Haggen, Caldwell Receive Top Awards

Winners Include Northwest Propane, Chrysalis Inn

 

Don Haggen, Ray Caldwell, Northwest Propane and the Chrysalis Inn & Spa received awards March 14 during the annual Whatcom County Business Person and Small Business of the Year Awards Banquet.

The annual event, presented by Whatcom County Business Pulse, honors local businesses and entrepreneurs. More than 400 people packed a ballroom at Resort Semiahmoo in Blaine for the presentation of the awards, founded in 1986.

Haggen, co-chairman of Bellingham-based Haggen, Inc., was presented the Whatcom County Lifetime Business Achievement Award.

“This is a great honor for me,” Haggen told the audience. “It’s a privilege to join the great list of people before me.”

Haggen, Inc., recently opened its 28th supermarket and recorded $665 million in gross sales last year. The company employs about 4,000 people.

Haggen joined his family’s supermarket business in 1957 as a grocery manager. He became the company’s general manager in 1962, president in 1973 and chairman and chief executive officer in 1989. Don Haggen and brother Rick Haggen were named co-chairmen in 1996.

Caldwell, the Bellingham-based co-owner of eight Little Caesars Pizza restaurants in northwest Washington, received the Whatcom County Business Person of the Year award. His company has steadily expanded since its first restaurant opened in 1988 at the corner of Alabama and Yew streets in Bellingham. Each restaurant actively supports events and organizations in its community.

After accepting the award, Caldwell thanked his employees, noting that many of the company’s managers have worked at its restaurants for more than 10 years. He also noted the support and advice given by wife Sally, brother and co-owner Bob Nevitt, accountant Orphalee Smith and attorney Gene Moses.

The other finalists for Business Person of the Year were Debbie Ahl, chief executive officer and president of Olympic Health Management Services and Olympic Health Management Systems, both with headquarters in Bellingham; and Roger Jobs, owner of Roger Jobs Motors in Bellingham.

Northwest Propane, based in Lynden, was the recipient of the Small Business of the Year Award. The company has experienced steady growth under the ownership of owners Gaylon and Joanne VanderYacht, who are renowned for their generous contributions to community organizations and charities.

“This is really an honor for me and our company,” Gaylon Vander Yacht said. “I have to thank my employees and my family.”

True Log Homes in Deming and Sonotech and T.D. Curran, both in Bellingham, were the other finalists for this award.

The Chrysalis Inn & Spa, a 43-room hotel in Fairhaven that opened last April, received the Start-up Business of the Year. Partners Ellen Shea, Michael Keenan and Regan McClellan created a facility overlooking Bellingham Bay that tourists and businesspeople.

Shea praised the hotel’s staff and a much larger group.

“I’d also like to thank the community for the overwhelming support they’ve shown to us,” she remarked.

Tails-A-Wagging Doggie Day Care in Bellingham and Grandiflora in Lynden also were finalists for the award.