New family on the block: with Coors-Molson merger, Jabs' Furniture empire assumes top family rank

ColoradoBiz, Feb, 2006 by Mike Taylor

ColoradoBiz introduced its annual statewide family-owned company ranking in 2002, and for the first four years, Adolph Coors Co. and American Furniture Warehouse could reliably be penciled in for Nos. 1 and 2.

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Times change. Coors Brewing Co. is still based in Colorado, its Golden brewery is still the world's largest on a single site, and Pete Coors remains chairman. But Coors vacated the state's family-business category with its merger in February last year that created the Molson Coors Brewing Co.

With that move, Jake Jabs' American Furniture Warehouse, a ColoradoBiz Top Company winner in the retail/wholesale category in 2005, inherits the mantle as ColoradoBiz magazine's largest family-owned enterprise.

Jabs started the furniture retailer 31 years ago, and over the years, two of his daughters, Jackie and Terri, and all three sons-in-law, have worked for the company, which now boasts 1,600 employees and had revenues of $332 million in 2005.

Jabs' youngest daughter, Kim, has appeared in his television commercials since she was a youngster. She still can be seen in ads today--now joined by her two children. Jabs' wife, Ann, also is involved with the company as a corporate officer.

The ColoradoBiz family-owned company ranking is based on number of employees. To qualify, a company's ownership must be controlled by a single family, and controlling family members must be active in management. The family has to have been involved in the company for at least two generations, or seem likely to be.

Along with being the biggest company on previous lists, 132-year-old Coors Brewing Co., also was perennially the oldest of the ranked companies. Its departure from the rankings leaves three family-owned companies among our top 50 that are at least a century old, led by 120-year-old Allnutt Funeral Service of Greeley. Others are Johnson Storage and Moving Co. (107 years) of Centennial and Denver's Van Gilder Insurance (101 years).