“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people…. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:3-4 2014–2017 It’s strange how history tends to recall mostly bad news. In 2014, a new virus called Ebola erupted in West Africa and, with good reason, scared travelers worldwide. Starting in Ferguson, Missouri, “Black Lives Matter” became a national movement following video recordings of black men killed at the hands of white policemen. ISIS took control of parts of Syria and Iraq and ushered in a new era of violence and cruelty. Russia took advantage of regional unrest to seize Crimea in Ukraine and annexed the territory, stunning the western world. Finally, the ALS ice bucket challenge swept the nation as millions raised awareness and participated in this charity. 2014 was a year of major change at NOW. A new CEO, new CFO, new COO and new Chairman of the Board were significant changes for a family business used to longevity and continuity. Our CEO, Al Powers, retired and was replaced by Jim Emme, former COO. Al continued to work as a company ambassador to the industry, working part- time for the Natural Products Association and Vitamin Angels especially. Several senior managers were let go for various reasons and Elwood Richard, our founder, stepped down from his position as board chairman. One would think that business would suffer from so many changes, but actually sales and profits continued to grow. From 2011-2016 NOW’s total sales increased double-digits every year, and profits exceeded expectations. AN INTERESTING AWARD On December 3, 2014, the website selfstorage.com ranked the top twelve power suburbs in the country. What is a “power” suburb is anyone’s guess! Ratings were based on population size, per-capita income, unemployment rate and poverty level compared to the same info from 2010. We’re still not at all sure why, but our home city of Bloomingdale, Illinois was chosen as #10 on the nationwide list. It helps that NOW is the largest employer in Bloomingdale and we have received repeated awards for employee care. Here’s what the site noted, happily and surprisingly, highlighting our company: “Not quite 30 miles west of Chicago, Bloomingdale scored especially well in two categories: the reduction in poverty and unemployment. NOW Foods, a major manufacturer of products for health food stores, is based in Bloomingdale.” (http://moving.selfstorage.com/top-suburbs-in-us) In April 2017, NOW received a new employee award from the Daily Herald Business Ledger and five other Illinois business groups. NOW was named as one of only 21 large Illinois businesses for the 2017 “Best Places to Work in Illinois” award. More info is at www.bestplacestoworkinil.com. This was on top of NOW earning a fourth consecutive national award as “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” from the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) in 2016. We also won our tenth consecutive award as one of the “101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For” in the Chicago area. Amazing and humbling actually. We do try to live by the good book when it says 2014-2017 121
