Christmas bonus stuns employees
By ANNE FITZGERALD
Register Agribusiness Writer
12/20/2003
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At a time when several U.S. corporate executives stand accused of enriching themselves by looting the companies that employ them, Iowan Harry Stine has demonstrated what type of executive he is.

Stine, the founder of Stine Seed Co. in Adel, informed his 270 employees recently that they would be receiving a Christmas bonus from the company. This would not be a holiday turkey or a box of candy.

Stine gave employees $1,000 for each year of service to his company - more than $1 million in all.

That figures out to an average check of about $4,000, but with some employees having worked for Stine for 15 to 20 years, some people's checks were quite substantial.

"This was Harry's decision," said Chuck Hansen, production manager and a vice president at Stine Seed. "We probably get more done with less people than a lot of companies, and this is his way of saying thank you."

Stine Seed is one of the largest privately held agricultural seed companies in the nation. The company controls the plant genetics that are the basis for half of the soybean seed sold in the Midwest - one of the largest soybean-producing markets in the world.

The family business and those 270 employees have made Stine among the wealthiest people in Iowa. He has donated millions of dollars to various causes, including his alma mater, McPherson College in Kansas.

Hansen said Stine's benevolence was based on his employees' loyalty and on the performance of a cluster of farming and agricultural businesses Stine owns.

"All of these people help me every day," Stine said. "So it's not a be-nice thing. It's just what should be done."

Stine announced the bonuses after the company's annual post-harvest luncheon, which was held last month at Stine Seed's Dallas County headquarters.

Employees sat in stunned silence after his announcement, said some who attended the event.

"He said that we're a can-do kind of people, that we work in the rain and the mud, and that he just appreciated our hard work," said Kelley Muir, 30, who went to work for Stine Seed seven years ago.

Muir was raised on a farm west of Stine Seed location, and she worked as a summer intern at the company. After graduating from South Dakota State University, she joined the company.

Muir said of her bonus of $7,000: "Most of it's just going to get tucked away."

The money will enable Muir and her husband, who works at a local cooperative, to be more generous at Christmas with their two young children, their parents and their baby sitter.

Cindy Feltz has worked at the company for six years - making her bonus $6,000.

The bonus will make "just a huge difference," she said.

"Through someone else's generosity, I also can be generous," she said.