Founded in 2010 as a partner to its parent company, The Hudson Companies, Broadway Builders has developed a diverse team of professionals to serve its mixed-use clients. The company is a certified Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) made up of highly motivated and dedicated professionals who consistently deliver high-quality projects on schedule, in a safe and compliant work environment.

Broadway Builders also prides itself on its high proportion of women in the company compared to other construction firms. Fostering a diverse environment that is welcoming to women creates a unique dynamic that celebrates different working styles. Each one of its construction teams in the field has at least one woman, and Broadway Builders aims to continue on this path of diversity in seeking out diverse employee skill sets, backgrounds, and specialties.

Bernard Ruf, President of Broadway Builders, describes a unified bond among the staff. The family atmosphere in the company culture results in efficient and effective operations while also establishing a synergistic working environment. Since the company hires subcontractors for its projects, its strong values on teamwork are just as important in these external relationships, and Broadways Builders is always focused on partnering with the most qualified and skilled subcontractors.

In the last six years, the team has grown from just a few employees to a staff of 55. Broadway Builders has also successfully assembled its own self-insurance program through a CCIP, a Contractor Controlled Insurance Program. This global insurance program protects the owner of the project, Broadway Builders itself as the general contractor, and all of its subcontractors under one giant insurance umbrella. Currently covering five different projects, the CCIP is a tool that allows the company to be more competitive in the New York City housing market. The company has also established its own bonding and surety program, impressive accomplishments for a company as young as Broadway Builders.

“You can’t build greatness without that team, and it even reaches out to who your subcontractors are, who your vendors are… certainly if you don’t have those people around you, you’re not going to be successful,” Ruf says proudly. “And I think we’ve done an amazing job at attracting the best people in New York City.”

Broadway Builders takes a great deal of care cultivating these relationships with its trade and vendor partners, beginning with a careful pre-qualification and selection process. In fact, these relationships have been so successful that they have led to various joint venture (JV) operations on major contracts, which is a true sign of the company’s ability to collaborate.

The leadership at Broadway Builders manages the team in a top-down chain of command structure, while avoiding any micro-management. “We’re one foot in the box and one foot out of the box,” explains Ruf. “You need the space to be able to be the professional that you are and have your own style a little bit, but you also need your foot in the box so that we’re all working within common rules and a common direction.”

The primary sector of business for this diverse construction firm is affordable housing and supportive housing programs, making up roughly 80 percent of its business model. “We maintain a ground-up new construction division while operating a separate business model to accommodate the renovation and occupied renovation of affordable NYC housing programs,” Ruf explains. “Our relationship with NYC agencies is a strong one and we maintain a commitment to excellence in our work and relationships to ensure a successful project.”

While Broadway Builders is proud of dedicating much of its time to creating affordable housing projects, the team sees no real difference in the construction process. Affordable housing to them is just housing, and it is important to maintain the same high level of quality construction. Depending on the final product, the only aspect of the project that may differ is the type of material used, but the approach, attitude, and quality are the exact same.

One notable affordable housing project for Broadway Builders is the Logan Fountain Project located in Brooklyn, New York. Ruf describes it as a ground-up new construction building that will feature 174 affordable rental units for families who receive government assistance, and 169 supportive shelter apartments dedicated for homeless families. The building is a 13-story concrete superstructure with 324,000 square feet that includes a common courtyard, interior amenity spaces, and roof amenities for tenants to enjoy. There are also commercial use spaces available on the ground level.

“There aren’t a tremendous number of buildings that serve families in New York City, especially new buildings. So this is pretty exciting to us, that our building will be actually serving this dual purpose and helping a group of people who… need a place to live,” says Sally Gilliland, Broadway Builders’ Founder and Chair (and Principal and COO of head company Hudson Companies Inc.).

Another project that simply must be highlighted is The Peninsula, located in the Bronx, New York. This project is in its second phase, and the first of its five planned buildings is already complete and occupied. Currently, it is the largest current residential construction project in the Bronx area.

The Peninsula is an important project for both Broadway Builders and the city of New York. It has become known as a neighborhood rebirth story. Once occupied as a juvenile detention facility and decommissioned years ago, the residents saw it as a blight in the neighborhood, and were relieved to see the building torn down to become something new. With the community in mind, the mixed-use plan for The Peninsula will feature light industrial space for manufacturing, 740 units of affordable housing for the Hunts Point neighborhood, and a live/work area for the tech and creative industries of the South Bronx. Due to its size and complexity, the entire project is expected to be complete in about two years, making it a three-year project in total.

Always community-minded, Broadway Builders has already established a solid charitable base in its young existence. The firm has taken a philanthropic position with veterans’ organizations, including Hope for the Warriors, and it goes the extra mile by expressing a desire to support military veterans through employment at Broadway Builders. It is a company that helps the homeless community through its affordable housing projects, and focuses on energy-efficient designs to stay ahead of the progressive Passive House or LEED standards in NYC.

Prepared for the changing construction market in the years to come, Broadway Builders knows how to adapt. “Every economic segment of time creates unique industry roadblocks that require strategy alteration,” Ruf explains. “That coupled with ever-evolving regulatory changes, particularly in NYC, requires an open mind to alter operational imperatives to meet the changing environment.” Changes to energy codes, for instance, have not only affected the way contractors build, but also the time required to build. New technology is constantly changing the industry, both within the building envelope and in management operations. Broadway Builders is not daunted by these challenges; rather, it finds itself inspired to find the best solutions possible.

As a partner to residential developer The Hudson Companies, Broadway Builders receives the majority of its work through its parent company; in the future, the team hopes to allocate approximately 20 percent of its business to its own separate ventures. Ruf expands on further plans for the company, saying, “Broadway wants to be a six to ten project at a time company, depending on the complexity and size of the projects we are engaged in. We believe we have approached our planned ‘sweet spot’ and will do our best to maintain an operation with around 55 to 60 employees and operate on between six to ten projects at a time, with delivery cycles of between 24 and 36 months per project.”

There are only a few WBE general contractors in NYC with all the capabilities of Broadway Builders. As the core of the business, the firm has built a diverse team that consistently delivers quality products, and always prioritizes the recruitment of high-level trade and vendor partners to meet that standard. With a mission of aiming for building excellence through leadership, teamwork, integrity, and quality, the company has set itself apart in the industry by developing this loyal, reliable staff and creating an atmosphere of diversity and inclusion.

Says Ruf, “Broadway is a strong and dependable, upcoming, fast-growing, and energetic company that can provide the top tier of professional management for developers to take note of.”

The post Developing First-rate Affordable Housing in NYC<p class="company">Broadway Builders</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The association was founded in 1973 from a general industry need to define uniform safety and performance standards for the furniture industry. BIFMA’s mission is to manage and develop furniture standards that embody safety, ergonomics, health, sustainability, and performance. The organization further provides market data, thought leadership, and industry outreach celebrating the significant influence furnishings have on people’s daily lives.

“First and foremost, our role is to maintain the industry standards that define safety and promote performance for the furniture industry. These standards provide customers and designers who specify furniture the ability to make confident procurement decisions in the furniture that they select,” explains President and Chief Executive Officer, Deirdre Jimenez.

BIFMA further understands that the relationship between interior design and furniture design is collaborative and celebrates the design and innovation that its members contribute to the evolution of the built environment.

Not only is the association a resource for the industry itself, but BIFMA is also highly valuable to the stakeholder community who depend on the furniture industry. The association’s outreach provides both customers and designers with the resources to distinguish and identify furniture products that conform to industry standards. BIFMA also offers its LEVEL certification program to clearly identify furniture products that have achieved rigorous environmental, social, and health and wellness criteria.

“While interior design creates the aesthetic and circulation of a space, furniture activates the space. By nature of its function and tactile connection to people who use the space, furniture plays a significant role in the human experience,” says Jimenez.

BIFMA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop the furniture industry standards. BIFMA Director of Safety and Performance, Anthony Serge, explains the lengthy protocol involved in developing these standards. “We are accredited and audited to follow ANSI Process. This begins by convening a broad representation of stakeholders to provide input. This may include educators, government, manufacturers, suppliers, consultants, test labs, et cetera,” he says.

