BackG & J SEIBERLICH & CO LLP MARKS OVER 50 YEARS
SERVING
NORTH BAY
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Oldest Full Service CPA Firm in the Napa Valley |
G & J Seiberlich & Co LLP, the oldest full-service CPA firm in the Napa Valley and the first to specialize in many of the industries that make the region unique, is celebrating over 50 years in business. Gordon Seiberlich came to the Napa Valley in 1949 determined to put his national accounting experience to work by establishing a full-service Firm in a place that was scarcely more than a spot on a map.
Today the Napa Valley’s first CPA Firm, which started with one man back in 1950, has over 50 employees. G & J Seiberlich & Co’s accountants serve over 2,500 clients and they are regarded as experts in the financial issues facing some of the North Bay’s key industries including wine, viticulture and agriculture, construction, medicine and other professions. Now retired, Gordon looks with pride on the fact that he was joined by such talented people and has had the opportunity to help communities and industry grow in the beautiful place he choose as home over 50 years ago.
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The Early Years |
An Oakland native and 1942 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Gordon served in the U.S. Army during World War II, then completed an MBA at Northwestern University in Chicago while working for Horwath and Horwath, a full-service accounting firm that specialized in hotels and restaurants.
Gordon and his wife Catherine returned to the Bay Area in 1949, this time to San Francisco, where he went to work for Haskins & Sells. The couple was ready to start a family, but wanted to raise their children in a rural environment not too far from San Francisco. Naturally, they began exploring the Napa and Sonoma area. Ralph and Lois Winston, then-owners of The Weekly Calistogan, helped the Seiberlichs find a home to rent in Calistoga and became Gordon’s first clients.
In January 1950 Gordon opened the doors of Gordon J. Seiberlich, CPA in Calistoga’s Ritz Theater building. He soon learned how the pressures of owning his own business differed from those of working at a national firm.
“When you start out in a business like this, making a living is the first thing on your mind. You don’t stop to think about whether or not you’re making history,” he says recalling the days when the entire county had fewer than 50,000 residents and no other CPAs to be found.
Despite the rural atmosphere, Gordon was determined to provide Napa Valley locals with the level of professional service and counsel available at national firms. “Early on I set some standards for myself. I had to be careful not to work only for the money and to continue on the path I had chosen. Often, being able to buy groceries was a great temptation to go astray, but the idea was that I was going to have an accounting firm, provide advice and counsel, and avoid bookkeeping,” he says.
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Contributing to Napa County’s Business Development |
The 1950 census reported just 46,603 people living in Napa County. Calistoga Mineral Water Co. was a start-up company. The Conn Dam had been completed just two years earlier, and plans to flood the Berryessa Valley were still controversial. The dry dock at Mare Island was a major employer for area residents.
Prunes and walnuts were the principal agricultural businesses of the county. Napa’s 1950 vineyards were planted mostly to hearty varietals such as Carignane – tough enough to be shipped by the boxcar to families throughout the country who had been allowed, during Prohibition, to make 50 gallons per year of household wine. There were fewer than 100 acres of Chardonnay in the entire state.
Gordon’s goal to create a full-service accounting operation quickly became a reality. Early clients represented a cross-section of the community: wineries and farmers, spas and resorts, insurance brokers, printers, industrial concerns, professionals and private individuals. In the mid-1950’s the firm was engaged as the Grand Jury’s auditors for the Napa County government offices and the Napa County School Districts.
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Growing with the Community |
By October of 1950, Gordon established a second office in St. Helena. His brother Jerry, then living in Walnut Creek, joined the firm on August 1, 1953. It became a partnership known as G.J. & A.J. Seiberlich & Co.
The brothers opened the third office, in Pleasant Hill, and managed by Jerry, in 1955, and a fourth in Napa in 1958. Jerry’s son Terrance later joined the firm and became a partner.
In 1960, there were only 25 wineries in the Valley. Today there are nearly 400 wineries in the Valley visited by several million tourists each year. This era of rapid expansion has only been limited by the availability of land and permit restrictions implemented to ease the growing pains of this thriving community and international tourist destination.
Gordon and Jerry opened a fifth office in Oakland in 1970. Jerry began to center his activities in the East Bay while Gordon shepherded the Napa Valley offices.
By the middle of the decade, Napa Valley was becoming known as the nation’s premium wine region. Prune dehydrators gave way to wine production facilities, and vineyards were quickly replacing orchards and cattle ranches. Many Napa wineries, while still mostly small producers, had wines in national distribution and were receiving increased attention.
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Key Personnel Added |
Retaining qualified professionals was becoming increasingly important as business and community grew. In 1974 Dale Brown left Hood & Strong in San Francisco to join G&J Seiberlich & Co. He had accounting experience in the Fresno and Kern County area where he deepened his understanding of the agricultural community’s needs and concerns.
