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V O L . X X I N O. V I M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 20 A sk Jim Wellehan what it means to be a business leader, and for his initial response, you likely won't hear him mention Lamey- Wellehan, his 100-year-old, Auburn-based family retail shoe business. Instead, he'll bring up a word that means a great deal to him: community. "I love my community. I love being proud of my community," Wellehan says, noting the company's various community initiatives, like collecting shoes for the homeless. "It means to be there to be helpful, to try to be part of [the community], make it better." After all, he says, "If the community's better, won't the businesses benefi t?" For the 76-year-old company president, com- munity involvement is one of the key ways Lamey- Wellehan has distinguished itself as a retail shoe busi- ness. Lamey-Wellehan has grown every year since the recession, in the face of online and big-box competi- tors, reaching nearly $12 million in sales last year and succeeding where similar businesses have failed. Lamey-Wellehan most recently opened a store in Topsham, replacing a smaller store in Brunswick, Wellehan says, and the company is now assessing a few sites for possible expansion. Down the road, Wellehan is looking at an even bigger step in his career: retiring and selling the company, which he owns with his wife, Kathy, to the employees. ough Lamey-Wellehan wouldn't be what it is today without him, he says he's confi - dent his team is ready for the task. "Growth is a diffi cult thing because you want to grow, but you don't want to sprout an arm out of your back," Wellehan says. "So being able to grow and keep the same culture and values [while being] Community minded Lamey-Wellehan President Jim Wellehan creates a legacy of advocacy and fairness B y D y l a n M a r t i n P H O T O / R U S S D I L L I N G H A M " " " Sometimes You Need to Break the Mold IT Solutions Designed for Your Business Managed Services Cloud/Virtualization Data Management Networking Security IT Consulting n n n n n n www.WGTECH.com 207.856.5300 " Need to Break the Mold Jim Wellehan, president and co-owner of shoe retailer Lamey-Wellehan, oversees six stores. Wellehan has been an advocate for a higher federal minimum wage. He has also eliminated the use of plastic bags at the stores.