NCEDA’s roots go back to a core mission of supporting the professionals working to bring jobs and investment to North Carolina. What began as an industrial development group has today grown into a full-fledged professional association supporting economic developers across every corner of the state.

“We’re actually 60 years old this year,” President, André Lennon says. “We celebrated in spring 2026. The association started as an industrial development group with the purpose of supporting economic developers in the state of North Carolina in recruiting industry to this state, helping bring jobs to the state, and supporting our citizens.”

That founding purpose has scaled dramatically. Today NCEDA counts nearly 1,000 members, a mix of economic development practitioners and ally members, professionals who support practitioners through site readiness work and other services that fuel business growth.

The organization itself runs lean. As a not-for-profit membership association, NCEDA is governed by a volunteer board and works alongside the L2 team. “NCEDA is a not-for-profit membership association of economic developers from across the state of North Carolina,” Vice President, Clark Duncan, explains.

The board draws its strength from geographic and professional diversity, helping NCEDA understand and advocate for the differing needs of urban, suburban, and rural communities across the state.

Ask NCEDA’s leadership what’s fueling North Carolina’s economic momentum, and several sectors consistently rise to the top: aviation and aerospace, automotive manufacturing, biotechnology, technology, and data all remain strong performers.

“What’s exciting is that they’re pretty consistent across the state of North Carolina,” Duncan tells us. “We are a state that continues to see a lot of growth and investment in aviation and aerospace, and automotive manufacturing. Biotechnology remains dominant, as does technology and data.” He adds one more sector to the list—food and beverage—which he describes as a consistently strong performer for the state.

For a state routinely ranked among the best places in the country to do business, the reasons go beyond any single factor. Geography plays a foundational role, according to Lennon, who points to the state’s position in the Southeast and on the East Coast as an advantage that simply can’t be replicated.

“North Carolina has been very competitive over the past decade, and our geography is one of our competitive advantages that you can’t make up,” he says. “We have some quality of life advantages that assist us, but also the business climate is one of our strong competitive advantages as well. There’s a tax structure that’s set up that supports and incentivizes business investment.”

Duncan builds on this point, emphasizing the role NCEDA plays in sustaining a favorable long-term cost of doing business through relationships with legislative leaders. “Working with our legislative leaders, reminding them of the importance of having a long-term cost of doing business that’s favorable for companies,” is central to the association’s work, he says.

He also points to infrastructure investment, adding that the state’s interstate and highway network is a major asset, giving companies an efficient way to move products to customers. That, paired with a tax structure designed to let companies reinvest in themselves and in North Carolina over time, rounds out the state’s competitive edge.

The team also highlights a critical piece of the competitiveness puzzle: state investment in project-ready sites. Preparing properties in advance through due diligence and infrastructure investment can reduce risk and shorten speed-to-market for companies evaluating North Carolina. “There’s a lot of investment coming from the state to intentionally help and spur economic development all across North Carolina,” Duncan says, “and that makes for a big competitive advantage, along with our workforce solutions.”

While the North Carolina Department of Commerce and local governments administer most formal incentives and grants, NCEDA’s role is less about the dollars and more about the connective tissue between them. Lennon describes the association as a bridge linking the state’s many resources into a coherent, collaborative whole.

“We want our most rural counties to be as successful as our most urban,” says Lennon. “An association such as ours that represents the entirety of the state really thinks about how we share resources, how we advocate across all of our diverse members, so that we can come together to support project wins in all parts of the state.”

NCEDA connects its members to partner organizations such as the North Carolina Railroad and the Golden LEAF Foundation, which support site readiness and infrastructure funding. “Our association, being a member trade association, is the connector,” Lennon says. “We’re helping provide professional development opportunities on how to apply for those grants where they’re best administered.”

Workforce development runs through nearly every conversation about North Carolina’s competitiveness. NCEDA advocates for workforce policies and investments that respond to employers’ needs while also helping develop the next generation of economic development professionals.

“Over the last 15 to 20 years, North Carolina has been a real leader in investing in education and workforce development, which is necessary for effective economic growth in any state,” Lennon says. Through its foundation, NCEDA also invests in the future of the economic development profession through mentorship, internship, and other programs designed to bring new professionals into the field.

