Chadds Ford Business Association

The Galer Estate Winery and Tasting Room has served as just one of many local sites for Chadds Ford Business Association events and meetings.

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Joe Lafferty, president of the Chadds Ford Business Association.

By Drewe Phinny Staff Writer

Joe Lafferty, president of the Chadds Ford Business Association (CFBA), offers a simple yet eloquent explanation of the group’s mission: “The CFBA is a group of business owners and professionals from the Chadds Ford area that meet monthly to network, share ideas and occasionally have guest speakers to present hot topics in the local marketplace,” he said.

Of course, the brevity belies a more complex understanding of all the things that make up the organization of approximately 80 members.

Vice President Frank Rupp provided some related geographical information. “Even though our name is Chadds Ford Business Association, we’re not just confined to Chadds Ford’s borders,” he said. “If you go to our website, you’ll find a member map that shows just how far the CFBA’s membership stretches. Our group truly encompasses a full, ten-mile radius.”

Aesthetic beauty is a big part of Chadds Ford’s appeal.

Rupp explained, “It’s an absolutely gorgeous area. We have a wide-range of bucolic farms along with modern homes all nestled together in the historic Brandywine Valley. It’s a pretty eclectic group of people and properties. We are also very fortunate to

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have an abundance of quality restaurants to host our meetings, as well the gracious support of our local townships.”

Some of the Chadds Ford Business Association’s favorite venues include Brandywine Prime in Chadds Ford for hors d’oeuvres, dinners and drinks, breakfast meetings at the Chadds Ford Township and Pennsbury Township buildings for updates from their supervisors and catering by Hank’s Place, and delicious lunches in Antica’s private dining room. In early October, the CFBA met for an evening event at Galer Estate & Winery for a private tour with owner Lele Galer and delicious catering by Sovana Bistro.

Rupp’s original business was Frank Rupp Design, a design company for small business owners. “I switched my CFBA membership over to our Painter House Suites business shortly after we took ownership of the Historic Dilworthtown properties in 2020 and I started getting asked more about the restaurants than my design services,” Rupp said. “The switch just made sense. While commercial real estate and design may seem like disparate career choices, I find that I use my design capabilities nearly every day, whether it is updating our website’s content or helping my tenants with their signs. In the work environment Brandywine Prime. someone is always going to ask you to design some sort of presentation piece or PowerPoint… and that knowledge of design can be carried into your work regardless of your active profession. I think everyone would benefit from a little bit of design training so they are able to communicate with their customers and colleagues more effectively.”

Speaking of communication, each member of the CFBA contributes his or her special talent which becomes part of a larger effort to enhance the goal to promote an atmosphere conducive to commerce in the community. Rupp pointed out an example of this form of productive activity. Chadds Ford’s printed paper, The Chadds Ford Post, went out of business 13 years ago. Fellow CFBA board member Emily

The Pennsbury Township building.

Myers and the editor of the Post formed a new publication to be distributed electronically called Chadds Ford Live. Subscribers get an email blast at 12:10 a.m. every Friday morning. It includes all the important news from Glen Mills to Kennett Square. It’s a great way to quickly read through a weekly summary of the local news and events and to stay informed about what is going on in the community. As an added bonus, every CFBA member receives the email blast free, as part of their membership with the group.

One of the more interesting aspects of the origin of the CFBA actually came out of a state effort to divide the roadway for safety’s sake.

Chadds Ford’s business success is a product of people organizing to change their fate. The entire stretch of Route 1 was going to have a three-foot concrete divider separating north and south lanes from Kennett Square to Media. For example, with no traffic light at the Chadds Ford Tavern, if you were going southbound on Route 1, you wouldn’t have access to the restaurant. In essence, the town was going to get cut off. So, out of the desire to preserve the area’s natural charm and unique business offerings, local business owners and professionals formed an association to petition the state to alter the plan, and as a team, successfully preserved Chadds Ford to be the beautiful small town it is today.

“The whole thing was organized in the late 1990s, when PennDOT said they were going to put a concrete divider stretching from Media all the way to Kennett Square on Route 1, with openings only where there were existing traffic lights,” Rupp explained.

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The business owners were understandably not happy. The sentiment was that the divider was going to shut out half the business potential from the opposing side of the road. With the current setup afforded drivers the ability to make left-hand turns to pull into businesses along Route 1, but the proposed divider would have put all that to an end.

Rupp explained that they all met at the Brandywine River Hotel to fill out a petition to get PennDOT to modify the plan so there would be openings along the way so people could still get across the street. It was one of the first times the business community along Route1 came together for a unified cause.

Mixing business with pleasure, Rupp said, is a great way to get to know somebody in a different way that reflects a deeper aspect of his or her personality. “You see them so frequently that trust forms naturally… and if the opportunity arises where you need a fellow member’s expertise, the relationship is already built,” he said.

The Chadds Ford Business Association has a set schedule and meets the first Thursday of the month for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Myers handles the location details.

The website maintained by the The Chadds Ford Business Association is an important resource for members.

Rupp said, “That’s one of the reasons they brought me on

The Chadds Ford Township building.

board, for my graphic design abilities. I built the website for them so they no longer had to do the paper forms for membership. We were now able to promote ourselves online with SEO (Search Engine Organization) rather than just word of mouth.”

In addition to building the CFBA website, Rupp also maintains it.

“It’s important to note that all of the CFBA board members volunteer their time and effort to support the group,” he said. “We do this because we want to see our members and the community thrive. Originally, my job was just the website, but we had a board changeover so I also took over additional responsibilities. I now build the email invitations in Constant Contact and upload the event details to the CFBA Facebook (Facebook. com/chaddsfordbusiness) and website (www.ChaddsFord.org).”

The yearly membership fee is $125. As an added bonus, if you are already a member of Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce or Delaware County Chamber of Commerce, $100 of your chamber membership due can be applied to your CFBA membership. If you aren’t ready to join, but want to check out a meeting, non-members are always welcome to attend at the standard rate. Members of the CFBA get discounted tickets to the monthly meetings, a listing on the group’s website, a listing on the Chadds Ford Live website, and receipt of their weekly email news blast.

Joe Lafferty, President

Owner, Joe Eckert and Joe Lafferty, Allstate Insurance 610-388-1501 joelafferty@allstate.com

H. Frank Rupp, Jr., Vice President

Owner, Painter House Suites, LLC 484-443-8833 painterhousesuites@gmail.com

Mary Marines, Secretary

Owner, Pennock Insurance, Inc. 610-358-2600 mmarines@pennockins.com

Jim Leader

Owner, Leader Sunoco 610-388-7611 leadersunoco@verizon.net

Emily Myers

Owner, ChaddsFordLive.com 610-212-3639 business@chaddsfordlive.com