Celebrating 75 Years of Generosity
Sunnyland Farms and its CEO Alex Willson were recently awarded the goBeyondProfit Champion award for their comprehensive, generational approach to generosity. Evidence that this notion of going beyond profit, infuses a company with enduring qualities that helps everyone around them prosper.
This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Sunnyland Farms, a 1,760-acre pecan farm and manufacturing company based in Albany, Georgia. CEO Alex Willson and his family have invested deeply in Southwest Georgia, providing quality jobs to generations of families as well as offering support to the local non-profits serving the needs of the community.
In our interview below with Alex, we explore how they instilled a people-first commitment into every aspect of company life and how that has helped the company weather hurricanes and a recent kitchen fire that threatened to shut the company down during their busiest season.
Decades Long Commitment to People
Sunnyland Farms has been an institution in Albany for 73 years of our 75 years. We started in Atlanta, and as the company grew, we focused not only on turning a profit, but providing more quality jobs and making sure we give back to the community in various ways. When my grandparents moved here, one of the number one things that they said they wanted to do was to give back to their community. They wanted to put down roots and they did that through the farm.
From the earliest days we have tried to play our small part in helping the greater community that is southwest Georgia. Where there’s a need, we try to help fill it.
Sunnyland’s commitment is to its people, 100%. Always has been, always will be. I think for any organization, employees are obviously the most critical thing you have. It’s your human capital. It is what allows you to do what you do. And I think most of our employees would say they have a vested interest in the company, because as a company, we try to make sure…
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