The connection between workforce policy and successful business recruitment can be seen in Rockingham County’s recent recruitment of TSEA Energia, a Brazilian manufacturer establishing its first U.S. manufacturing facility in the county. TSEA places a strong emphasis on apprenticeships and developing its workforce through hands-on learning—exactly the type of employer need that has shaped NCEDA’s advocacy for greater state investment in apprenticeships, community college programs, and other work-based learning opportunities.

“When we advocate for workforce funding, it’s because we hear directly from companies about what they need to be successful,” says Leigh Cockram, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for Rockingham County. “TSEA is a great example. Apprenticeships are an important part of their workforce model, and our community college and workforce partners are working with the company to help build that pipeline here. At the same time, the state has increasingly recognized the need to invest in apprenticeships and other work-based learning opportunities. That alignment between what employers need and where we invest our workforce resources is critical if North Carolina wants to continue winning projects and, more importantly, help those companies succeed after they get here.”

NCEDA’s flagship talent initiative, Career Trek, through its partnership with the NCEDA Foundation, actively recruits promising college graduates into economic development careers with the goal of sending them back to their home communities as future leaders. “We’re actively recruiting very promising college graduates from across the state into economic development professions so that they can go back into their hometown communities and take a leadership role in unifying businesses and educational and academic allies with our elected leadership to strengthen the economies of all 100 counties in the state,” Lennon says.

That long-term investment extends to mentorship within the profession itself, pairing younger economic developers with senior colleagues to build institutional knowledge and a shared sense of purpose.

Indeed, NCEDA’s programming reflects an intentional effort to support members at every career stage. Alongside Career Trek, the association runs an Emerging Executives group for early-career professionals, offering programming tailored to those just beginning in the field. A mentorship initiative pairs senior members with early-career professionals to encourage knowledge sharing across generations. And the Practitioners Workshop, now in its third year, rounds out the offering for members further along in their careers.

“We have a representative each year on our board who provides insight into their perspective and the key ideas they want to hear at our conferences and other meeting content throughout the year,” Lennon says of the Emerging Executives group.

Duncan echoes the sentiment, framing NCEDA as a professional home regardless of where a member is in their career or where they’re based in the state. “This organization is the place where, no matter where you are in your career, we’re here for each other; it doesn’t matter where you are in the state, your age, or your demographic,” Duncan says.

One of NCEDA’s most consistent contributions is its legislative advocacy, which channels feedback from economic developers across the state’s 100 counties to lawmakers in Raleigh. That work depends on both strong relationships and NCEDA’s credibility as a statewide voice for the profession. “We have a great relationship with lobbyists and advocates in Raleigh, but we also take the time to understand and know our legislators and make sure they’re aware of what we need,” Cockram says.

NCEDA has consistently advocated for greater and more predictable state investment in site readiness, including due diligence and infrastructure needed to make properties more competitive for projects. “It’s really important that we also maintain a level of prestige and respect from our legislators, so they know that when we’re coming to them, it’s for something that’s truly needed statewide,” Cockram says, “not specific or self-serving for any one sector of our membership.”

Looking ahead, the competitiveness challenge is broader than any single program: North Carolina must continue aligning policy and investment around the full economic development ecosystem—project-ready sites, infrastructure, utilities and energy, workforce and education, housing, transportation, speed-to-market, and a predictable business climate. One area of ongoing advocacy is expanding funding for project-ready sites, where speed to market has become a critical competitive factor.

“We’ve seen additional funding for site readiness, whether that’s due diligence studies for industrial sites or other infrastructure improvements to have these sites ready for projects when they’re relocating to our state,” Lennon shares.

Ultimately, he credits the association’s success to something less tangible than funding or sector strength, and that is collaboration. “Organizations like NCEDA really set the state of North Carolina apart in the very competitive economic development landscape in the United States,” he says. “You have to have great land, products, and sites. You have to have a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. But really, the magic is in collaboration and how you pull together teams across universities, industry, and government to support economic growth. That remains a key priority for NCEDA.”

After 60 years, NCEDA’s next challenge is not simply to celebrate North Carolina’s success, but to help sustain it. With nearly 1,000 members and a statewide network of practitioners and partners, the association is positioned to help ensure that the policies, investments, and collaboration that made North Carolina competitive continue evolving for the next generation of projects and communities.