Once the criteria are defined and the content has been written, the standard proceeds through a debate and voting process that ultimately results in consensus. The effort to maintain the standards is in large part credited to the numerous member volunteer committees. BIFMA collaborates with a multitude of industry groups and government agencies utilizing its committee structure. Nineteen active volunteer member committees work on various standards and topics that continue to be of interest to the industry.

The ANSI/BIFMA standards are voluntary and not mandated by the government. However, they are internationally recognized by government, public, and private organizations who require new furniture purchases to conform to the published standards.

BIFMA manages 20 standards and guidelines for lounge seating, desks, tables, panels, work surfaces, and storage units. In addition to product standards, there are non-product standards and guidelines for ergonomics, emissions, sustainability, textiles, and color measurement.

Furniture products change as society changes and our environments evolve. For that reason, ANSI requires that each standard is reviewed every five years, to determine whether it should be reaffirmed or revised.

The same drivers that cause existing standards to be revised can also give rise to new standards. BIFMA currently has four new standards in development. Two of these standards are being created to acknowledge the increased popularity they gained during the pandemic. The exterior commercial furniture standard supports the expanding use of outdoor areas, capitalizing on open air circulation, and a standard for personal privacy pods supports the desire for spatial separation indoors.

Also heightened by the pandemic, BIFMA is elevating two existing guidelines into standards. The furniture surface cleaning standard addresses the focus placed on cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting surfaces without destroying materials. The purpose of this standard is to protect products as new chemicals and cleaning protocols are being introduced into every type of environment, not just healthcare. Ergonomics, while around for decades, is benefiting from ESG conversations supporting employee wellness. The ergonomics guideline became more essential as people transitioned to different working areas, including their own homes.

Already widely known in North America, BIFMA’s standards also compare favorably to other international furniture standards. BIFMA is active in the International Standards Organization (ISO) and holds the North American voting seat for all furniture categories. BIFMA is actively engaged with ISO to work toward globally harmonized standards in the future.

One standard that is moving in this direction is the ANSI/BIFMA e3 furniture sustainability standard. Europe’s standard, managed by FEMB, references it and the two groups are collaborating on their respective revisions. BIFMA’s LEVEL certification program is based on the ANSI/BIFMA e3 furniture sustainability standard and aims to provide a free and transparent method to evaluate the environmental and societal impacts of manufactured furniture products. The e3 standard examines furniture through the lens of sustainability, and the LEVEL certification program evaluates products in achieving the criteria established in the standard.

“We align with independent certification bodies who review products and visit the manufacturers’ locations to certify products against a series of credits. Products can achieve LEVEL 1, 2, or 3, certification based on the number of requirements they meet. Once a product is certified it is entered into the LEVEL registry, which is publicly available,” says Director of Health and Sustainability Steve Kooy.

The BIFMA LEVEL registry lists and filters certified products and allows buyers to simplify their search for sustainable furniture. With over 4,500 products in the registry, LEVEL is the most widely adopted certification program for furniture in North America and is gaining interest in other countries. BIFMA has helped to raise the bar in sustainability for the furniture industry and is now a recognized label in the Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly program where LEVEL certified products listed on Amazon will now display the LEVEL mark.

BIFMA Compliant is another public resource. It is a registry of furniture products tested to conform to the ANSI/BIFMA safety and performance standards. BIFMA Compliant was introduced in March 2021 to serve as a resource for buyers and specifiers who want to quickly identify products that comply with industry standards. Prior to Compliant, designers and customers struggled to distinguish products that had been tested for safety and performance. There wasn’t a means to enforce or verify that the standards had been met for a product. To address this market need, BIFMA created the Compliant program, and it has massively simplified the sourcing process and brought transparency to the market.

“The Compliant Registry is free and publicly available. Products can be filtered by standard, category, or brand,” explains Serge. “As a requirement, products that are listed on the registry must have been tested in an ISO 17025 accredited test lab.”

The industry-wide Compliant registry has exceeded BIFMA’s expectations, and it now has over sixty brands participating, with more working to get their listing approved in the registry. Approaching 2,500 product listings—which can include full product lines—the registry now features hundreds of thousands of available products. Like LEVEL, BIFMA Compliant is available to all furniture manufacturers who want to participate. These programs are not limited to BIFMA members.

The mission to educate furniture buyers and specifiers is led by an initiative of the organization called BIFMA Learning. An increasing number of influencers are involved in the furniture procurement process including real estate professionals, facility managers, and interior designers. BIFMA aims to raise awareness with this group of stakeholders and extend that outreach to educators and their students who are entering these fields.

Many professionals have certification or licensure requirements for continuing education. “It’s a win-win because we have interest in educating the market, and industry stakeholders in the market have a need for CEUs. We have four CEUs currently, and we have two more that are in development,” says Jennifer Wammack, Director of Outreach and Learning. Through an initiative called BIFMA Faculty, the organization trains member volunteers to deliver accredited CEUs.

Since January of this year, another educational offering by BIFMA is the Monthly Learning Series. It is free for anyone looking to learn more about furniture. The content alternates between accredited CEUs and industry topics of interest.

In addition, a new focus for BIFMA is attracting the next generation of talent into the industry. The industry is full of professionals with twenty to thirty years of experience who are beginning to retire. To minimize disruption, the association wants to support the industry by helping college graduates understand the careers available and equip them with knowledge about the standards that drive the industry.

“We have identified, and our members have affirmed the need to attract and retain new talent, and increasingly more diverse talent, so we are really taking that charge on their behalf to supplement some of what they’re doing individually,” says Wammack. “One of the ways that we reach these audiences is through our CEUs (continuing education units).”

One of the newest committees is the Young Professionals group which reaches out to students interested in the industry to share the many potential career paths and how BIFMA members can provide these opportunities.

In addition to the vast resources BIFMA offers to the industry stakeholder community and general public, there are some exclusive services BIFMA provides to its members, perhaps the most popular being the events. The organization hosts the 360° Leadership Conference in January of every year, curated around current industry topics. Other major events include the annual business meeting and breakfast in June as part of NeoCon, the North American Furniture Trade show, and a Summit in the fall where all the 20+ volunteer committees made up of well over 100 members come together to share annual progress and future work plans.

The furniture industry is relatively small in comparison to other manufacturing industries, so economic drivers can have a larger impact. Since BIFMA membership makes up a significant percentage of the industry, BIFMA manages a statistics program specifically for members. This includes an industry outlook, benchmarking analysis, and regular economic forecasts.

Deirdre Jimenez provides her perspective on how the industry will fare: “Being an architect and interior designer, as I reflect on the history of architecture, the desire to improve the safety, comfort, and the aesthetics of our environments has not diminished. Furniture has played a key role in that history and will continue to evolve. BIFMA members built the industry and will lead the industry into the future.”

The post Strengthening the Commercial Furniture Industry – Advocating for Innovation, Sustainability, & Education<p class="company">BIFMA</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

As trends such as smoothies, juicing, and weekly meal kits continue, there is also a growing market for specialty pet food geared towards improving food quality for our four-legged friends. Dry kibble is highly processed. Some of the best brands use fresh meat as the first ingredient, although many others use meat meal, a mixture of meat, fat, and bones that is cooked down several times before it is condensed into kibble form.

“I always say that over-processing is never good. You derive things from nutrients, and that’s where the idea of raw comes from. It’s just literally as little processing as possible. It means you get the freshest, most bioavailable foods,” says Geraldine Brouwer, owner of Canadian pet food manufacturer Big Country Raw.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Big Country Raw is providing the pet food industry with frozen complete meals designed for all life stages of dogs and cats. The meals are a combination of meat, bone, organ meat, fruits and vegetables, as well as beneficial vitamins and mineral oils. It also offers pure formulas with the meat, bone, and organ meat alone.

The frozen meal product lines make up roughly eighty percent of the business; the rest is in frozen raw bones and an extensive line of supplements. Vitamin and mineral supplements can help with a pet’s specific health needs, and chewing raw bones is a great way to keep a dog’s teeth clean. Quail eggs, duck eggs, goat milk, and bone broth are also available as frozen supplements.

Big Country Raw’s products are primarily sold in pet specialty retail chains across Canada including Pet Valu, Ren’s Pets and Mondou. A small portion of the business, and one that is just beginning to grow, is its product line called Hungry Hunter, available in PetSmart and select grocers.

