With a great deal of ceremony on the day Governor Jon Corzine proclaimed “New Jersey Family Business Day,” CORY Home Delivery was awarded the coveted title of “New Jersey Family Business of the Year for 2008.”
Winner in the $10 million plus annual revenue category, the Secaucus-based third-generation family business shared the honor with Freehold’s Old Monmouth Candy Company, which garnered top position in the up to $10 million category. Selected from a group of 46 companies throughout the state, they were among eight semi-finalists and finalists in their respective categories.
The 16th annual competition, sponsored by New Jersey Monthly, PNC Bank, and the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University, drew a full house of New Jersey notables to the elegant Crystal Plaza in Livingston. Master of ceremonies was Brenda Blackmon, co-anchor of WWOR TV’s “My 9 News,” and New Jersey secretary of state Nina Mitchell Wells offered opening remarks.
“It is remarkable to see the innovation, longevity, and legacy of New Jersey’s family businesses,” Brenda Blackmon said of those recognized. “Today we honor your success.”
Accepting the award on behalf of CORY, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2009, was third-generation family member Patrick Cory, grandson of company founder Joseph Cory, who established the company in Brooklyn in 1934.
“My great grandparents, Cosmo and Katerina Corigliano, came on a ship from Italy and passed under the State of Liberty, with northing more than the dream of a better life,” said Patrick Cory, who operates the company with his brother, Joe, and cousin Kevin Cory.
“To create a better life, my grandfather left school after the eighth grade to help support his family and worked with his brother in a candy store. He then became a longshoreman and took out a small loan to open a small warehouse in Brooklyn, which was the beginning of CORY Home Delivery. As young men, my father, Joe, and my uncle, Jim, worked with my grandfather and many aunts and uncles, who all sacrificed along the way to bring the company to where it is today. As a growing family business, we work hard to ensure that team members and clients consider themselves members of our extended family.”
Receiving the New Jersey Family Business of the Year Award and celebrating 75 years in business during this time of economic instability represent CORY’s commitment to strong values, hard work, honesty, and integrity. Today’s economy is nothing new for CORY ― the company has seen many challenging business cycles in its 7½ decades of operation.
“The American Dream was not built on Wall Street and it will not die on Wall Street. It was built on Main Street and survives in the hearts of every American and small family business owner in our country,” concluded Patrick Cory.
Background: One of the oldest and largest specialized home delivery carriers in America, CORY Home Delivery, founded by Joseph Cory in 1934, today is in its third generation of family management and ownership. Based in Secaucus, New Jersey, the company serves many of the top 100 furniture, appliance, and electronics retailers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The company dispatches a modern fleet of 450 customized vehicles daily delivering more than $2.1 billion of merchandise to more than 1.6 million consumers annually. For more information, call Patrick Cory at 201-795-1000, or visit corycompanies.com.