The post Keeping North Carolina Competitive for 60 Years<p class="company">North Carolina Economic Development Association (NCEDA)</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

This year marks 20 years since that transition, and the organization is marking the milestone by reflecting on how its mission has evolved, growing from a Chamber committee into a dedicated economic development engine that now supports more than 130 manufacturers across the county.

“We became our own entity laser-focused on job creation—the creation and the retention of quality jobs in Henderson County,” says President and CEO, Brittany Brady. She explains that doing so helps to offset taxes and expenses for the county’s residents, a dynamic that has shaped HCPED’s priorities from the start. “We’ve always been focused on strong job creation and strong capital investment because it offsets taxes and expenses for our citizens,” she says. “Having that strong tax base is important, and obviously, having great jobs for our citizens is important.”

Over the past 20 years, though, HCPED’s role in the community has broadened well beyond chasing individual projects. Brady describes the organization today as a strategic development partner, one that has built out more robust workforce programming and product development efforts alongside its traditional recruitment work.

Remarkably, all of this is accomplished by a lean team. HCPED typically employs between three and four people. “We are small and mighty,” Brady says of her staff.

HCPED operates as a 501(c)(6) entity and describes itself as a public-private partnership. Elected officials and public bodies fund much of its work, effectively contracting HCPED to recruit and retain quality jobs on the county’s behalf. Private investors also contribute, having recognized the return that comes when new industry moves to town. “When industry comes to town, it benefits everyone,” Brady says, “and so they have invested in the work that we do.”

Balancing those public and private interests, she says, comes down to listening to what public partners find important and to what the industry itself needs. “It’s listening to what our public partners find important, what industry sectors are a good fit for our community, how they’re developing their land code and where we can work with them,” Brady explains. “The other element is understanding what industry needs, understanding if there’s an opportunity to become more business-friendly, if there are opportunities to collaborate.”

That approach, Brady says, has paid off in an unexpected way by helping both public officials and private companies better understand why economic development matters in the first place.

Part of what sets Henderson County apart, believes Brady, is the strength of its relationships with elected officials, relationships HCPED has worked deliberately to build. “They have bought into economic development, and that isn’t by chance. That is us really working with them, having meetings, educating them again on the importance of manufacturing investment in our community and how great manufacturing is—it’s really clean jobs, great jobs, strong investment.” The result is a business-friendly environment where companies know they can pick up the phone and get the answers they need. “They feel welcome here,” she says.

HCPED’s work is overwhelmingly concentrated in one sector. Roughly 95 percent of its office’s focus is on advanced manufacturing, and its location plays directly into that specialty. Henderson County sits south of Asheville, North Carolina and north of Greenville, South Carolina, a position that lends itself naturally to transportation components manufacturing. “We can serve the automotive industry in upstate South Carolina and even further south, as well as the growing aviation and aerospace cluster that has been established in western North Carolina,” Brady says.

Beyond transportation, the county’s industry base spans several sectors shaped by its mountain setting and its growing population. Outdoor products manufacturing, healthcare and healthcare manufacturing, food and beverage manufacturing, general machining, advanced materials, and professional and technical services all feature prominently. “More and more people want to live in western North Carolina, and those headquarters-type jobs and technical jobs are finding their way to the mountains as well,” Brady says.

When it comes to the investors HCPED is actively courting, the target list mirrors its existing strengths in aerospace, automotive, outdoor products, healthcare products, food and beverage, machinery, advanced materials, and professional and technical services.

Ask Brady what she shows prospective investors first, and location tops the list. Henderson County sits on Interstate 26, within a day’s drive of most major East Coast markets, and benefits from connectivity to Interstates 40, 81, 77, and 85. “That is huge because we have this opportunity to get along the Eastern Seaboard.”

The county is also just an hour from an inland port, with access to multiple deep-water ports across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Several of its premier industrial sites sit minutes from Asheville Regional Airport, and Charlotte International Airport is less than two hours away. “There’s just an abundance of location advantages to being here in Henderson County,” Brady says, noting how critical that combination becomes for companies looking to shorten supply chains and diversify freight options.