Committed to sustainable packaging, Big Country Raw formed a partnership a few years ago with StanPac Packaging, known for manufacturing with sustainable forestry materials. “We have transitioned a large majority of our packaging to paperboard packaging, addressing the fact that we are trying to move away from plastics and look for more sustainable packaging sources,” says Brouwer. “We’re the only Canadian pet food brand right now using paperboard packaging for our container.”

She explains that paper is stronger than plastic and better equipped for storing in the freezer because it does not crack or break. Also, the company’s packaging is approved by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), signifying that all of the paperboard used in the making of its containers is from sustainably managed forests. The paperboard packaging transition has had a bit of an education curve for the customers, but Big Country Raw understands that the result is worth the effort.

The team at Big Country Raw is no stranger to raising awareness in the market. When the company first began, one of its main objectives was to educate the public that raw food for pets is not dangerous. Today, raw food has gained a great deal of acceptance, and pet stores are now installing walls of freezers to carry frozen raw products.

Before the raw pet food industry made such big strides in manufacturing, people would prepare their pets’ raw food at home, which can be unsafe. Big Country Raw and other manufacturers are now able to provide balanced, complete, and safe raw diets that were not necessarily available fifteen years ago. Fortunately, the industry has seen much progress and that trend is expected to continue.

Big Country Raw’s growth within this new market has been quite rapid. When it was founded in 2012 by Geraldine and her husband Rob Brouwer, there were only a handful of part-time employees. By 2020, the staff count was at seventy-five, and in the last two years, the number of full-time employees increased to 150.

Headquartered in Smithville, Ontario, a small rural community in the Niagara region, the company has always been very community-focused. It obtains raw material from local suppliers whenever possible, including corrugate from Whitebird, and its duck and turkey suppliers are within an hour of the Big Country Raw processing plant in Smithville.

The pet-passionate employees have the benefit of working for a living-wage employer because Big Country Raw truly cares about the quality of life of the people helping the company reach success. “It’s always about ensuring that there’s a great work-life balance. We have a lot of flex schedules, and we have a lot of families, so a lot of referrals end up coming to work here as friends and family join them,” says Brouwer. “We are proud of the work culture that we’ve created and really proud of the people that work here.”

The leadership believes in a collaborative team approach and is focused on making decisions as a group. “We always say you never work a day in your life if you love what you do. That’s a big part of us choosing people to work here and choosing leadership. People that really love being in the pet space, love pets, and are passionate about how we’re changing lives and changing the pet industry by bringing this kind of product to market,” says Brouwer.

One advantage of partnering with Big Country Raw is its direct distribution model. Usually, in the pet specialty market, the manufacturer sells to a distributing partner, which takes the product and distributes it to multiple brands. When Big Country Raw was founded, this method would not work for the raw category because the pet specialty distributors were not equipped with freezers and the ability to distribute frozen products. These circumstances forced the company to go directly to the store to sell its products, and after ten years in business, it has continued with that model.

Even though the pet specialty retailers are now installing freezers and distributing partners have refrigerated trucks to offer fresh and frozen delivery, Big Country Raw recognizes the advantage of its direct distribution. “We’ve always managed that whole supply chain ourselves. I think it sets us apart because we can keep our costs and our quality in check,” explains Brouwer. “We can improve our quality and keep costs in control because we don’t attach any cost or margin to distribution.”

Direct distribution is also useful in getting feedback about the products being sold. The close contact and communication with retailers has helped Big Country Raw expand its portfolio and offer better services at a lower cost.

In 2020 when people started working from home due to the pandemic, there was a massive increase in pet adoption. Shelters reported that by summer, they had been emptied. This increase in the number of families with pets combined with a new perspective on the benefits of fresh, healthy foods led to more business for Big Country Raw.

“We noticed that there was a ton of traffic on our website, with a lot of people asking these questions and researching raw foods for their dogs and cats. We’ve had a lot of growth through COVID, and our year over year growth exceeded the category growth,” says Brouwer.

The challenges that have come with the pandemic are the unavoidable supply chain issues affecting every industry. Big Country Raw uses novel proteins such as duck and rabbit, and when the restaurants were not operating at their usual pace, these sources of protein were not as accessible because they were not being processed. Now, the company is dealing with inflationary pressures. There have been cost increases on everything from packaging to raw material, making the exit from COVID-19 more difficult.

According to Brouwer, the Canadian pet food industry is ahead of the U.S. in integrating raw products. Although the industry is still in the early stage as far as adoption of raw feeding, with roughly five percent of pet food purchases in raw food, she anticipates that it will grow by fifteen to twenty percent over the next five to ten years.

Big Country Raw’s rapid growth comes with its fair share of challenges and pressure, but the team is excited about the progress being made in the frozen raw pet food space. “It’s like Christmas all year round around here. We’re always on the move,” says Brouwer. “I see our business continuing to grow, and I’m really thankful that there’s this much interest in it. I still love all the stories from people that call and send us messages on social media about how raw has changed their pets’ life for the better. That’s really the reason why we started this; it was just about pets having healthier lives.”

For owners looking to make the transition to raw pet food, it is recommended to start with a graduated approach to ease any digestion discomfort. Also, it is never too early or too late in a pet’s life to switch to a raw food diet. Many people choose to begin with a raw bone for dogs, and then start topping kibble with raw food before offering complete meals. Once they see the difference in their pet’s life, the benefits of feeding raw are undeniable.

Improved joint and bone health, heightened immune system, reduced stool volume and odour, and better dental health are just the beginning. Overall, raw food delivers a higher quality of life for our beloved four-legged family members.

Brouwer concludes with another great reason to make the switch. “Communication is hard with our pets right; they don’t talk to us and we just have to read their emotions. We know when they’re happy or sad, and mealtime is the one time that we can really serve them. It’s just really rewarding to do that with [raw] food.”

The post Ten Years of Progress in Raw Pet Food Manufacturing<p class="company">Big Country Raw</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The businesses and communities in the two cities are seamlessly connected, and this led to a key change in the structure of these municipalities. Recently, Hanover and Lebanon merged their chambers to create the Upper Valley Business Alliance.

Discussions of merging the chambers of Hanover and Lebanon have been ongoing for years, though the timing was never quite right until late 2019. “It came up again, and I think that the climate in our region was such that we recognized that we have a regional economy, and it made more sense for the two organizations to combine forces and combine resources as well,” says Upper Valley Business Alliance Executive Director Tracy Hutchins.

“We have a saying: ‘We’re not your father’s chamber anymore,’” says Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin. “As businesses have become more interconnected, regions have become more interconnected, and to keep pace with rapid changes that were happening in the business sector, we had to start thinking beyond the old model that always worked and be much more forward-thinking in terms of what support and services to provide to member businesses.”

The Upper Valley Business Alliance can provide a wider breadth of services now than it did as individual chambers. Its goal is to support the local economy and promote the Upper Valley as an ideal place to live and a great place to do business.

Demonstrating its commitment to economic development, one of its new initiatives is the Upper Valley MedTech Collaborative, supporting the medical technology industry, a segment of business that is rapidly growing in the Upper Valley. Many technology companies have moved into the Upper Valley because it is an excellent choice for businesses and families.

Upper Valley MedTech Collaborative Chair Greg Lange explains that the initiative was formed to bring together all the groups in the region that focus on medical technologies and medical innovation to encourage collaboration. “It takes a village to grow med-tech companies. It’s very hard to do it on their own, and we have this wealth of experience and expertise in the Upper Valley, so our goal is to make sure people know that we’re all here working on similar things and to connect people regularly. Over the last few years, we’ve identified fifty to sixty different med-tech entities that are all working on some kind of medical technology here in the Upper Valley.”

To connect these like-minded businesses, the collaborative hosts pitch nights and conferences and provides numerous opportunities for the community to learn about funding options such as reimbursement strategies. These opportunities help business owners understand how to manage their intellectual property as it is being developed.

Between the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the Upper Valley region has become a medical innovation hub. The Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is the largest medical facility in northern New England, and the convergence of all three entities generates a significant amount of research through collaboration. The Upper Valley MedTech Collaborative strives to nurture and advance this growing part of the region’s economy.

To support the area’s growth, the Upper Valley Business Alliance also focuses on workforce and talent development. Some of its initiatives are legacy programs from the Hanover Chamber such as Meet Up Upper Valley, which has been ongoing for several years. This employee retention program involves some of the largest employers in the area. Many of the larger employers recruit from outside the region, and the program helps people who have relocated in feeling more at home in the communities of Lebanon and Hanover. Retention rates are much higher with newcomers when they have the opportunity to connect with new people, make friends, and set down roots.

