Twenty Years of Delighting the Guest
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Linda and Jack Grup in front of Seasons Restaurant at their Highland Lake Inn & Resort
Twenty years ago, Linda and Jack Grup delivered a daughter to her freshman year of college in Ann Arbor, packed up their life in Michigan, and headed for the mountains of Western North Carolina in pursuit of a dream. Today that dream is a reality, and the Village of Flat Rock has been the primary beneficiary of their vision, professionalism, and commitment to creating excellence.
Jack and Linda (pronounced, Leen-dah) arrived in Flat Rock in November of 1999. They had just purchased the Highland Lake Inn & Resort, and a monumental task lay before them. They were the new - and novice - owners of a 26-acre resort operation. Two decades later, the Grup’s can look back on a remarkable success story of transforming a small, yet growing enterprise into an iconic fixture of Flat Rock.
The couple met in Spain in the 1970s when Jack was stationed there during a tour of duty in the Air Force. Linda’s father was in the U.S. Army, and she and her family had previously moved to Spain when she was 10. Today, they both describe themselves as military brats and credit that experience of frequent transitions as being key to their willingness to embark on their adventure in North Carolina.
Prior to moving to Flat Rock, Jack Grup (pronounced, Group) was coming out of a stint in corporate America. Linda had tired of the cold, extended Michigan winters, and they both thought that owning a Bed & Breakfast would be a better fit for their passions. The couple had worked together previously operating a business that provided financial support for small businesses.
“We've always been kind of entrepreneurial,” explains Jack. “We'd been looking for a new business for a long time. We looked at places in Michigan and California and realized that B&Bs are generally a great place to live, but they're awfully hard to really make a profit on.” Linda laughs and adds that a Bed & Breakfast setting may have been a challenge for their marriage as well. “Being so close together all of the time would probably not be healthy for our relationship. But here we have 26 acres!”
Jack was introduced to the mountains of western North Carolina during fishing trips with a brother who was living in Greensboro. “We would come here to go fishing, and I fell in love with the beauty of the whole area.” So the Grup’s search for a new business expanded south, and they soon discovered that Kerry Lindsey had a 26-acre parcel of land with a lodge and restaurant for sale. At first, they were intimidated by the scale of the enterprise - significantly larger than their original plan to buy a B&B. The cost was also substantially more than they had originally considered.
But the more they looked at the opportunity, the more intrigued they became. As a young boy, Jack had spent many summers at lake resorts, and the Highland Lake property resurrected many of those happy memories. “We were quite frightened of it at first,” says Jack. “It took a long time to get our heads wrapped around it. But our hearts loved it right away. It has that feeling that I remember as a child when my family would go to lake resorts in Minnesota. We both fell in love with it from that point of view.”
If Jack was nervous about their ability to make the resort successful, Linda was not. “He didn’t know he could do it,” she says with a smile. “But I knew he could do it. I’m a workhorse and he is very organized and meticulous.” So the couple set aside any trepidations they had and moved to Flat Rock in November 1999.
Because of their lack of direct experience with resort properties, the bank would only finance the purchase of the lodge at first - and not the restaurant. “They financed the lodging piece and said that in two or three years, if you're good at it, we'll give you an option to buy the restaurant.” Jack grins as he finishes the story, “Well, after a year, we were so successful that they let us exercise the option to buy the restaurant early.”
Once the Grup’s realized they could make it work, they settled into their new life and never looked back. They had achieved the dream of matching their career with their passion. “Once you get over the hump of making the mortgage and can do the things you want to do - then it starts to become fun,” says Jack. The resort has allowed the couple to pursue a special passion for food, wine, and hospitality. Linda adds, “To be able to have this canvas that we could write on and express our love for the things that we were passionate about was really gratifying.”
The business has also been good for their marriage of 47 years in many ways. “Something that we have in common is that we love to eat out and we love to travel. So owning a business that helped put those two concepts together was really powerful,” says Linda.
When asked about their success, the Grup’s are clear about the secret to running a successful business. “It's all about delighting the guest in everything that we do.” Jack is clear that this business philosophy extends to the entire Resort staff “Whether our guest is interacting with a housekeeper or with a maintenance guy or in the restaurant, our goal is to have the end result be that they feel delighted with their encounter with us. And we believe we do that quite often.”
Talking to the Grup’s, it is also clear just how much concern and respect they have for their employees - a staff that ranges from roughly 60 employees during the winter months and swells to over 80 during the warmer months. “These people have become our family,” says Linda. “We have employees that have been here for many, many years. We know their kids. We're starting to know the grandkids now.”
Like many of the most successful entrepreneurs, the Grup’s do not count their success in strictly financial terms. They also have a deep and abiding respect for the environment and have worked hard to make Highland Lake Inn & Resort more energy efficient. They’ve also worked to ensure that Seasons creates delightfully tasty and picturesque plates with much of their product produced in an environmentally sustainable manner by chefs that have a passion for what they do.
Ironically, the seeds for that passion were at least partially sown in Jack’s grandmother’s garden in - of all places - Flat Rock, Michigan. “I would spend summers with my grandmother who had a lower 40 garden that I maintained. I learned gardening there, but more importantly, I learned how to create an organic garden to avoid the use of harmful chemicals.” Jack continues, “Now we've got our own organic garden and we do things throughout the property to conserve resources. We just won our second award for environmental sustainability from the Henderson Chamber of Commerce.”
Twenty years in, the Grup’s are unabashed fans of Flat Rock and the 26-acre oasis they call home. “It's our heart place,” says Jack. “It's the most beautiful place we've ever lived, with a lake on the property and an organic garden right next to our house. And we get to live here year-round!”
Jack and Linda are justifiably proud of what their partnership has created in Flat Rock. For Linda, she is proudest of the dramatic transformation they facilitated for the resort. “We helped grow a small business into a very prominent business.” For Jack, he is proudest of the culture he and Linda have created at Highland Lake Inn Resort. “We’ve maintained a culture within our organization of employees that are warm and friendly and delightful and passionate about what they do. And that's reflected in the reviews people leave for our resort. I think that's what gets people coming back.”
The Grup’s plan to celebrate 20 years in Flat Rock throughout the coming year by holding special events and inviting the community to join in the celebration. Linda explains, “We just want to spend a year giving back to the community, giving back to our employees.”
After two decades of hard work, Jack and Linda have now started considering their next adventure. They are preparing for retirement, and the Highland Lake Inn & Resort is up for sale. But they are in no rush to leave the business immediately. "We're very committed to making sure that, when we sell it, we sell it to somebody that's going to take care of the employees,” says Jack. “That the new owners become part of our family and have an interest in carrying on the traditions that we've worked so hard to establish.”
When that day comes, Jack and Linda will leave an important legacy in the history of Flat Rock. A 26-acre resort that is a testament to the beauty and potential of living in a place like Flat Rock. A community of hundreds of employees that have worked at the resort over the years. And the example of following your passion, treating people with respect, and leaving your part of the world better than you found it.
Twenty years later, Flat Rock is an even more special place because a couple from Michigan was willing to take a big chance on a little village.
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