Family-Owned Business
George Goedecke & Son Celebrates 100 Years of Family Ownership
Alan and Nancy Goedecke, far right, with their sons Peter Goedecke, seated beside them, and Herb Goedecke, far left, with their families. (Christine Carignan)
“When George Goedecke started his painting business 100 years ago, he rode to jobs on a bicycle with no tires, balancing a ladder and hanging paint cans from his handlebars. Today, the company that bears his name is a successful interior design firm managed by the fourth generation of his family.
It’s the achievement of a dream of a German immigrant who was a master painter and had a thriving business in Germany, hired to do work at the Kaiser’s Palace in Berlin. When World War I caused high inflation and ended his business, George immigrated to Manchester, NH and started his new modest business.
Soon he was hiring a crew as the business grew and his son Herbert joined when he was just 16 years old. Herbert didn’t have his driver’s license yet when he got a ride to Dartmouth College to bid on a dormitory renovation project and walked away with a contract. That project helped to keep the business going during the Great Depression.
The Depression is not the only major challenge the business has survived— there were also recessions, a near bankruptcy, a pandemic and family members unsure they wanted to take over the family business. “I needed a lot of convincing to go into the business,” says Herbert’s son Alan, who earned a business degree after a stint in the military. His two older brothers had no interest in taking over the business, and eventually, he agreed to become a partner with his father. However, just days before they were signing papers to make it official, Herbert died of a heart attack while dancing, and the newly married, 27-year-old Alan suddenly found himself as the sole owner of the business.
Alan and his wife, Nancy, moved the business out of his parents’ garage and started a paint store while bringing on a partner to run the contracting business. When that partnership dissolved, Alan dropped contracting services entirely, focusing on selling paint, wallpaper flooring and drapery.
The couple grew the business over the years, until the economy crashed in the early 90s, and Goedecke found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. However, most of their vendors were still willing to do business with them, and a lawyer advised them to keep going. “We slowly turned it around,” Nancy says. “Alan’s job was to answer the phone and show he was a man of his word.”
Asked how they persevered, Alan says, “My dad instilled [his] confidence in my brothers and I. He would ask, ‘How do you know you can’t do something unless you try?’”
While the business survived, the fourth generation—their sons Peter and Herb—weren’t so sure they wanted to take it on. “Me and Herb were in high school at the time and saw mom and dad struggling,” says Peter, recalling thinking, “I don’t think this business will be here for us.”
Herb wanted to do missionary work while Peter wanted to be an aircraft engineer. Coming out of the recession, Alan and Nancy bought the building where the business is now located in Bedford, allowing them to create showcase spaces and sending sales skyrocketing 30% to 40% annually.
The brothers eventually decided to join the family business and seeing their parents feeling burned out, bought the business in 1998. Under Peter and Herb’s leadership, Goedecke’s tile business and bathroom and kitchen design business took off.
The business has continued to grow and the building has undergone two additions, the latest completed in 2021, despite the challenges of the pandemic. “The pandemic was definitely tough,” Alan says, adding sales declined by $1 million that year. While there was plenty of work to be had, supply chain disruptions played havoc with projects, slowing everything down, Peter says. Jobs that normally took six weeks were taking two months.
Peter and Herb expanded into remodeling, investing in more trucks and bringing contract work in-house. “Now it’s over half of our business,” Herb says. And the future looks bright for the business and the family. “Peter and I have arguments, but we have no doubt in our minds we love each other and will do anything for each other,” Herb says.”