As the Upper Valley Business Alliance was launched, it was approached by talent recruitment and human resources members from the Upper Valley Dual Career Network, a longstanding program in the area. The program was put together to address the workforce needs of the spouse or partner of a person who is relocating to the Upper Valley. It was a logical choice for this program to move under the umbrella of the Upper Valley Business Alliance, as it already has a robust system of business members who could provide services or employ the trailing spouse.

Another program that the Upper Valley Business Alliance has taken under its wing is the Young Professionals group. It was operating on its own for quite some time, but as can happen with volunteer organizations, the leadership roles changed, and this led to a lack of consistency for the program. Fortunately, the program is one more great fit for the Upper Valley Business Alliance and becomes another way to attract and retain good people in the area.

The rural Upper Valley region is well suited for growth and development for several reasons. Its convenient location at the intersection of two interstate highways puts it within easy reach of Boston, Montreal, and New York City. Its airport also has daily flights to Boston and New York, and it can take private jets as well.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the region has seen an increase in its population as more people look to move away from urban areas. “We offer a remarkable quality of life here, and I think we just really have the best I think of everything, and we are seeing what some places are calling COVID refugees or climate refugees. More people are relocating to New Hampshire and Vermont, and they’re finding their way into our region,” explains Hutchins. The employers in the Upper Valley tend to pay higher wages compared to the rest of the state, and the unemployment rate is lower. The region’s resiliency through the pandemic has been extraordinary.

Lebanon was recently ranked the tenth city in the United States for in-migration numbers during the pandemic. Griffin says those who live there were not surprised by that ranking. “The benefits of being in a somewhat more rural but sophisticated area line up with the benefits of escaping more densely populated areas when you’re concerned about a virus like COVID. So, we’re now galloping to try and catch up with the desire of folks to perhaps find places to live on a long-term basis that feel a little bit safer than densely settled urban areas.”

One challenge that routinely comes with rapid economic growth is housing development. Finding affordable housing for everyone who wants to relocate to the Upper Valley is a struggle, and because there has been such high demand, housing prices have risen. Fortunately, Hanover and Lebanon have both been proactive municipalities in working towards building new housing with a commitment to sustainability, and the prices are now starting to level once again.

The future development of the Upper Valley depends on its ability to establish more housing. “We’ve got 1,400 residential units under construction or approved right now, which is very significant for a city of this size, where we’ve only got 7000 pieces of property,” says Lebanon City Manager Shaun Mulholland. “We’ve got more on the drawing board that are critical to addressing this problem to allow adequate space for people to live, and hopefully, that will drive some of the price down when those units become online.”

Sustainability in housing development is a priority for the Upper Valley. Hanover and Lebanon are partners on the renewable energy front and two of the leading communities in the state of New Hampshire that are moving aggressively towards a sustainable future. “I think the growth and development that we do here has an opportunity to be very sustainably focused, and quite frankly, the younger generation workforce is looking for that kind of housing,” says Griffin.

The Upper Valley is experiencing a lot of success in creating more supportive renewable infrastructure, including integrating public transportation with electric vehicles. “We have the opportunity to appeal to that segment of the next generation that’s looking for something that meets their desire to live in a greener environment, both literally and from a renewable energy perspective,” says Griffin.

This rural, sustainably-focused region is full of potential for people who value a close-knit, fun community as well as opportunities for education, business, and medical innovation.

“This is an amazing part of the country to be in, just in terms of the indoor/outdoor sports activities,” says Lange. “Also, you can’t underestimate the power of having an Ivy League college and a major academic medical center and what opportunities that brings for culture, affluence, and education.”

The post Creating Opportunity—Together<p class="company">Upper Valley Business Alliance</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Located just thirty miles from Manhattan, Stamford is an ideal choice for young adults who want to remain close to the lifestyle that only New York City can provide. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an enormous influx of new residents from the New York area.

The country’s most populous city has undergone a mass exodus, and many of these people have chosen Stamford for its proximity to New York, as well as its recreational opportunities, and its high safety ranking within the state. For these reasons, the city has seen its median age drop down quite a bit as roughly 25,000 people moved into the Fairfield County region.

“We’ve continued our apartment growth, and that’s really what led to the large population growth that we had here in Stamford,” explains Stamford Director of Economic Development Thomas Madden. In addition to its population growth, large companies have decided to set up here recently as well. “We’re finding now that companies are starting to chase the workforce, and the workforce has moved up to Stamford, so we’ve got companies following that workforce, which is kind of neat.”

To support the developing workforce, the city has programs specifically designed for the needs of local businesses. A new program called TechFWD was launched by the Ferguson Library and the Stamford Partnership to provide free courses to improve digital skills. Offering quality training and certifications, its two courses, ‘Content Marketing’ and ‘Grow With Google,’ offer people the opportunity to start a new career pathway in the growing digital sector. The program has piqued the interest of a few companies that are now hoping to sponsor it because it provides a sustainable workforce pipeline.

An exciting new program at the high school level has opened new possibilities for students. “We just got approval from the state to allow high school course credits for non-traditional internships. These are kids that may not choose the college or university route, but we will get them high school credits and get them into an internship leading to either an apprenticeship or a job right out of high school as well,” says Madden.

Besides the residential growth and workforce development, another reason businesses are choosing Stamford to start or relocate is the concierge service package offered by the city. The service is designed to make adjusting as easy as possible for any new company. From the building permit process and the zoning board to setting up meeting spaces and bringing in state services when necessary, the city provides resources and support every step of the way.

Businesses are also choosing Stamford for the same reason as residents, simply because it is a great place to live. Its location provides all the facilities and services of larger cities, combined with much more space and safety. “We are one of the safest cities within the New England region, and that’s really attributed to the great neighborhoods we have,” says Madden. “We have very proactive policing, and they are very much community-minded, which does a great job in making sure that we have a very low crime rate here.”

An abundance of recreational options are found across its parks and beaches because it is situated along the Long Island Sound, a tidal estuary between Connecticut and Long Island, New York, and the water plays a big part in the choice to move here for many people. The restaurant scene is also a bonus, as there are options for every kind of food.

A few of its restaurants have even garnered some fame on Instagram. Elm Street Diner’s great food is incredibly photo-worthy. Stillwater Sandwich Shoppe recently received attention when the woman with the largest mouth, according to the Guinness World Records, was able to put one of their enormous sandwiches in her mouth.

A large part of the economy in Stamford relies on tourism, and clearly, this was an industry heavily impacted by the pandemic. The city has recently seen tourism pick back up and its hotels are beginning to return to a normal state. Next year, it hopes to receive some tourism grant money to add more promotions that demonstrate all there is to be enjoyed in the area.

The city invested a lot of its money from the CARES Act into its infrastructure to support the continued expansion of the city, and fortunately, its infrastructure is keeping pace with its population and business growth. “The mayor has been really instrumental with making sure that we’re spending the right money, especially on our roadway systems. It’s been the right road at the right time and the right cost. His fiduciary responsibility is to make sure that the city continues on its path and keeps its AAA bond rating,” says Madden, referring to the previous mayor, David R. Martin. Stamford’s new mayor, Caroline Simmons, was just sworn in on December 1.

With all of the growth and relocation, there are many exciting developments to discuss. One new project is the Data Science Institute, a partnership between the University of Connecticut, entrepreneurial support network CTNext, and the city’s non-profit business collaborative StamfordNext to lead the way for Stamford to become the next big hub for technology and innovation. It will feature a technology incubator focused on data science and a startup studio for undergraduates to serve as a collaborative educational experience.

“We’ve had some great companies move in here to help solidify everything. Tomo Networks just set up here; the online mortgage company, Digital Currency Group just located here. They moved two of their locations out of NYC,” Madden says. “We have point pickup, which is a third-party delivery service, and we’ve got Amazon that’s looking to locate here.”

Although somewhat slowed by the pandemic, the city is continuing to work on its autonomous vehicle zone since it was chosen by the state as one of the test spaces. It is also following through with plans to develop one of the first interstate drone highways from Connecticut to New York.

