Business View Magazine | December 2018

234 235 AT A GLANCE MERCHANTS MOVING AND STORAGE WHAT: A fourth-generation moving and warehousing company WHERE: Racine, Wisconsin WEBSITE: www.merchants-moving.com THE PROFESSIONAL MOVERS MERCHANTS MOVING AND STORAGE A s a woman-owned, fourth-generation company, Merchants Moving and Stor- age of Racine, Wisconsin, has already beaten the odds. It’s rare that family-owned businesses make it past the third generation, so how does majority owner, and first female president, Jennifer Eastman, credit making it into the fourth? “Part of that is luck,” she admits. “But my father was a great leader, and I’d been fortu- nate to work with him for many, many years before becoming President. Family business- es can be very challenging. There can be disadvantages.When it comes to innovation, changes, risk-taking, the farther you get away from the original entrepreneur, the one who had the passion for it, that’s harder, too. One of our long standing clients is SC Johnson, right down the street from us. I think they’re a great role model for transitioning of gen- erations. They’re fifth generation and quite successful at what they do.” Founded by Eastman’s great-grandfather in 1922, the company started delivering pack- ages for the local merchants in town, evolved into local moving, and then over-the-road moving. Today, Merchants Moving and Stor- age operates all its own trucks and remains