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Customers like Natalia Morales enjoy buying discount, restaurant-quality goods at Cheney Express, an on-site grocery store. JAMIE IGLESIAS

Cheney Brothers has delivered the goods for 100 years

BY ELLEN GILLETTE

Cheney Brothers, Inc. employs 475 workers for their offices, warehouses and trucking in Port St. Lucie. KEVIN LOPEZ PHOTOS

When Joe Cheney started a modest wholesale business delivering milk, eggs and cheese in West Palm Beach in 1925, Port St. Lucie did not even exist. Today, Cheney Brothers, Inc. exports to 110 countries with sales in the billions of dollars, a healthy chunk of which is generated at its relatively new facility off Becker Road.

Cheney’s grandson Byron Russell got his first job at the company as a teenager. Since he became CEO in 1981, Russell has expanded the company to multiple distribution locations. Last year, he also oversaw the company’s transition from private entity to publicly traded.

Peter Borradaile, president of the Port St. Lucie division, has been with Cheney Brothers, Inc. for eight years. “We did almost $4 billion in sales last year,” Borradaile said. “Byron Russell did that based off of four things: be polite, be professional, be fair and use good judgment. Our niche is customer service — if you’re successful, we’re successful.”

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