On a side note, another sector that continues to see growth is the film industry. The high streaming and broadcasting capabilities here have increased the number of digital media and entertainment companies in the area. Just this summer, Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne were in Stamford shooting for The Good Nurse, and it looks as though this trend is only expected to grow. Other recent media productions include The Noel Diary, a Disney movie called Baskets, a Stephen King novella featuring Donald Sutherland, and a vast number of commercials.

With NBC Sports Group here, all of the Olympics footage broadcast by NBC Sports comes through every four years. This summer, NBC Sports brought approximately 1100 people into the city to help produce the Olympics. Other longstanding media companies in the city include The People’s Court, Maury, and the Steve Wilkos Show.

Stamford is officially the second-largest city within Connecticut as it has now outgrown New Haven. It is operating at a ninety-seven percent occupancy rate in its multi-family apartment buildings and is ranked second in Fairfield County in housing sales. In roughly two years, the population grew from 126,000 to 135,470, and the city has done an impressive job of keeping up with its growth in terms of infrastructure and workforce development.

“We’ve grown quite a bit, and I would think that we’re actually over 136,400 people just because of the new apartment buildings that have opened up,” Madden estimates. “We expect to grow more over the next five years, and I suspect that we will be moving into the 140,000s over the next three years as we get more apartment buildings opening up.”

The clear reason for such expansion within the city is that Stamford truly has it all. It is filled with the amenities that families and businesses want, and it provides real support to the community. “This administration has worked really hard over the last eight years to make sure we’re fulfilling the needs of our residents as well as the business community.”

The post On Track for Continued Growth in the New Hub of Technology and Innovation<p class="company">City of Stamford, CT</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The company manufactures overhead bridge cranes, gantry cranes, jib cranes, monorail systems, hoists, and custom lifting equipment. This overhead lifting expert has grown to become the largest independent crane and hoist company in the United States, providing manufacturing, distribution, and full customer-centric service.

“We do everything from the design, the engineering, the installation, the inspection and maintenance, and the repairs of overhead cranes and hoists. That makes us very unique because the industry is often fragmented,” says Ace Industries’ Chief Operations Officer Daniel Arwood.

The various services offered by Ace Industries are frequently split across separate design engineering firms, steel erectors, inspectors, service providers, and original equipment manufacturers. “We really bridge the gap for our customers, but we specialize in the niche of overhead lifting with overhead cranes.”

Ace Industries provides light-duty ergonomic lifting solutions as well as large overhead cranes with the capacity to lift hundreds of tons. The lighter lifting solutions, which are regularly used for automotive plants and assembly operations, require a deep understanding of ergonomics, since employees are using lifts repeatedly throughout the day. The heavier projects in need of large equipment such as power generation, metals production, and forestry operations call for Ace’s expertise in automation and reliability engineering for process applications.

In addition to establishing itself as a quality manufacturer and designer of lifting equipment, Ace is known for providing exceptional customer field support in these demanding environments. Its equipment goes into heavy industry processes, so in order to design the equipment efficiently, the team must comprehend its application. Ace has the experience to navigate the safety requirements, physical requirements, and other environmental factors within heavy industries.

“We’re a technical company at heart, and we really focus on servicing and manufacturing critical equipment. We focus on building reliable equipment, and we try to service that equipment with efficiency and speed, and that makes us a unique fit for companies in aerospace, military and defense, paper and forestry, metals production, automotive, oil and gas, energy, and power,” says Arwood.

Ace Industries was founded in 1932 under the name Ace Electric Company, by Daniel’s grandfather Harold Arwood, Senior. It began as a motor repair facility with an office on Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, steps away from the Georgia State Capitol. The intention, from the outset, was to create a family business, and by the 1970s, Harold’s son Bud had taken over and led the expansion into the crane business. The current chief executive officer is Josh Arwood, Harold Sr.’s grandson and Daniel’s brother.

With Bud Arwood at the helm of the company in the 1970s and 1980s, Ace transitioned from a small electric motor repair shop to a parts and new equipment distributor for US-based hoist and crane manufacturers. The company had excellent inventory controls and the ability to ship the same day, which was rather unique at the time. This quality led Ace to become a master dealer for Coffing, Yale, Budgit, Shaw-Box, Harrington, R&M, Stahl, Duff Norton, and the Columbus McKinnon Corporation.

The expansion into manufacturing and services in the nineties was based on a combination of market changes and end user demands. As international equipment manufacturers entered the U.S. market just as domestic suppliers went through a wave of aggregation, customers began to look to Ace to guide product design and selection decisions for increasingly complex lifting scenarios. As the company was able to offer both domestic and internationally supplied components for its clients, Ace was able to simplify selection decisions and provide the most effective solution to its clients.

To increase its capacity to manufacture overhead cranes, Ace acquired a new facility just outside of Metro Atlanta and soon began to open regional service centers. The first were in Birmingham, Alabama and Cincinnati, Ohio, and since that time, the company has continued a methodical expansion both organically and through the acquisition of other crane companies. Ace now has over thirty-six offices in the U.S. from Florida to Washington State, and in the future, it hopes to expand further into the Midwest and Northeast.

Ace began during a difficult time following the Great Depression, and it has endured a number of economic and political challenges throughout its journey. These have taught the company to be adaptable and pivot when necessary. “There are great legends at Ace about the many changes that have happened, and I do say legends because Ace has been around for a lot of years, and we have developed a reputation in the industry for being ethical, responsible, responsive, customer-centric and good at what we do,” says Arwood.

Many companies in the manufacturing industry have experienced a ripple effect in material prices and demand due to the pandemic. Steel has seen significant price fluctuations and caused inflationary pressures for overhead crane manufacturing since it is the primary commodity used in a crane. “When you’re building a crane project that has 200,000 pounds of steel in it, and the price of steel goes up from $0.85 a pound to $1.35, it’s a problem, but I think we can reasonably expect to see that stabilize,” explains Arwood.

The company’s services are considered essential since overhead cranes are used to transport products through manufacturing facilities. If it had suspended its services, it would have caused a bottleneck in production. “It has been really important for our business, for Ace to be able to continue to faithfully serve our customers safely through the pandemic because of the highly essential [production]. Lights need to come on; oxygen needs to be produced; toilet paper needs to be made, and we are right there lockstep with our customers during this time through it,” says Arwood.

Another current challenge in the market is the demand for sub-assembly components. However, Ace has also found ways to work around this complication to ensure that its customers do not have to face the chaos behind the scenes. “Our inventory on hand has been able to float the sub-assembly components problems. Our sourcing and materials management for steel has enabled us to price effectively and not pass massive cost price increases to our customers and that directly translates to our customers being more competitive, saving money, and being more efficient,” says Arwood.

Ace is leading the overhead crane and hoist manufacturing industry with its experience and drive. Chief Executive Officer Josh Arwood is the outgoing president of the Crane Manufacturers Association of America (CMAA), an organization that helps set the standards for the entire industry.

This display of leadership is also clearly extended within the team. The company’s leadership regularly spends time in the field working on equipment with the service technicians and all employees support each other and each other’s customers as one large team across regions.

The overhead crane industry is rapidly changing hands due to consolidation, and the future of the market is somewhat unknown. No stranger to this type of environment, Ace is focused on its strategic goals, and it is strongly committed to continuing the enduring legacy that has been established.

“My daughter, who is nine years old, has repeatedly reminded me over the past few years that someday she wants to work in the family business, so I think we’re doing something right,” Arwood says proudly.

Ace plans to continue expansion on the West Coast, where there is plenty of opportunity, the Midwest will follow, and finally, the company will establish itself in the Northeast to offer full coast-to-coast overhead crane services. “In an industry that is changing and moving fast, where private equity is running through and buying up crane companies, we’re going to continue to do what we do best, which is continue to grow our expertise, our skills, and our strategic advantage,” says Arwood. “We’re going to continue to do that without taking on debt or taking outside capital, and we’re going to stay true to our people.”

The post A Family Business Committed to its Legacy<p class="company">Ace Industries</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The company’s product line of food equipment includes PizzaMaster electric pizza ovens, bakery equipment, and other cooking equipment used in foodservice and food retail. For the last thirteen years, MPM has supplied Whole Foods with its top-of-the-line food equipment combined with full-service customer support.

