After spending nearly three decades on the sales team for Yakima, Wash.-based Superfresh Growers, account manager Dan Harrington plans to retire at year’s end.
Harrington was one of the first employees at Domex Marketing, joining in 1994, and is the longest-tenured salesperson ever hired by the Kershaw family, which owns the company, according to a news release. The company praised his standard of care and dedication to customers as well as the work he has done coaching sales associates.
“Dan is an institution. He is seen as much of a fixture at Superfresh Growers as [CEO] Robert [Kershaw]. His quality of character and purity of purpose have defined the sales ethos of this company,” Director of Business Development Paul Newstead said in the release. “Every single employee on our sales team, past and present, has in some way, shape, or form, been guided by Dan.”
At Harrington’s 20-year anniversary celebration over eight years ago, former CEO Ed Kershaw said Harrington “set the bar on how to be a salesman,” and current CEO Robert Kershaw often says, “it is the people like Dan who took a chance on the company back when it was nothing but a dream and has turned it into the industry powerhouse it is today,” according to the release.
“When I joined the sales team, Robert gave me a Produce Blue Book and I started calling. I combed through that thing every day looking for people to call. It was our bible,” Harrington said in the release.
Harrington has built a rapport with retail customers, especially In Canada, and has prioritized calling customers daily, the company said.
“If they only knew the earnestness with which Dan thought of their business. He appreciated their attention and partnership, and honored their trust,” Newstead said in the release. “There has yet to be a salesperson here, or anywhere I have witnessed, that calls all his customers every Friday to thank them for the business of that week, and to ask what more he can do next week.”
Harrington has spent years working with the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, serving on the association’s marketing committee the past six years. Before his tenure at Superfresh Growers, he earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and media studies from Washington State University and started his career in the concrete industry, according to the release.
Harrington’s three sons also have progressed into integral roles within the company, according to the release. His oldest, John Harrington, is an operations manager, Sean Harrington is a production coordinator and Danny Harrington is a sales assistant.
“I am very proud of what we were able to build here over the past 28 years,” Dan Harrington said in the release. “I also know that with the young, smart, energetic and dynamic team we have in place right now that trajectory will continue. It has been a tremendous ride. I have wonderful memories of all the people I have met along the way. Thank you Kershaw Family for allowing me to come aboard all those years ago and allowing my three boys to continue the adventure. I will be forever grateful.”
Harrington was celebrated Dec. 10 at the Superfresh Christmas party. He became the fourth employee added to the Superfresh Growers Hall of Fame.
