NC Portraits: Family-owned Business
Appeared as a sponsored section in the 2019 October issue
Left to right: Dell Murphy, Larry George, General William L.“Spyder” Nyland, Terry Tate, Hope for the Warriors Veteran and Wen Murphy
Murphy Family Ventures
110 River Village Place
Wallace, NC 28466
910-285-4171
riverlanding.com
Murphy Family Ventures held its 10th annual Hope For The Warriors Invitational at River Landing Country Club in August, raising nearly $250,000 this year for the non-profit organization headquartered in Northern Virginia.
This is just one of the ways Murphy Family Ventures, along with its Village at River Landing community and golf course, is able to give back and make a lasting impact as a family-owned business, according to Marketing Manager Meredith Horne.
The business began as a small farm in Rose Hill, in 1962 when it was founded by Wendell Murphy, who has also served as a member of both the NC House of Representatives and the State Senate. It started as a custom milling operation servicing local farmers with its livestock feed needs, but Murphy later expanded his operations into a contract hog production operation that grew to the largest in the nation. The business was sold in 2000 to Smithfield Foods and in 2004, Wendell’s son Dell started Murphy Family Ventures.
Today Murphy Family Ventures is a management company based in Wallace, just down the road from their original farm. The company manages both poultry and hog farms in North Carolina and Missouri, as well as other companies such as 1-800-PACK-RAT, Albemarle Boats, Bill Carone Ford GMC Buick Chevrolet, River Landing, Mad Boar, Village Subs and more, including 60 business entities with over 1,000 employees.
There are three generations represented in the current business model, with some of the youngest members working in all areas of the business, including serving tables and working on the farms.
Horne says the family-knitting that keeps the business together allows them to do things like host huge, 4-day-long events to raise money for veterans transitioning back into civilian life. The annual Hope For The Warriors Invitational has grown to be a star studded event with a block party, golf, and a traditional military field mess.
Over the 10 years Murphy Family Ventures has held the event, they’ve helped to raise over $1.2 million for the nonprofit. They’ve already started planning next year’s event, which will take place August 15-18, 2020.
“In talking with the Murphys, you quickly realize that they truly care about that organizations we help out and believe fully in giving back to our community;’ Horne says. “Here if we have a question or an idea, we can take it directly to Dell and have an answer in minutes, and the employees are all a part of their extended family.”