After working for two other well-known foodservice equipment companies and eventually getting laid off, Larry Nicholson started the MPM Food Equipment Group in his basement in July of 2003. “I’ve been in the supermarket part of the business my whole career, and so without a job and with three little kids in a north suburb of Chicago, I needed to get back to work. I incorporated MPM Food Equipment Group, and the name stands for Matthew, Patrick, and Mark, my three boys.” He chose the rest of the name to make clear that the business would represent multiple companies.

Approximately one-and-a-half years later, Nicholson moved the business out of the house and leased a 2,500-square-foot building. A couple of key people were brought into the business for administration and sales, and these people are still with the company today. MPM began to grow quickly at this point and soon moved on to lease a 5,000-square-foot building. The growth rate continued to pick up, and in 2014, the company embraced the opportunity to purchase a 48,000-square-foot building in Wheeling, Illinois. MPM leases out half of the space and operates from the other 24,000 square feet.

In 2011, MPM acquired a company called Connecticut Food and Weighing Equipment to further expand its market reach. The new branch manages all of the northeast states for MPM, and the partnership has turned out to be quite profitable for both parties.

“We had growth every year consistently, and we got to the point where we’re a $20 million business, and then about three years ago, we kind of peaked and started declining. Whole Foods was purchased by Amazon and they quit building new stores, which slowed down our growth,” says Nicholson, MPM’s founder and President. At its peak in 2018, MPM had a staff of twenty-four people but was forced to let a few go due to similar patterns with other supermarket chains affecting its growth.

As a result of the pandemic, the decline in sales for MPM did not last very long. “When everybody was staying home, they still went shopping, so supermarkets kept chugging along and replacing equipment, and we stayed alive there. But the big thing was the pizza business,” explains Nicholson.

The pizza section of the food retail market was incredibly active throughout the pandemic. Many restaurants had to shut down but were still permitted to offer carry-out and delivery services. This motivated some restaurant owners to add pizza to their menus, which led to a huge increase in demand for MPM. Its pizza oven sales in 2020 were approximately fifty percent higher than the previous year.

Although the pandemic resulted in significant growth for MPM, some difficulties have followed. Currently, the supply chain for manufacturers, in general, is a problem. The lead times for equipment have extended considerably because manufacturers are waiting for components. When most of the United States shut down and non-essential manufacturers closed their plants, it had a ripple effect throughout many markets. One product that has been less affected by supply chain interruptions is the PizzaMaster electric deck oven. MPM imports the PizzaMaster oven from Borås, Sweden, and its parts are sourced from within Europe.

MPM is the exclusive distributor and provider of the PizzaMaster electric deck ovens in the United States. Alongside the MPM’s Whole Foods buyer, Nicholson met the founder of BakePartner, the supplier of PizzaMaster at a restaurant show in Toronto in 2008. Christer Andersson was working the booth for his Canadian distributor of PizzaMaster ovens, and MPM’s Whole Foods buyer was interested in the product. This was the beginning of the partnership with PizzaMaster. Roughly five years later, MPM was installing PizzaMaster ovens in all the Whole Foods across the country. Whole Foods now purchases only PizzaMaster products for its locations whether it is for a remodel, a new store, or a replacement.

For MPM, the PizzaMaster products are selling even faster in 2021. Currently, sales are forty-seven percent above last year’s numbers. The key factor is that these ovens are electric and there are over 50,000 gas deck ovens in the United States that need to be replaced. The heat capacity of the PizzaMaster is unique because it can reach 932 degrees Fahrenheit, or 500 degrees Celsius, and it has heating elements at the top of the chamber and below the hearthstones.

A gas unit only has burners underneath, and for this reason, the PizzaMaster oven provides more quality and consistency. In addition, unlike the gas pizza oven, the PizzaMaster oven does not lose its temperature as the night goes on and sales pick up speed.

“With PizzaMaster, it’s the opposite. The more you feed it, the happier it is, and now we have testimonials everywhere about how we can increase their capacity during peak times, and it’s got exceptional recovery on heat, so this allows the customer to actually sell more pizzas in the same time frame,” says Nicholson. MPM offers the largest range of PizzaMaster models, with 85 sizes and over 1,500 combinations. Its capacity and flexibility are valuable for quality precision cooking.

“We can do all different types of pizza: Neapolitan from Italy where they need the 900 degrees to cook it high for the large percentage of hydration in the pizza dough, the deep dish, and the Detroit style. We can cook every different type of pizza, and we actually do it better. And our pricing is very competitive,” says Nicholson.

Customers can find food equipment products online at low prices, but these products are not accompanied by any service or support. The MPM sales team has a substantial amount of experience that is hard to compete with.

There is great team camaraderie between the sales and administration departments at MPM. Many of the employees have been with the company for most of its existence. “Each employee takes ownership in their responsibilities when completing their tasks,” says Nicholson, “And we’re very technologically-driven, so we use a lot of technology to minimize labor such as automating a quote into a purchase order through our accounting system, and we have a customized [customer relationship management] system that really helps the sales team.” The culture is friendly and open because everyone is free to be their own leader, and the self-motivation approach works well since the employees are so experienced and goal-driven.

This family-run business and its team of experienced people with integrity enjoy giving back to those in need. It regularly supports sharing parishes that deliver food in the Chicagoland area by donating equipment such as freezers and walk-in refrigerators to their food depositories.

One of Larry’s sons, Patrick, is twenty-seven years old and has Down syndrome. He is an employee of MPM and works two days a week on the pizza demonstrations and helping to close sales. Patrick’s journey has inspired the team to get involved with an association called Misericordia, a campus in Chicago with approximately five hundred adults who have different types of intellectual and developmental disabilities. MPM provides all of the association’s food equipment by selling to them at cost or by donation, depending on the product. “We’re very big into Misericordia because that’s where I hope Patrick might eventually be able to live as he tries to figure out what he wants to do one day,” says Nicholson.

Consolidation in the industry is making it more difficult for smaller dealers to be profitable. To survive amongst the competition, a small company needs to find a niche in the marketplace, and PizzaMaster is MPM’s niche.

“We’re also looking into private-labeling some bakery equipment for supermarkets and wholesale bakeries that we will probably call BakeMaster. We’re looking at doing something like that in 2022. That will give us a couple of product lines we’ll have exclusives on in the U.S., and that will give us that niche,” says Nicholson. MPM has a five-year goal to increase the gross profits year after year with PizzaMaster and its other commercial food equipment.

MPM Food Equipment Group is a one-stop shop for quality foodservice equipment and design services to meet any customer’s unique needs. Prepared for more growth, the company aims to be flexible and adapt to the market, despite the challenges that may lie ahead.

The post Commercial Food Equipment Delivered with Quality Customer Service<p class="company">MPM Food Equipment Group</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

For businesses in every industry, 2020 was a complicated period of unpredictability and adjustment. For the Canadian netting company, this time was used to analyze its processes and methods of interacting with its customers. Traditionally, most of its processes had a hands-on approach, based on in-person meetings that included a heavy paper trail. In the last year, the pandemic has been a springboard for Badinotti to pivot its strategy and adopt its own digital platform to improve its cloud based network.

“This past year was extremely challenging, but it created internal pressures on us, and pressure produces growth. It made us look at everything in a new light, and it allowed us to consider these other strategies that we may not have otherwise prioritized. We developed tools to interface with our own employees first, and then, based on that success, we’ve been able to develop external, client-facing digital tools for reporting, client interactions, and so on in a quick turnaround time,” says Badinotti Net Services Canada Director of Sea Operations Trevor Schiele.

Having worked in aquaculture since graduating high school, Trevor has always been interested in continuing the industry. He grew up on the coast of British Columbia, in a community heavily based in the resource sectors with primary industries in forestry, mining, and fishing. His first post-secondary education path led him to a company that provided service support to the local aquaculture firms, and this is where he discovered his passion for the industry. With the opportunity to experience the innovative and robust nature of aquaculture, Trevor found his calling.

For twelve years, he stuck with the steady, meaningful, year-round work in the aquaculture processing division. “The reliability and the continuity that came from aquaculture was second-to-none, and because of that, it also provided the most opportunity for growth, innovation, and change. Growing up in BC, we have our options, but aquaculture has always been the best choice for me because of that continuity and the ability to stay in the coastal areas,” says Trevor.