Dale became a partner in July of 1975 and has built the foundation of the present firm. He is regarded as the master of wine and viticulture accounting by his colleagues and is also respected for his expertise in taxation, estate and business succession planning.
James Tidgewell holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1968 and worked originally at Price, Waterhouse and Co. in their Southern California offices. He also served active duty in the U.S. Army for two years. Jim joined G&J Seiberlich & Co in 1975, bringing an expertise in the audit process that enhanced the firm’s capabilities.
In August 1976, Jim became a partner in the firm’s Calistoga office. Two years later he moved to the Napa office as the partner in charge and later became managing partner of the firm through May 2007.
The wine industry continued to grow, and the firm’s business was expanding at an unprecedented rate when Bob Holder joined the firm at its Napa office in 1978. Bob had worked for Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) in San Francisco for four years and spent two years teaching at the U.S. Army Finance School in Indiana where he served as first lieutenant.
In 1979 Bob transferred to the firm’s St. Helena office where he began concentrating on the wine industry. He became a partner in 1980 and has become an expert at the wine inventory accounting for financial and income tax reporting. He also developed costing procedures that have been widely adopted by the wine industry.
Bob started making wine at home and commercially soon after moving to St. Helena. His ventures developed into a successful Marilyn Merlot label, which he has operated as a separate business since 1987. This experience has made him uniquely qualified to consult with clients starting their own wineries.
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Firm Reorganizes |
The Napa County offices continued their commitment to local industry while Jerry and his son Terry continued to run the Contra Costa and Alameda County offices. In 1981, the partners decided to formalize the long-standing geographic division by dividing the company. Jerry and Terry took over management of the Oakland and Pleasant Hill offices to create Seiberlich Accountancy Corporation. Gordon retained the G&J Seiberlich & Co name for the Napa County offices, which, by then, were taking wine industry clients from neighboring counties and attracting new clients from all sectors. From 1981 to 1990 the firm’s gross annual revenue tripled.
Greg Bennett joined the firm in 1983 and became a partner in 1987. Greg has been instrumental in developing the firm’s estate and gift tax-planning services. His professional emphasis includes accounting and taxation for construction, real estate, legal and professional services firms and currently serves as the firm’s managing partner.
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Continued Growth |
Leonard LaBranche, Jr. spent four years with the firm Davis, Hammond & Co in Oroville, California before joining G&J Seiberlich & Co’s St. Helena office in 1984. Leonard spent over twenty years in the St. Helena office where he specializes in winery and vineyard accounting and taxation. He now shares responsibility for the firm’s accounting and reporting standards, taking great pride in the exemplary evaluation the firm has received from the State’s peer review program. Leonard became a partner in 1999.
Kevin Alfaro began his accounting career with the firm in 1988 as an intern while completing his undergraduate degree at Sonoma State University. Kevin came to work full time at the firm in 1990. In 1995, he decided to broaden his professional experience by working at the, international CPA firms Ernst & Young and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he gained valuable experience as a tax manager of real estate, wine and retail industry accounting. Kevin became the firm’s tax partner in 1999.
Having worked in both the Napa office and the St. Helena office, Warren Warner, Jr. became partner in 2006.
Breton Blyth joined the St. Helena office in 1996 and became partner in 2006. Bret is primarily focused on the wine and manufacturing industries with a focus on taxation.
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Community Commitment Grows |
The partners and staff of G&J Seiberlich & Co have a long-standing commitment to public service. In 1981 Bob Holder offered to prepare a financial statement and tax return for a local charity wine auction that would eventually became the largest charity wine event in the world. He became chair of the Napa Valley Wine Auction’s financial committee in 1984. Additionally, Kevin Alfaro also served as co-chair of that committee.
The partners are also involved, often in leadership capacities, in foundations and organizations including the Queen of the Valley Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees, Napa Valley Unified Education Foundation, the If Given a Chance Foundation, Silverado Council of Boy Scouts of America, Napa Youth Soccer League, Napa Valley Symphony Association, Napa Valley Grape Growers, Napa Valley Wine Library, Napa Valley College Foundation, Rotary Club, Calistoga Sharpsteen Museum, Kiwanis Club, Pacific Coast Air Museum, St. Helena Nursery Cooperative, Pueblo Vista Alternative PTA, St. Helena Public School Foundation, Napa Valley Wine Library Association, St. Helena Chamber of Commerce, Napa Valley Heritage Fund, Alternatives for Better Living, COPE Family Resource Center and the Napa Valley Little League.
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Accounting for the Next Generation |
Now in retirement, Gordon still often spends his mornings at the Calistoga office he started so long ago. Napa Valley has changed so much since his decision to move from the city that he doubts life could have been more exciting. G&J Seiberlich & Co LLP is proud to have been a part of so many changes and plans to continue offering world-class service well into the future.