For companies weighing where to land, HCPED points to its Economic Development Assistance Grant, a performance-based incentive tied directly to job creation, wages, and capital investment. Companies that qualify can recoup a percentage of their ad valorem taxes on both real and personal property. “Our program is pretty aggressive, and we go up to 120 percent of those ad valorem taxes based on jobs, wages, and investment,” Brady says. Companies that bring high job counts, strong wages, and substantial investment stand to see that full 120 percent return through the performance-based grant, a significant draw for manufacturers evaluating sites across the region.

Beyond recruitment and retention, HCPED has invested heavily in workforce development through its Made in Henderson County program, launched in 2012 to introduce local students to manufacturing careers.

The program began with a video, then expanded to include facility tours, educator visits, classroom presentations, and eventually a children’s book. Brady describes it as a cradle-to-career pipeline. Elementary school students in Henderson County Public Schools receive a picture book about local manufacturing. Middle schoolers go on plant tours. By high school, students are encouraged to consider an apprenticeship program run in partnership with Blue Ridge Community College, or to pursue manufacturing-focused training at the college directly.

“We know that many of these students do want to go to a traditional four-year university, and so for those students who are seeking a four-year degree, we do want to remind them that they can come back to Henderson County and there are great jobs,” Brady says.

Local manufacturers function almost like small cities in themselves, employing far more than production-line workers. “Whether you have an engineering degree, an HR degree, a marketing degree, or anything in between, there’s a good chance that a manufacturer in Henderson County will have a good job opportunity for you,” she says.

The children’s book at the center of the program, titled You Can Make It, grew out of Brady’s own experience as a parent. As the mother of two school-age children, she has seen firsthand how important reading is, both at home and in the school system. “Students are always finding new facts and new stories from reading. And as a parent, helping a child read, you’re also learning these things,” she says.

That observation became the seed for a book aimed specifically at first-grade students in Henderson County Public Schools, designed so children and their parents could learn about manufacturing together. “We want students to know that you can make it. You can be successful in your hometown, and you can make products here through manufacturing. And for those parents who are reading the book, you too can make it. You can also make products here in Henderson County,” says Brady.

Asked about HCPED’s priorities for the next three to five years, Brady points to a 101-acre tract adjacent to Asheville Regional Airport known as Ferncliff Industrial Park, purchased jointly by Henderson County and HCPED a couple of years ago.

“These 101 acres and its location by the airport, its proximity to Interstate 26, make it a prime manufacturing site,” Brady says. The site requires LEED certification, supporting clean manufacturing operations, and its direct access to the airport runway is a rarity in western North Carolina and across the state more broadly.

“We would love to capture aerospace manufacturing there at Ferncliff Park,” Brady shares. “That would be a win for us personally as an organization, but also for our community and as the state, getting back to our roots as being first in flight.”

For HCPED, the relationship with a new manufacturer doesn’t end once a deal closes. Brady describes a hands-on approach that begins the moment a company begins its site search and continues long after it opens its doors. “When a company comes to Henderson County, we’re with them 100 percent of the way. When they’re starting their search, we want to make sure that we’re finding the right location for them and removing any hurdles that are with them in that startup phase. But also once they get established, we stay with them.”

HCPED positions itself as a connector within the broader community, linking companies to the local leaders, partners, and resources they need to put down roots. “We like to say we’re a jack of all trades, where we know so many different people in the community and we’ll connect you with those leaders,” Brady says.

As a membership-based organization, HCPED also hosts a range of events for its investors and for the broader manufacturing community, alongside a members-only portal that lets manufacturers connect with one another. Regular retention visits help HCPED’s small team stay attuned to what existing companies need, whether that means help securing a grant, expanding infrastructure, connecting with another manufacturer, or linking up with a utility partner.

With its next chapter centered on aerospace ambitions at Ferncliff Industrial Park and a workforce pipeline already reaching the county’s youngest residents, HCPED’s message to prospective manufacturers is straightforward. As Brady puts it, Henderson County is open for business.

The post Small and Mighty: Turning Geography into Growth for Western North Carolina Manufacturers<p class="company">Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development (HCPED)</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

RCEDC is a nonprofit organization with a clear mandate in supporting the industries already rooted in the community while attracting new manufacturers to the county. It’s a mission with real stakes. Manufacturing accounts for roughly 25 percent of all jobs in Randolph County, making it a cornerstone of the local economy and a driving force behind the county’s long-term planning.