As life moved forward and Trevor became a parent, he decided to go back to school. At the age of twenty-seven, he completed a distance education program though the B.C. Institute of Technology in Occupational Health Sciences. The degree helped to open his mind to industrial processes and risk management in aquaculture, which eventually led him to the Badinotti team where he has now been for five years. “I was born in Campbell River, and I’m very proud to be a part of aquaculture and raise my family in close proximity to where I grew up.”

As a result of its connection to its parent company, Badinotti Canada has access to highly innovative technology for netting products and services. In the last two years, it has implemented more environmentally-friendly equipment for its subsea operations. Across its marine fleet, the company has introduced electric net washing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

“These ROVs use twenty percent of the previous energy output to operate. They’ve eliminated environmental risks for operating, lowered our carbon footprint, and increased the fish health quality,” explains Trevor. “The adoption of this technology has revolutionized our ability to serve our clients, which has also opened up many other opportunities for us; for example, environmental monitoring, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.”

In collaboration with its clients, Badinotti is currently working on a few image recognition software projects. It collects subsea environmental risk data and operational data to streamline the processes and make data-driven decisions much faster. The company has also implemented in situ equipment on a new level, further separating it from the competition. The in situ washing process makes it possible for large nets to be washed without having to be moved. Badinotti only continues to increase and improve its offerings to its clients.

The parent company has also developed an innovative platform called EasyTrack to help clients keep track of operations. Since the nets are owned by the clients and serviced by Badinotti, it is important for the client to be able to check on their assets. EasyTrack is an external portal from the company website that allows clients to look at net servicing or repairs throughout the process, and at the end, it also consolidates their billing. Clients can log on to see where their nets are before making informed, data-driven decisions, and this allows them to create efficiencies within their own business. Worldwide, all of Badinotti’s operations are moving towards including EasyTrack.

As mentioned earlier, the other most recent technological advancement for Badinotti is the adoption of its own internal digital platform. Partially motivated by the pandemic, the company established a cloud-based intranet to communicate more efficiently with its employees. It initially focused on the sea operations team, a group of workers based on remote vessels serving the aquaculture industry. After gaining the necessary experience, Badinotti has now brought four mobile apps to market for various uses including operations production, loss control, environmental health and safety, and quality control. It has also developed its external tools to improve communication with clients.

Despite any struggles in aquaculture, those within the industry are dedicated to helping it grow sustainably, innovating and maintaining the industry’s integrity as it progresses. “One of the things we see in aquaculture, at least in the contact we have with our clients, is their great commitment to improve the environmental footprint they leave,” says Badinotti Net Services Canada Marketing Coordinator Miriam Salmeron.

Both the east and west coasts of Canada are ideal for year-round aquaculture production, and this reliability serves the marketplace very well. As a key part of the supply chain, aquaculture provides a consistent healthy product twelve months a year, and the science-based evidence backing aquaculture is very strong compared to other types of agrifoods.

The industry is working towards more investment in organized marketing efforts at the national and provincial levels to combat the lack of awareness about the strides aquaculture has made. In the last two decades, the industry has improved tremendously with regard to its environmental footprint, sustainability, and fish health, and the public must be made aware of these changes for aquaculture to continue to grow and innovate.

With no real way to control misinformation, the focus has been on providing informative data that is verifiable and comes from a credible source. This can be particularly challenging in Canada where eighty percent of the population lives in non-maritime provinces, and people are far removed from the aquaculture industry.

The rate of innovation and change in the industry is significant, and Canada needs a national strategy to educate the layperson about how far aquaculture has come in such a short time. “We need key communications of the positive benefits of aquaculture as a piece in the global agrifood supply chain. And a second part of that is the adoption of the industrial internet of things and A.I. to make it the most efficient source of protein in the world,” says Trevor.

Hopefully, the industry will become a more stable environment that will allow aquaculture to continue to grow across Canada in a way that it remains competitive in the world production scene. There are very few places left on earth that are ideal for cultivating salmon, and Canada has many of those untapped resources. “We need some stability, and in order to get that stability, we need the support from the Canadian people.”

The aquaculture industry is always changing, innovating, and adopting new technologies to improve its processes. Badinotti and other organizations that recognize social license and environmental impact are very attractive career opportunities for young professionals entering the workplace. Despite any roadblocks that get in the way, the future of the industry looks bright for Canada, and sustainable aquaculture will prevail.

The post Improving Aquaculture with Innovation and Technology<p class="company">Badinotti Net Services Canada</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

First founded in May of 1990, the company was established in the small community of Ayr in the municipality of Waterloo, Ontario. Starting small, as a three-truck transportation service, by 1993 the team had begun to see success. That year, the company moved its headquarters to Woodstock, New Brunswick, close to the hometown where Joe Keenan, Founder and President, was born.

Today, the company has dedicated terminals in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Brampton, Ontario, and at its headquarters location in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Across these locations they employ long-haul truck drivers, city, and day-cab drivers, operations and administrative staff, finance and sales teams. Ayr employs just over 500 people in total and is the parent company to Keenan Truck Repair in Woodstock – the maintenance facility for all company equipment.

Ayr Motor has had a presence in western Canada for 28 years. As the company has grown, so have the needs of both its clients and employees. Having reached the limits of what can be done with leased property, Ayr has decided to build its own facility with a full warehouse, cross docking capabilities, and a wide range of employee amenities. It will be larger, modernized, and much more efficient in its operations.

The location of the new facility was strategically chosen, positioned right in the center of the trucking hub of western Canada. A key focus of the building’s design is to accommodate the needs of the company’s workers. It will include lounge areas, a lunchroom, locker rooms, and showers. Designing the new facility with these conveniences is Ayr’s way of giving back to the drivers and staff.

With the understanding that its employees are the backbone of the company, Ayr Motor has many other initiatives to show its appreciation, recognizing drivers with safety and performance bonuses quarterly and million-mile awards that include a bonus, leather jacket, watch and certificate. Office and terminal staff are recognized based on years of service milestones with person gift selections and certificates and celebrations on Employee Appreciation Day. To encourage drivers and staff to be not just great employees, but also great citizens, Ayr also recognizes them through its On the Spot Recognition Program.

One aspect that makes Ayr’s team unique is the dedication they have toward supporting the work-life balance of drivers and ensuring they have the opportunity to schedule their own work hours. “Our driver planners are dedicated to giving our drivers the opportunity to schedule when they’re out and when they’re home,” says Melinda Thornton, Director of Human Resources at Ayr Motor. “We have a whole department based specifically on that for our drivers. That way people have more flexibility; they are at home when they need to be home and out when they need to be working.”

As a family-oriented business, the owners of Ayr Motor are sure to be present and make themselves available to the team every day. Highly community-minded, the company supports local families and businesses through various programs, as well as charities and the local civic center. To express gratitude for the sponsorship, the civic center was renamed to the Ayr Motor Center in 2015. The company is also involved in a number of school programs locally including breakfast programs, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada.

In order to remain successful in the trucking industry, companies must be flexible to the concerns of its drivers – as Ayr Motor has been. “I think as the future goes on, the industry needs to adapt to the driver’s needs,” says Seth Keenan, Director of Operations at Ayr Motor. “What I have seen over the last five years is that drivers want to be home more regularly. We have younger drivers that are coming into the industry and they have families themselves, so we need to be a bit more adaptive to that.”

Exemplifying this employee-first approach, Ayr Motor is proud to have been named “Employer of Choice” by THRSC Atlantic, particularly because it is a designation based directly on the employees’ experience. The Trucking Human Resources Sector Council (THRSC) Atlantic offers employers the opportunity to receive anonymous insight and useful feedback from employees in order to improve the overall workplace environment. Based on completed surveys, the program recognizes companies that score well with their employees and rewards them with the title Employer of Choice. Ayr Motor has now received this recognition in 2019 and 2020.

In a video posted to its website, Ayr Motor drivers praise the company for its commitment to work-life balance. Ayr Motor has built its entire transportation system around maximizing the miles and minimizing turnaround times at customer sites to ensure that drivers can spend as much of their downtime at home with their families as possible. “I can honestly say, in twenty years, that I’ve only slept overnight seven times,” says a driver from the video.

