Lester R. Summers, Inc. (Summers Trucking)
A few months ago, Lester R. Summers, Inc., a venerable, family-owned, heavy haul transport company based in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, met with each individual in its company to discuss the company’s response to COVID-19. The effects had hit Pennsylvania hard.
Allstates Rigging
Allstates Rigging – a woman-owned, turnkey rigging contractor based in Two Rivers, Wisconsin – is in expansion mode. The firm’s skills include forklift operations, plant relocation, and machinery transportation, and it recently acquired a machining facility to augment its services. As befitting the company name, Allstates works with clients across the USA.
Simard Suspensions
Simard Suspensions designs, manufactures, and installs front and rear suspensions and steering systems for vocational trucks. The Quebec-based firm has a new assembly plant, a popular patented front tandem suspension system, and a culture of innovation. The company also does truck conversions and offers a cutting-edge line of modified vocational vehicles for off-road work.
Kaufman Container
Kaufman Container has been a leader in the packaging industry for over 100 years, yet they continue to find new and innovative ways to evolve as a company. They have adopted new markets, invested in new state-of-the-art decorating equipment and have put an emphasis on sustainability. In other words, a lot has changed since Business in Focus last profiled Kaufman Container in 2016.
Metro Plastics Technologies
Now approaching its forty-fifth anniversary, Metro Plastics Technologies, Inc. of Noblesville, Indiana owes much of its initial success to a goofy disco-era fashion trend involving rings with acrylic stones that changed color. However, the company’s long-term success comes from doing excellent work, offering an array of custom injection molding services, and maintaining strong customer relations.
Town of Davie, FL
The Town of Davie, Florida has been a busy place of late. Since Business in Focus profiled this booming Broward County community in December 2018, several long-term construction projects have been seeing results. Davie officials also unveiled a strategy designed to guide economic development through 2023 while maintaining service levels in a period of major growth.
Select Tool
Select Tool, Inc. of Oldcastle, Ontario, has undergone many changes since the firm was profiled in September 2017 in Business in Focus magazine. Many positive changes, that is, despite uncertainty in the automotive market which makes up the bulk of its business. Select’s Mexican satellite plant has begun operations, and the company has expanded its domestic facilities.
Nationwide Boiler
Much is the same at Nationwide Boiler Incorporated, since Business in Focus last featured the California-based firm in its December 2018 issue. The scope of its operations, however, continues to expand.
Attabotics
Attabotics Inc. is a Calgary-based company with ground breaking technology and big ambitions. The firm, in its own words, is all about ‘creating the supply chain for modern commerce.’ Its vehicle for achieving this goal is a cutting-edge, three-dimensional, robotic warehousing and order fulfillment system.
New Braunfels, TX
Located in Central Texas near major transportation routes, the city of New Braunfels is one of the fastest-growing communities in America. The city has become a popular destination for businesses, tourists, and residents alike. Now, as it approaches its 175th anniversary, local officials plan to mark the city’s founding by highlighting its unique heritage and contemporary appeal.
Damotech
Warehouse pallet racking systems used for product storage are sometimes seen as an afterthought. Once in place, they are expected to serve their purpose without much care, as storage locations for a company’s inventory. Unfortunately, the reality is much different, says Eric Naaman, president of Damotech, North America’s largest rack safety solutions specialty firm.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association
The Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) has a simple message: oil and natural gas are good for Texas and the United States in general. Oil and natural gas drive the Texas economy, generating billions of dollars in annual royalties and taxes while providing high-paying jobs to nearly 350,000 people. Surging oil and natural gas production has enhanced domestic security by making the U.S. less dependent on foreign fuel sources, while industry-funded innovations have had a positive environmental impact.
OK Tire
OK Tire is on the move. Canada’s largest independent tire and automotive service retailer has embarked on a five-year, $100 million drive to expand its distribution capabilities to serve a rapidly growing network of stores.
E.J. Family of Companies
Three firms, devoted to poultry, freight, and logistics respectively, operate under the wing of the E.J. Family of Companies. All three are based in Puyallup, Washington and owe their existence in large part to the popularity of southern chicken.
Wharton Economic Development Corporation
Emerging from a battering by Hurricane Harvey two years ago, Wharton, Texas has embarked on a remarkable upward trajectory. As Business in Focus noted in a profile in 2018, community spirit has triumphed over adversity.
Hightowers Petroleum Company
Hightowers Petroleum Company (HPC) has a presence in every state and is currently the largest African-American-owned downstream petroleum wholesale marketer operating in the U.S. This family-owned business sells gasoline and diesel to automotive OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), grocery chains, the steel industry, utilities and other Fortune 500 companies, and it takes pride in its comprehensive service.
Saturn Oil + Gas, Inc.
It’s been a good year so far for Saturn Oil & Gas, Inc., a rising firm in Canada’s energy sector staffed by a young, ambitious management team.
Autonomous Vehicles Enter the Workplace
There has been much talk recently about vehicles that can drive themselves. Much of this attention has been focused on self-driving cars, designed to take passengers to and fro. Self-driving cars, however, are still largely a dream and remain in the research and development phase.
ECS, Inc. International
ECS, Inc. International is headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas with manufacturing operations in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and China along with a global distribution network to market its products. ECS produces frequency management products including quartz crystals, quartz filters, precision crystal clock oscillators, ceramic filters-resonators, metal power inductors and multiple other circuit board level components that will be introduced near term.
Cogent Power
Cogent Power, Inc. designs and produces materials and components for transformers, generators, and motors. The company is the largest manufacturer of electro-transformer components in all of Canada and emphasizes quality, safety, and innovation. It uses lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles to enhance its products and processes.
CURRENT EDITION
December 2022
PAST EDITIONS
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
Ambassatours Gray Line
In Atlantic Canada, tourism is rebounding as COVID restrictions ease, and Ambassatours Gray Line is ready to serve visitors. The company has built a reputation for more than 35 years as Atlantic Canada’s premier tourism offering. In its home of Halifax, boat and bus tours whisk passengers away on a historical journey of one of the nation’s oldest cities.
Town of Grand Falls–Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador
Grand Falls–Windsor, centrally located on the island of Newfoundland, is a welcoming, family-oriented, business-friendly community with much to offer residents and visitors alike.
City of Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador
Located on the west coast of Newfoundland, Canada, the City of Corner Brook, with its thriving arts and cultural scene, natural attractions, and burgeoning cruise line industry, is poised to become a provincial leader in tourism. Boasting the province’s second-largest population behind St. John’s, this most northern city in Atlantic Canada offers year-round events and outdoor activities for visitors of all ages to enjoy.
Town of Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador
As the slogan goes, the Town of Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador, is a bright town with a bright future. Home to a population of 27,000 strong and counting, Conception Bay South is the second largest municipality in the province in terms of population, and third in population growth behind only Paradise and Clarenville.
Port Charlottetown, PE
“You can’t underestimate the significance of a port to a community, or in this case to the whole province,” says Mike Cochrane, CEO of the Charlottetown Harbour Authority Inc., which manages Port Charlottetown.
SFX Transport
There have been major changes at the East Coast trucking company that went by the name Seafood Express Transport when Business in Focus profiled the company in March 2021. For a start, the family-run business is now called SFX Transport, to better reflect the type of goods it hauls and to modernize the company moniker.
