Greg Barreto has been selected for induction into the Bud and Dorothy Page Lebanon High School Hall of Fame for his exceptional accomplishments in business, as well as his service as a member of the Oregon State House of Representatives.
Barreto is the founder and CEO of Barreto Manufacturing, an innovative design and fabrication company specializing in hydraulic outdoor equipment: trenchers, stump grinders, chippers and chip shredders, log splitters, and a mini skid steer loader.
Barreto said he started the business out of a garage in 1983, then worked out of his brother’s shop before moving to La Grande, where they set up shop and eventually established a manufacturing plant, where they remained until just two years ago.
“We moved to Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, but we still have our manufacturing plant in La Grande,” Barreto said. “We also have another one in [Idaho.]”
The company is now a multimillion dollar enterprise employing nearly 200 people.
Barreto graduated from Lebanon High School in 1973 and considers himself an “average” student.
“All my brothers and sisters were [on the honor roll] but I was just there to make them look good,” Barreto joked. “I was probably a three-point grade average, mediocre at sports, and then you graduate and you kind of wonder what you’re going to do after that, you know?”
Barreto said he remembers Don Carroll asking him what he planned to do after school, but he just didn’t know.
“[Carroll said] ‘Ah, don’t worry about it,’” Barreto reminisced. “He said, ‘Whatever you do, you’ll be good at it.’ And I still remember that, because that was a great encouragement to me, that others had some faith in me when I didn’t quite know where the future was better.”
“High school does not define you,” Barreto said. “There’s a lot more after high school; there are many opportunities [and] just because you don’t excel at high school doesn’t mean the rest of your life will end up the same way.”
Barreto was recruited into junior college on a wrestling scholarship before considering multiple paths at Southern Oregon University, but it was only after getting married and having a couple of kids that he went back to pursue an engineering degree.
“It was very difficult after being out of school for four years, especially getting into math, you know, physics, and trying to remember everything [I’d] forgotten,” Barreto said. “And trying to raise a family and work a job at the same time; that kind of hit a dead end. But then [I] started this business and, for the first few years, not knowing whether that was going to take off or not either. But we were blessed.”
Barreto would visit with other manufacturers at trade shows and “pick their brains,” learning as much as possible to avoid unnecessary mistakes.
“Anytime you become an entrepreneur, there’s a learning curve, and you make plenty of mistakes on the way,” Barretosaid, “but you try and be a quick learner and not make the same mistakes twice.”
The first few years of business were “long,” according to Barreto, who found himself living in Salem, working in Oregon City, and driving to Lebanon every evening to do machining and welding.
“It seemed like that just went on forever until I got to the point where we were selling enough machines that I could quit working at a rental, and just go full time into manufacturing,” he said. “Even then, you’re always on a shoestring when you’re starting out, just trying to make enough money off of what you’re selling to buy more inventory for the next run.”
When Barreto moved his family and business to La Grande, unable to resist the perfect piece of property, he had three employees; they’re all still working for the company, including his general manager, who started working for Barreto nearly 40 years ago at 17.
Barreto said they’ve managed to weather the recessions in 1989, 1999 and 2009, and the current state of the economy, with 200 employees last year. The COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps unexpectedly, was a good time for business thanks to people isolating and working on home projects.
Barreto said it helps having people nearby to encourage you along the way; for him, that included his wife, teachers and coaches, even employers.
“Sometimes [they] see things in you that you don’t see yourself,” Barreto explained.
All six of Barreto’s children are involved in the business along with several of their own spouses; the kids plan to take over when Barreto is ready to retire.
“We just have a lot of good people in the business that I totally trust, and I can leave it in their hands and [still] easily communicate with them on a daily basis.”
In addition to their other properties, the Barretos have a house on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska, where they like to spend time during the summers as Barreto tries to “wean” himself off of working so much while still remaining involved.
Barreto described himself as financially “pretty conservative” and advised against overspending; gradual growth is the ideal situation.
Barreto’s wife worked as a meter reader when they got married, then worked in the business for several years before starting to homeschool their children.
According to him, they’ve been doing heavy production work for several years and would like to get back to doing more research and development now that they have time to create new products. Some are for pre-existing product lines, with larger machines, as well as expanding into other areas of the industry, like concrete tools.
“Most of it is along the same lines as what we have now,” Barreto said. “Just redesigning some things and building larger machines to fit the needs in the industry.”
Barreto’s accomplishments reflect a pattern of analytical problem solving, perseverance and hard work. Employed as a part-time mechanic for a rental company while he was going to college, Barreto noticed that the rear tine tillers that the company rented out broke frequently and constantly needed repair. He studied the problem, concluding that the weak parts were the mechanical components, the belts, chains and gears.
He set to work experimenting on a design for a hydraulic tiller that eliminated the need for these parts and could withstand the hard use of the rental industry. In 1982, he designed and built the industry’s first all-hydraulic tiller. He sold the first machine to his employer who rented it out for a full season with excellent results – and subsequently continued renting out that same machine for 20 years.
The following year Barreto and his wife founded Barreto Mfg. Inc., and through perseverance and hard work built a company with a reputation for top quality equipment that’s in demand worldwide, particularly in the equipment rental industry. His company has earned numerous awards, including Product of the Year at the European Rental Convention and several Products of the Year from the American Rental Association, as well as recognition as a valued vendor for Home Depot.
In 2009, the Barretos saw the need to become involved in politics when the State of Oregon enacted the tax on gross sales, which was devastating to many businesses. Greg was elected chair of the Union County Republican Party, and in 2014 was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, where he served as House minority deputy leader for four years. Through his honesty and hard work, he earned the respect of fellow legislators and was able to get legislation passed, including the highly controversial HB 4040, which supported the decision to delist the gray wolf as an endangered species. He served six years before deciding to return to running his business in 2020.
Barreto has concerns regarding Oregon policies that affect small businesses; this is a big part of the reason they moved the business to Idaho. One of those concerns is the state’s 16% estate tax, which would impact his kids’ inheriting the business.
“That hinders not just small businesses like ours, but also agriculture,” Barreto said, “when you’re looking at passing on to the next generation. I do think that it’s very detrimental to business in Oregon, when a business gets to a certain size, when you get to a certain age, all of a sudden you start looking at that and saying, ‘Well, when your kids are asking you to leave the state and your accountant is telling you to leave the state, I think Oregon should revisit some of that policy if they really want small business to continue to to blossom in Oregon.’”
Those who have known and worked closely with Barreto in both the business and legislative sectors praise his intellect and work ethic, but above that, they admire his integrity. He is described as unfailingly honest, generous, and true to his principles.
“I remember when my wife and I talked about how every year that you get into [business], you learn more,” Barreto said of getting into manufacturing. “There’s more regulations that you learn about, there’s more regulations that come along. I remember five or six years into it, we said, ‘Gee, do you think we’d have started this if we knew what we were being confronted with every year?’ We came back saying, ‘Yeah, we would.’”