HONOLULU — Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., celebrating last Friday 100 years of doing business in Hawai’i with a gala bash, is already looking forward to at least 100 more years of business here. The company, which operates the Kaua’i Coffee
HONOLULU — Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., celebrating last Friday 100 years of doing business in Hawai’i with a gala bash, is already looking forward to at least 100 more years of business here.
The company, which operates the Kaua’i Coffee Company, Inc., Kaua’i Commercial Company, Inc. and A&B Properties, Inc. (including Kukui’ula Development Company) and Matson Navigation Company and owns over 21,000 acres on Kaua’i, has big plans for this island, said Meredith Ching, an A&B vice president.
Ching and several other A&B officials from Honolulu attended the Kaua’i Chamber of Commerce quarterly membership meeting, which A&B sponsored, at the Hyatt Regency Kaua’i Resort & Spa recently.
Ching’s statements about the company’s future on Kaua’i were echoed by W. Allen Doane, A&B president and chief executive officer.
“I feel this is really an anniversary of our employees, both those who are currently employed and those who have gone before. Alexander & Baldwin has not just survived, but has prospered because our employees are dedicated and good at what they do,” Doane said.
“And they care about their communities.” A&B employs over 2,000 people, most in Hawai’i, where A&B has its headquarters.
“You can be a world force, or a global force, or a domestic force, and still continue to keep your roots in Hawai’i, because that’s where we started,” said Charles M. Stockholm, chairman of the A&B board of directors.
“And there is no reason we shouldn’t be here a hundred years from now,” Stockholm said.
A&B started as a Hawai’i partnership in 1870, as a sugar-growing enterprise with Samuel T. Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin.
Their business activities grew to include ocean transportation interests and, eventually, outgrew its structure as a partnership.
Alexander & Baldwin, Limited, was incorporated on June 30, 1900. A&B still raises and processes sugar on Maui, and now grows coffee on former McBryde Sugar Company near Kalaheo on Kaua’i.
More information on A&B is available on the company Web site, www.alexanderbaldwin.com.