Transporting Purolator freight since 2006, Ayr Motor was named Long-Haul Carrier of the Year by Purolator in 2012, 2014, and 2015. In 2019, the company was named a top carrier with the Purolator Eastern Service Award, and it was also awarded the Purolator Western Safety Award. That same year, Ayr Motor was awarded with Large Asset Carrier of the Year from Crown Metal Packaging Canada, one of the largest manufacturers of beverage packaging in the world. Recently, Ayr Motor was granted a five-year contract with Purolator, one of Canada’s leading package and logistics solutions providers, and for 2020 has been recognized as Purolator’s Eastern Carrier of the Year.

Indeed, the main focus for Ayr Motor is providing efficient and cost-effective solutions to its customers. “We strive to give the best service possible, and many of our customers always tell us that we pay very close attention to detail. [The competition] may do some of the same things, but by us paying attention to detail and ensuring the best service possible, that’s what helps make us successful,” says Keenan.

Another adjustment as trucking advances forward is that the carrier’s performance can be measured by customers much more easily. Customers are able to track and follow a shipment’s progress, and technology in this area will only continue to improve. “I think the industry is held to a higher standard in general now,” explains Joe Keenan, President of the company. “With safety and regulations, we’re held to a higher standard by our customers because there are more tools available to customers to measure your service, so you have to be constantly improving.”

Since Ayr Motor opened its doors in 1990, it has seen consistent success. The company has continued to grow steadily year over year, sometimes in the face of substantial economic challenges. In 2020, as the pandemic caused significant downturns in every industry, Ayr Motor was able to maintain its upward trajectory. In many sectors, as the supply chain broke down, transportation companies faltered as well. With the right business plan and dedicated drivers and staff, as many industries struggled, Ayr Motor continued to grow the size of its fleet. “In my career I have never met such hard-working dedicated employees; they amaze me every day and they are key to our success,” says Thornton.

Last year, as the company celebrated 30 years in business, the team had the opportunity to reflect on how much had changed over three decades and also on how much had stayed the same. Operating in such a competitive industry demands that a company be nimble enough to shift with the changing tides and embrace new tools and technologies. Throughout its tenure, Ayr Motor has always kept pace with industry advancements, but maybe even more important is its commitment to the things that it knows will never change: the virtues of hard work and taking care of the people who do it for you.

Now, as Ayr Motor looks ahead, the company is excited about the opening of its new terminal in Winnipeg and the anticipated overall growth that it hopes will turn into further expansion. After a long year of slow progress, the world is beginning to return to normal. Ayr Motor is ready to continue its climb toward even greater success.

The post A Growing Freight Company Giving Priority to Driver Needs<p class="company">Ayr Motor Express</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

When the world changed in response to COVID-19 in 2020, the Door County Economic Development Organization (EDO) pivoted overnight to remotely work from home, but that did not slow down the team’s activity. In fact, the employees of the organization managed a heavier workload than usual, helping over 230 businesses directly during the pandemic.

To find resources, provide counseling, and offer whatever assistance possible, the economic development organization made over 89,000 telecommunications between March tenth and the end of July. “We were very busy for a small staff,” said Door County Economic Development Organization Executive Director Steve Jenkins. “Our first priority was assisting our existing businesses with tapping into resources to manage through the pandemic and resulting economic impact.”

He explained that, “We typically do one email blast to our constituents once a week, and we were averaging one email a day at that time with critical information on resources and on information that we had vetted to make sure it was true and accurate for our constituents so they knew what to do, where to go, and how to do it.” The EDO is now back in the office but operating much differently than usual.

The county has been relatively fortunate compared to other Wisconsin counties that have been more affected by the pandemic. “We have businesses that are telling us: to date, this is the best year they’ve ever had in their history, which is counterintuitive to what we’ve all been experiencing. I think part of that is we are a manufacturing center as well as a tourist destination,” said Jenkins.

Although most people would guess that hospitality is the largest contributor to the county’s gross domestic product, it is manufacturing that is the largest contributor to the county’s GDP. The manufacturing sector, based primarily in Sturgeon Bay, has continued to thrive as a result of the county’s ability to quickly adapt and put regulations in place that kept operations safe and productive during the prime period of the pandemic. Very few manufacturers had to lay off any employees.

To remind people of the vital impact that manufacturers have on the local economy, the county celebrates Manufacturing Day on October 2.

The tourism sector has also remained active. With cancelled trips abroad, many Americans have taken the opportunity to travel by car to destinations closer to home this summer, and Door County is an ideal vacation spot. The county has also seen a change in the demographic of its typical visitor, as much younger tourists than usual visit the area.

“We see public revenues at or slightly lower than the pre-pandemic period, so we think that we are going to come through this in pretty good shape economically, barring any other disasters that may happen,” said Jenkins.

Last September, Door County launched the website LIVEDoorCounty.org to focus on attracting a younger workforce to the area. “We are on a peninsula, so we are kind of geographically challenged in terms of commuting patterns. We are seeing the Live Door County website have an impact concerning the younger workforce, and we have a lot of inquiries now from young entrepreneurs that are interested in living and working out of Door County, particularly from the Chicago metro area,” Jenkins said.

The website exposed the county’s opportunities and amenities to a wider audience, and Door County has a lot to offer, including a multitude of year-round recreational opportunities that are quite attractive to the younger segment of the population. The economic development team is pleased to see that the Live Door County website is frequently used to make informed decisions about moving to the area.

Other workforce development initiatives have become more challenging, including the EDO’s effort to promote the manufacturing field to schools in the region. All five school districts within the county have taken different approaches to reopen, ranging from socially-distant classrooms to virtual learning. Some programs have been paused, but the Youth Entrepreneurship Program is moving forward in full swing, and employers and the school districts find it to be highly valuable.

The program matches young apprentices with local employers to raise awareness about the local career opportunities and has been such a success that DCEDC, in collaboration with Ahnapee Regional Youth Apprenticeship, is hiring a full-time program coordinator for Door County students. DCEDC wants to have placed 130 students in apprenticeship programs by the end of 2021.

In Door County, 68 percent of businesses have fewer than four employees. The economic development organization quickly discovered during the pandemic that the small business sector of the county needed support that it did not have. Going into 2021, DCEDC will roll out a program for its existing businesses of all sizes.

Recently, the EDO hired a new Director of Business Development whose responsibility will be focused on the current business sector. The goal is to provide educational opportunities and other resources that were revealed to be lacking throughout the pandemic.

Rather than recruiting new businesses from multiple sectors, Door County has narrowed its focus. The community was built on the maritime industry and plans to re-energize it over the coming year. “We are going to relook at the maritime sector and where we can grow that sector both in terms of manufacturing but also in terms of services to the maritime industry,” said Jenkins.

Tired of the term, ‘the new normal,’ he hopes that the nation’s economy will stabilize as it adapts to these different circumstances. “I truly believe this is going to be a two-to-three-year readjustment period, barring any additional explosions of the virus or other natural or manmade disasters.”

The county will continue to foster its businesses and encourage entrepreneurial endeavors. With remote work opportunities growing, the EDO will also be paying attention to opportunities that will permit working from home.

Communities across the country are assessing the future in the wake of such potential volatility and deciding where to put their efforts. Door County is emphasizing infrastructure by expanding broadband services and developing affordable housing units. The EDO is actively involved in these areas because they are necessary to grow the economy in the future. Affordable housing is needed to accommodate its year-round workforce as well as its seasonal workers.

The economic development organization will strive to make sure that each of its sectors has an opportunity to grow and prosper as the country moves forward with an unpredictable economy. These days, strategies and plans can be redirected in a single day and economic organizations must be vigilant and flexible enough to adapt to changing situations.

“You’ve got to be able to pick up on changes before they occur and be willing and able to shift gears to accommodate those changes,” Jenkins said. “I think there are challenges moving forward, but I also look at the future very optimistically, and I think it holds great opportunities. It’s just a matter of being focused on what those opportunities may look like and doing your best in collaboration with others in your community, as we do here to take advantage of the changes that are ahead of us.”

Certainly, the pandemic has changed much of the economic development organization’s approach to the future. But this has been a learning experience that will leave a lasting impact on the county.

“I think we have the best of all worlds here,” said Jenkins. “It’s a beautiful location, it’s a wonderful place to vacation, and we also have a very robust manufacturing sector and agriculture sector. We have a diverse economy as it relates to our county, and I think we’re fortunate.”

The post Shifting Gears to Support Local Businesses through Trying Times<p class="company">Door County Economic Development Organization</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.