“We really focus on the industrial sector, and that is supporting the industry that is already based in our community as well as the attraction of new industry to Randolph County,” says Kevin Franklin, President of RCEDC. “It’s an important part of our local economy. We want to keep that healthy and thriving and make sure we’ve got plenty of opportunities for our residents.”

That dual focus of supporting existing employers while pursuing new investment shapes nearly everything RCEDC does, from its incentive structure to its day-to-day outreach. It’s an approach built on the understanding that economic development isn’t just about landing headline-grabbing announcements, but about sustaining the businesses already contributing to the tax base and employing local residents.

Randolph County’s industrial base spans a wide range of sectors—automotive, aerospace, plastics, food and beverage, metals, furniture, and textiles among them—but one sector is generating more momentum than any other right now. “The automotive sector is big, with Toyota batteries in production now in our community,” says Franklin.

Toyota announced its investment in the county in 2021, and the ramp-up has been substantial ever since. The company has committed to more than 5,000 jobs, with roughly 3,000 already on site. That growth is ongoing, and according to Franklin, it’s having a positive impact community-wide.

The scale of the investment is significant not only for the jobs it creates directly, but for the ripple effects it generates throughout the local economy, from suppliers seeking proximity to the plant, to service industries supporting a growing workforce, to the broader signal it sends to other manufacturers considering the region. A project of this magnitude tends to validate a community’s readiness in the eyes of other site selectors, and Franklin and his team are clearly aware of the opportunity that presents.

The Toyota battery plant sits on the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, an approximately 1,800-acre property that Toyota owns outright, alongside with a handful of on-site suppliers. The megasite was central to landing the deal in the first place. “That was a pretty big pitch,” Franklin says of the site’s role in the negotiations.

Megasites of this scale are rare, and they typically take years of coordinated planning among state and local agencies to prepare for a project of Toyota’s size. Having land ready for an operation with this footprint was a critical piece of the puzzle and it’s part of the reason RCEDC continues to emphasize site readiness as a priority for future growth.

Ask Franklin what draws manufacturers to Randolph County specifically, and a few themes emerge quickly: workforce, quality of life, and a long manufacturing heritage that has left the region with a strong labor pool.

“I think they’re coming for the workforce. I think they’re coming for quality of life as well,” he says. “And because we have such a high concentration of manufacturing, we’ve got a high manufacturing quotient for many of the sectors that we’re bringing in. So that means there are resources, there are suppliers, and there’s workforce.”

That manufacturing quotient, a measure of how concentrated an industry is in a given area relative to the national average, matters to companies evaluating where to locate or expand. A high quotient signals an established ecosystem of workers who already understand plant environments and production schedules, and a regional identity tied to industrial work. For companies weighing the risks of standing up a new facility, that kind of ecosystem can meaningfully reduce ramp-up time.

Location plays a significant role too. Randolph County sits centrally within North Carolina and along the East Coast more broadly, with direct access to interstates 73, 74, 85, and future I-685. The county is also within reach of I-95 and I-77. “It’s really quite a convergence from a transportation standpoint,” Franklin says. For manufacturers, that convergence translates directly into logistical efficiency, meaning shorter shipping times to both suppliers and customers and easier access for the workforce commuting from surrounding counties.

Rail infrastructure adds another layer of advantage, with Norfolk Southern operating multiple lines through the county. “Not every community has rail access,” Franklin says, “so that provides some unique opportunities as well.”

For heavier manufacturing operations, or those moving significant volumes of raw materials and finished goods, rail access can be a deciding factor that highway infrastructure alone can’t replace. It’s a differentiator RCEDC leans on when pitching the county to industries with rail-dependent supply chains, such as automotive and metals manufacturers.

Despite its many strengths, Franklin is candid about the challenges RCEDC faces when it comes to available real estate. As a legacy textile, furniture, and tobacco community, Randolph County has a substantial inventory of older industrial buildings but many weren’t built with today’s manufacturing operations in mind. “We do sometimes struggle with availability of ready-to-go sites and suitable buildings,” he says. “For example, the ceiling heights typically are not what our manufacturing operations today are looking for.”

