Moore doesn’t seem to be in danger of losing his shirt, much less his pants. Among his loyal following is Shauna James Ahern, creator of the widely read Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef food blog. “It’s pretty simple,” says Ahern, when asked what her diet would be like without Bob’s panoply of gluten-free staples. “I can’t imagine living my life without them.”
Moore is not in thrall to trends, and he understands the nature of unpredictability all too well. In 1988, an arsonist set fire to the company’s mill and burned it to the ground, forcing Moore to rebuild his business from scratch. “I have to admit that at almost 60 years old, it was pretty devastating,” Moore says. “I didn’t really have any other way of life.” He briefly considered going back into the auto industry, but his 18 employees and the 50 stores they supplied persuaded him to give whole grains another try. Moore was able to find another location a few miles from the original mill, and was back in business within three months of the fire. It would prove to be only a quick pit stop on Moore’s road to success, as the company outgrew that location in 2007 and moved to its current 325,000-square-foot facility in Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland.
In 2010, Bob’s Red Mill underwent another seismic shift when Moore decided to sell the company to his employees. Although his advancing age played a part in the decision, incessant offers to buy the company were also a significant factor. “The number of people who wanted to buy it got to a real crescendo several years ago,” he reports. “I was being driven crazy by different venture capitalists and a wide variety of professional people who wanted to acquire the company for one reason or another.” Moore’s decision underscored another distinguishing feature of his business philosophy: his commitment and loyalty to the people who have helped him build his company. “Most of my employees have been with me for a long time,” he says. “I really love my people.”
On his 81st birthday in 2010, Moore and his partners signed one-third of the company over to his 200-plus employees through an Employment Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. The arrangement was intended to allow the ESOP to buy out Moore and his partners within a decade while simultaneously awarding the employees with free stock and thus ownership in the company. But due to the company’s current success, ESOP funding is ahead of schedule, meaning the transfer will be fully funded in half the time originally planned.
“If there’s anything that I’ve done with my life that I feel was the ultimate correct thing to do, it is making Bob’s Red Mill an ESOP,” he maintains. “We are the right company and have the right staff to make this happen.” The transition hasn’t put an end to the buy-out offers, however. “We still get investors that want to help us out,” says Nancy Garner, Moore’s executive assistant. “But we don’t really need their help.” The new corporate structure hasn’t greatly altered Moore’s involvement in day-to-day operations. Until the ESOP is paid for, he remains the company’s president, CEO, and founder. For the past few years, business has grown between 20 and 30 percent annually, though Moore declines to disclose financial specifics. He does allow that the company continues to expand internationally; it aims to do business in 71 countries and is increasing its existing presence in England, Iceland, Jordan, and Mongolia. “Business is good,” he says.
Currently, Moore works five days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and spends his spare time playing his Steinway grand and 200-year-old violin and driving around with Charlee in their pair of 1931 Model A Fords. He reports that he hasn’t lost one workday to sickness in the last year, and enjoys talking to the groups that tour the company’s headquarters. Inevitably, someone asks, “‘Are you really Bob?’” he laughs. “We get that all the time.”
Rebecca Flint Marx lives in New York City and has written about food and other topics for publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and New York magazine. Her most recent contribution to Gourmet Live was Kosher Meat Finds Greener Pastures.
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