The Swain’s Inc. board of directors has divided the company between the two daughters of the late company founder Cliff Swain.
Under board agreement reached last week and effective Saturday, Rebecca Gedlund becomes the sole owner of the Swain’s Port Angeles store, still known as Swain’s General Store.
Her sister, Glenda Cable, becomes co-owner of the Sequim and Port Townsend stores with her husband, Dick.
The Sequim and Port Townsend outlets are now called Swain’s Outdoor.
The separation of ownership becomes effective May 1, but has been negotiated for months, the sisters said.
The late Cliff Swain founded the Port Angeles Swain’s in 1957 as a military surplus store and soon expanded the store’s departments.
Swain’s wife, Bernice “Bee” Swain, was his business partner.
The Port Townsend store was added in 1996, and a store in Sequim opened in 2001. Both stores were created by the Cables.
Both sisters said Thursday that the division will end family conflict over the direction of the stores.
“I’m delighted,” Gedlund said Thursday night, after the company announced its decision in a news release.
“It should be much better, much more manageable and with no conflict about what were going to do and where we are going.