This is a challenge familiar to many legacy manufacturing regions across the country. Buildings constructed decades ago for textile mills or furniture production were rarely designed with the clear-height requirements or automation infrastructure that modern manufacturers now expect. Retrofitting older stock can be costly, and in some cases, it’s more economical for a company to build new than to adapt an existing structure.

On the site development side, the picture is mixed. Some properties are closer to shovel-ready than others, and Franklin tells us the county doesn’t currently have a fully prepared shovel-ready site on offer, though that could change quickly with the right end user. Indeed, site readiness has become a decisive factor for many manufacturers, particularly those on compressed timelines, and communities without shovel-ready inventory can find themselves excluded from consideration before negotiations even begin. RCEDC recognizes this gap and is prepared to move quickly to close it when the right opportunity presents itself.

The workforce remains one of RCEDC’s central priorities, and its partnership with Randolph Community College plays a key role in addressing it. “We have a great partnership with Randolph Community College, and of course North Carolina is known for its customized industrial training program,” which gives the county a strong tool for preparing workers to meet the specific needs of incoming manufacturers. “We are talking with the community college on a weekly basis,” says Franklin.

That weekly communication points to a working relationship built on a continuous feedback loop between the organization recruiting employers and the institution responsible for preparing the workforce those employers will hire from. When a new company signs on, RCEDC and the community college can move quickly to design training that matches the operation’s specific needs, rather than relying on generic programs that may not translate directly to the plant floor.

Randolph Community College can help train the local workforce, but of course wages and workplace culture remain firmly in each company’s hands. “What we can’t control is culture and wages,” Franklin says. “The companies that are really focused on providing the right type of environment for their employees and paying them fairly generally don’t have trouble finding the right kind of applicants.” RCEDC can help build the pipeline, but it’s ultimately up to individual employers to make the jobs at the end of that pipeline attractive enough to fill.

For manufacturers considering Randolph County, RCEDC offers a structured set of incentives designed to support both new entrants and companies already established there. Performance-based cash incentives, typically structured over a five-year window, form the backbone of the offering. RCEDC calculates anticipated new taxable revenue from a company’s operations and negotiates a portion of that back to the business over time.

“We also work closely with the state of North Carolina for grants and incentives at the state level,” Franklin says. “Some of those require matches from the local governments, and we participate in those.”

For companies eyeing vacant buildings that need upfitting, RCEDC has had success securing state grant dollars to support renovations, administered on a per-job basis. Training support is available as well, through customized grants developed in partnership with the community college. “We can put a plan together through the community college to help with that training even over a three-year period,” says Franklin.

This layered approach to incentives gives RCEDC multiple levers to pull depending on a company’s specific circumstances. Rather than offering a single, one-size-fits-all package, the organization tailors its support to the size and needs of each business, whether that’s a multinational automaker or a small manufacturer looking to expand its footprint.

RCEDC’s support doesn’t stop once a company sets up operations. The organization’s existing industry program, built around outreach and ongoing connections to resources, is one of its most important functions. “Let’s get the new company here and then continue to support them through our existing industry programs,” Franklin says.

That ongoing relationship is, in many ways, the quieter half of RCEDC’s work. Recruitment announcements generate headlines, but retention and expansion, keeping existing employers satisfied and growing, often matter more to a region’s long-term economic health.

On the smaller end of the scale, the City of Asheboro has recently introduced small business grants aimed at companies that may not qualify for larger state-level programs. “When they fall in that gap, if they’re growing, adding jobs, adding tax base, there’s an opportunity to capture some incentive dollars, grant dollars on a much smaller scale,” Franklin explains. That gap-filling function matters for a community like Randolph County, where not every employer is a Toyota-scale operation. Smaller manufacturers and family-owned businesses make up a meaningful share of the local economy, and ensuring they have access to growth capital, even in modest amounts, helps keep that segment of the industrial base healthy.

RCEDC sees the county’s manufacturing base continuing to shift toward higher-skill, higher-automation operations over the next five years, with particular opportunity in metals, plastics, and additional automotive-related industries. “We’re definitely moving in the advanced manufacturing direction—more automation, more highly skilled workers—which is beneficial because that means they’re receiving higher pay and better benefits,” Franklin says.

