Mark Eberhard stepped lightly around stacks of red crates carrying gallons of milk on conveyor belts built into the floor of Eberhard’s Dairy Products on Evergreen Avenue in Redmond. The 54-year-old Eberhard has worked here since he was a boy bagging ice, the third generation of Eberhards to work in the dairy, which he oversees as the president. He knows every square inch of his family’s production facility, one he’s proud to show off. All the Eberhards at one time or another have worked in the dairy processing facility, he said.

Until last September, Eberhard was happy to share the helm with Robert “Bob” Eberhard, his uncle who had been the face of the dairy company until his death at 82. And when it’s time, Mark Eberhard hopes his daughter Emily, who last month became the quality assurance and laboratory technician, could take the reins. It is the life cycle of business.

“I am honored to be an Eberhard and hopefully carry on the legacy of my grandfather and father have built,” Mark Eberhard said. “I take great pride working here.”

Clear lines of succession play an important role for family-owned businesses like Eberhard’s Dairy Products, particularly as the generations are further from the original founders, said Sherri Noxel, director of the Austin Family Business Program, an Oregon State University outreach program.

When family-owned businesses go from one generation to the next, Noxel said, it’s vital to plan who will be in charge, who will be allowed to vote and how family members may come into the business.

Going from the third to the fourth generation can be risky for some businesses because the company is further removed from the values of the founder, she said.

“A succession plan is even more important now to family as they progress from generation to generation,” Noxel said. “To keep the enterprise viable, it’s helpful to know what the grandparents, or founders, would do.

“It’s rare to have a business that grows into the third and fourth generation. That’s high value. There’s a premium for this kind of history that customers are willing to pay.”

The story of Eberhards is known in the community from the charitable donations to the reputation of the products. Customers value those ties, said Jon Stark, Redmond Economic Development Inc. senior director.

Eberhard’s is true entrepreneurship whose founders started with a spark that has been carried on through the generations, Stark said.

“It was a seed of local people that eventually matured,” Stark said.

“Eberhard’s set the character and tone of the types of manufacturing that are here in the area. What’s nice about them is they export outside the region and are a brand known for quality.”

More than a half-century of experience is telling Mark Eberhard to run the company much the way it has been since Nelda and Jack Eberhard started it in 1951, with a commitment to the community, integrity and fiscal conservatism, he said.

The dairy produces milk products, butter, cottage cheese, sour cream and ice cream at the Redmond plant, Mark Eberhard said. Milk is brought to the plant for processing and packaging. It goes to the stores six days a week in Eberhard trucks, he said. The company would not release the quantities of milk and other products it produces, citing propriety reasons.

But, the company does see room for growth in the ice cream market.

Ice cream has a longer shelf life — a year compared to 21 days for fresh milk — and its popularity is strong, Mark Eberhard said. Eberhard’s milk products can be found in Eastern and Central Oregon. Its 23 flavors of ice cream are in markets from the Canadian border to California, he said. Seattle has become the focus for Eberhard’s ice cream. The company is setting up distribution partners who will put the product in stores.

“We pride ourselves in being the local brand,” Mark Eberhard said. “I feel honored to do this. I thank my grandfather for setting this up every day. I don’t view this as a job.”

Mark Eberhard said the family has a conservative and steady approach to growth and change. It was less than 10 years ago that they added the third floor corporate offices above the dairy processing facility.

The company began life as a cream separation station. Two years later, it added butter to its products, then powdered milk in 1955, cottage cheese in 1965 and milk processing and ice cream in 1967. Eberhard’s Dairy Products grew to the two buildings on Third and Evergreen streets in Redmond. There are 50 employees at the only Grade A dairy processing plant in Central Oregon. Every dairy farmer that Eberhard’s buys from agrees not to use growth hormones to make cows produce more milk.

Today, the goal remains to get the freshest milk processed out to the customer, Mark Eberhard said.

Emily Eberhard, 25, said she grew up with the dairy, from scooping ice cream at the county fairgrounds to her role as laboratory technician. Never were the children pressured to work in the company, she said.

“It’s always been our choice to come here,” Emily Eberhard said. “We love it. It’s part of our lives.”

— Reporter; 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com