Athol in 1880. WBJ FILE PHOTO Ben Cammarata, the brains behind T.J. Maxx WBJ FILE PHOTO

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