This trajectory mirrors a broader pattern playing out across manufacturing hubs nationally as automation reshapes the skills required on the plant floor and pushes wages upward for workers equipped to operate and maintain increasingly sophisticated equipment. For Randolph County, positioning itself at the front of that shift could prove to be a defining factor in the type of investment the region attracts over the next decade.

RCEDC operates with a small but dedicated team, with three full-time staff members and one part-time. Kevin Franklin leads the organization, with Crystal Gettys serving as Business Recruitment Director, focused on bringing new business to the county and working with property owners to bring new products onto the market. David Hursey serves as Existing Industry Director, interfacing daily with local industry to ensure companies have the resources and connections they need to thrive. Malynda Shumaker, working part-time, manages the organization’s financial operations.

Such a lean structure means each team member wears multiple hats, and it speaks to the level of coordination required to run an organization responsible for both landing large-scale investments and maintaining relationships with the county’s smaller, established manufacturers.

With a strong industrial base and a clear strategy for workforce development and incentive support, Randolph County—and the RCEDC team guiding its growth—is positioning itself for a new era of advanced manufacturing.

The post Built to Grow<p class="company">Randolph County, North Carolina</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

The Person County Economic Development Department and the Economic Development Commission operate as separate bodies under the same county umbrella, working in close coordination. The department is staffed by county employees, while the commission functions as an advisory board made up of community and local government representatives including representation from the City of Roxboro, Person County’s only municipality, the public school system, and Piedmont Community College, alongside an agricultural representative, a minority-business representative, a real estate developer, and several members at large.

Bryan Eatmon, Interim Director of the Person County Economic Development Department, has spent two and a half years with the department, most of that time as its Existing Industry Specialist before stepping into the Interim Director role a few months ago. “My role was to support existing business and industry, so finding out what their needs are, their challenges, their strengths, and trying to connect them,” Eatmon says of his earlier position. Much of that work involved linking companies to resources to help them develop their workforce or navigate new legislation. As Interim Director, Eatmon now also leads recruitment of new business alongside existing-industry support.

Manufacturing, healthcare and social assistance, retail trade, and utilities all rank among Person County’s key industries today, according to Eatmon. Two Duke Energy power plants operate within the county, employing a large workforce at wages well above the county average. But manufacturing carries a particular importance for local economic development.

“Manufacturing has a pretty substantial ripple effect within the economy,” Eatmon says. Manufacturers draw on local service companies for maintenance work and rely on regional transportation and logistics providers, multiplying the economic benefit of each new facility. Person County’s economic development team is actively working to attract more manufacturing investment for just that reason.

No company illustrates the payoff of that strategy better than POLYWOOD®, the outdoor furniture manufacturer that has become one of Person County’s largest employers. Sherry Wilborn, Chair of the Person County Economic Development Commission and a Person County Commissioner, was serving as Economic Development Director when the company was recruited to the county and worked closely on the project.

Person County was competing against a site on an interstate in South Carolina. “The building had everything they needed in a great location,” Wilborn says of the competing site. Ultimately, though, it was Person County’s workforce that tipped the decision. The project manager for the company said many times, including in the official announcement, that the building brought POLYWOOD to Person County, but its people made the company choose to stay.

That choice has paid dividends for the county. POLYWOOD has since more than doubled its campus footprint and its employment, now counting more than 600 workers. “That just speaks to the fact that that was the right choice,” Wilborn says.

Person County’s manufacturing base also includes companies with deep roots in the community that are finding new life under fresh ownership. North American Aerodynamics has manufactured parachutes in Roxboro for more than six decades, producing canopies for military, sport, and humanitarian use. Following a season of changing business conditions, the company was acquired by Roberto Montañez, an aerospace engineer who also owns Butler Parachute Systems in Roanoke, Virginia.

Eatmon, in his former role as Existing Industry Specialist, worked directly with the new ownership during the transition. “A lot of companies are a little hesitant to disclose a lot of information, just because they’re privately held,” he says. Even so, he made repeated visits to the facility, meeting with management and ownership to identify the company’s needs.

Workforce quickly emerged as the central challenge. North American Aerodynamics’ work depends on skilled sewing labor and finding workers with that background has not been easy. Even so, the company has grown its workforce from roughly 35 employees at the time of acquisition to about 80 today. Eatmon credits sustained relationship-building for that growth. “We remind them that we’re here to help and find creative ways to get them what they need,” he says.

