HOLLIS FAMILY CONSTITUTION · DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION · NOVEMBER 2026
Alder & FinchADVISORS
for
Hollis, builtto pass on.
A succession plan for Hollis Furniture Co. Eighteen months to turn four generations of family into a company with a board, a family council and a next chief executive chosen on merit.
Scroll, and watch the family tree become a company
What you told us in September.
Nine calls, five people, one family business. These lines kept coming back, so we built the plan around them.
“Every decision that matters still gets made at Sunday dinner. I'd like dinner back.”
“I don't know if I'm being trained or tested. Neither does Owen.”
“Thirty-one percent of this company belongs to cousins who've never swept the shop floor. They deserve a way out, or a reason to stay.”
“Nobody has written down what happens if Margaret can't come in on Monday.”
“Three people here can steam-bend the back of a Ladd rocker. Two of them retire before 2030.”
- 128
- years making furniture at Wexford Mills
- 212
- people on the payroll, 64 of them makers
- $42.6M
- in sales last year, 38 percent of it contract work
- 31 percent
- of the shares held by family outside the business
- 14
- family members with a stake, across three generations
- 0
- written rules on who decides, or who succeeds
The tree becomes the company.
Four generations, one tree.
Josiah and Ada Hollis opened the workshop in 1898. Walter kept it running for fifty-one years. Margaret has run it since 1982. Clara and Owen grew up in the sawdust.
Everyone who decides is family.
Of the six living Hollises on this tree, three work here and make every big call. Thomas, Jess and Sam own 31 percent between them and have no seat anywhere.
Nobody leaves the tree. Everyone gets a place.
The branches straighten. The founders become the name on the door. Margaret moves to the head of a board, and Thomas chairs a family council where owners outside the business finally have a voice.
Then a company that runs after them.
Two independent directors join the board. The CEO seat stays open until month 13 and goes to whoever the assessment favours. Dev and Ray report to whoever takes it.
Who decides, before and after.
Eight decisions Hollis made this year. Flip the switch to see where each one is made at month 18, and tap any of them to read why it moves.
0of 8 decisions follow a written rule
Today
Sunday dinner
The family table at Wexford Mills. Nothing written down.
Dinner is just dinner again.
Margaret's desk
Signed alone, usually on a Monday morning.
Margaret signs as Chair now, with a board behind her.
Month 18
The board
Five seats, two of them independent. Every meeting minuted.
Doesn't exist yet. Formed in month 8.
Family council
Every branch of the family, twice a year.
Doesn't exist yet. First meets in month 6.
The CEO's table
Weekly, with Dev and Ray.
Doesn't exist yet. The new CEO sits in month 14.
Appoint the next CEO
Today
Month 18
Test the rules before you sign them.
Five articles from the draft Hollis Family Constitution we'd write with you. Pick something the family already argues about and follow where it goes.
Eighteen months, in four stretches.
Measured the way the workshop measures, on a folding rule with six months to a leaf. Tap a stretch to see what happens in it and what you hold at the end.
First family
assembly
assembly
Council
meets
meets
Board
formed
formed
CEO
chosen
chosen
Handover
complete
complete
Margaret, what you keep and what you hand on.
Drag through the eighteen months. Every line in the list is something you sign alone today.
Chair and CEO
Five days a week in the building
month 0 of 18
TodayMonth 9Month 18
What you sign alone
Each one moves to the body that should own it, on a date the family agrees in month 6.
Yours, whatever the month
- Chairing the board, for a four-year term from 2027
- Speaking for the family at the annual assembly
- A veto on any change to the Hollis name or the 1898 stamp
Clara and Owen, what happens to each of you.
One process for both of you, and shares that don't move with the decision. Pick an outcome and read both columns.
CHClara
Neither of you votes on your own appointment.
Neither of you loses a share either way.
OHOwen
The assessment is the same six measures for both of you and for the outside shortlist, scored by the two independent directors and Margaret. We run it. We never vote.
Dev, can Hollis afford to buy the cousins out?
Thomas's branch holds 31 percent. Set how much of it sells and how fast the company pays, and see whether the dividend survives.
of the 31 percent sells
to pay it
What the model assumes. A company value of $36.8M, to be confirmed by the valuation in month 3. Payments at 5.5 percent. Free cash flow of $3.9M, growing 3 percent a year. The $1.2M dividend and $1.1M of reinvestment come first, and the buyout lives in what's left.
- Shares bought back
- $6,845,000
- Yearly payment
- $1,205,000
- Of first-year room
- 75 percent
Buyout paymentPayment above the roomRoom after dividend and reinvestment
It fits.
Ray, who still knows how in 2030.
Each dot is one of your makers. Hollow ones retire before 2030. Switch on the apprentice plan to see who's trained to take their place.
1skills held by fewer than three makers
Maker who holds the skillRetires before 2030Apprentice trained by 2030
The workshop letter.
Signed by the board in month 8 and pinned up in the shop. It's the first document the new board signs.
- Nobody in the workshop loses their job because of the succession.
- Wexford Mills stays the Hollis workshop for at least ten years.
- The Head of Workshop signs off any decision that ends a technique.
- Six apprentices a year from 2027, paid from the first day, with a master assigned to each.
The price, line by line.
Fixed fees. Three lines are the base and sit under every version. Every other line comes out on its own, and each one tells you what you'd lose.
We'd keep every line. If the number has to come down, take out the next-generation programme first, because it can start in year two without harm. Keep the CEO assessment above everything else. It's the line that spares Clara and Owen from judging each other.
The terms, in plain words.
- Fixed fees. Each line is a fixed price. If a stretch takes us longer, that's our cost.
- Five invoices, at signing and at months 3, 8, 13 and 18, as drawn in the schedule.
- Either of us can stop at the end of month 3, 8 or 13. You pay for the stretches finished and nothing after.
- No board seat, no equity, no success fee. We won't stand for the CEO role or place anyone we've worked with in it.
- Interviews stay private. We report themes to the family, never names.
- Your counsel drafts the legal documents. Brandt Lowe writes the agreements. We write the plain versions everyone signs alongside them.
- Travel is included. Nadia is at Wexford Mills two days a week through month 8.
What we don't know yet.
Four things the plan is built to absorb, and when we expect to know.
Will Thomas's branch sell, and how much?
We don't know, and Thomas doesn't yet either. The interviews in month 2 will tell us. Dev's model takes any answer from none to all of it.
Is an outside CEO a real option for Margaret?
The plan is written so it can be. We'd like Margaret's answer before month 9, when the shortlist is set.
One family director on the board, or two?
Our view is one, alongside Margaret as Chair. The family council should decide in month 6, and the charter works either way.
What happens to the showroom lease in 2028?
It's outside this engagement, but it'll be the new CEO's first big decision. We'll put it at the top of the handover pack.
Say yes, and we start on November 14.
That's a Saturday. The first family assembly, at Wexford Mills, with every branch in the room and lunch from the canteen.
Margaret HollisChair, for Hollis Furniture Co.
Nadia PellPartner, for Alder & Finch Advisors