As a rural county, Person County has ample land, but Eatmon is candid about a gap in its site inventory. Older sites once used for manufacturing remain available, but many no longer match what advanced manufacturers are looking for today. Years of effort went into developing the megasite in the northern part of the county, the site Microsoft ultimately purchased, and that focus came at a cost.

“A lot of eggs were put in that basket for a number of years,” Eatmon says, and while the Microsoft project stands as a major win, it also meant that development of smaller sites, in the range of 50 to 200 acres, received less attention during that period. The department and commission have since recognized the gap and are now working on a site selection analysis in partnership with Duke Energy, with a goal of completing the analysis by the end of October.

“That way we can push forward to getting some public control of some sites and doing the site work necessary to have a better inventory of available sites to attract further investment to Person County,” Eatmon says.

Wilborn sees the shortage as a byproduct of the county’s own wins. “We find ourselves in the position we’re in because of successes,” she says. A 26-acre site was quickly claimed by an existing industry, and the megasite was purchased by an internationally known company in Microsoft. “We have, like Bryan said, prioritized getting ready for the next one.”

Location matters enormously to manufacturers, and Eatmon points to several assets that position Person County well for distribution-dependent operations. U.S. Highway 501 runs north-south through the county and U.S. Highway 158 runs east-west with both connecting directly to Interstate 85. Raleigh-Durham International Airport is roughly 45 minutes from Roxboro, and Person County’s own Raleigh Regional Airport, a general aviation facility rather than a commercial one, boasts one of the longest runways for a general aviation airport in North Carolina at roughly 6,005 feet, with plans to extend it to about 6,800 feet. The airport can currently accommodate a DC-9-class aircraft, giving cargo operations meaningful capacity.

Rail service also runs through the northern part of the county toward South Boston, Virginia. While the absence of a direct interstate through the county puts Person County at a disadvantage relative to some competitors, Eatmon says its highway connections largely offset that gap. Geographically, the county sits between Durham and the Research Triangle Park to the south and Danville, Virginia, a proximity that gives it access to a large pool of highly skilled, highly educated potential employees.

Workforce development runs through three core partners—Person County Schools, Piedmont Community College, and NC State University’s Industry Extension Service. Career and technical education programs in the public schools introduce students to the basics of skilled trades, and the county’s annual Manufacturing Week, held in the first week of October, brings students into local manufacturing facilities to see modern operations firsthand.

“There has been a perception of manufacturing from years ago in which manufacturing was perceived as a dirty, dangerous job with long hours, very repetitive work. That is no longer the case,” Eatmon says. “It is clean, it is safe, it is well-paying, and it’s interesting; it takes a lot of technology and a very unique skill set to operate and work in a manufacturing facility.”

Piedmont Community College offers a range of programs geared toward manufacturing careers, including mechatronics coursework that blends mechanical and electrical engineering. Students frequently secure job offers before completing their programs, and the college’s work-based learning opportunities let students gain real-world experience with local manufacturers while still enrolled. The college also provides customized training for companies adopting new equipment or systems, along with OSHA and safety training.

NC State University’s Industry Extension Services, led locally by Research Triangle Regional Manager, Mitch Poteat, rounds out the county’s workforce resources with leadership training for supervisors, lean-process implementation support, and networking opportunities focused specifically on the manufacturing sector.

Wilborn notes that the commission was deliberately structured to keep education and industry connected. “We have on our EDC, intentionally, [representation from] the community college, the Superintendent of Person County Schools, and the Dean of Workforce Development at the community college,” she says. “We try to utilize our relationships and their relationships, so we can see firsthand when things are moving and shifting in industry and we can react.”

Beyond its strong business case, Person County’s team points to lifestyle as a genuine draw for businesses, individuals, and families. Mayo Lake Park and Hyco Lake offer boating, swimming, and fishing, and the county recently completed a 281-acre park in its southern end for mountain biking and hiking, a regional attraction in its own right. Land prices remain lower than in neighboring, more densely populated counties, and Eatmon describes a slower, close-knit pace of life: “We have a rural community,” he says. “We’re small enough where people know each other, they know their neighbors. It’s not as fast-paced, and we don’t have traffic problems on a commute.”

A Duke LifePoint hospital provides local medical care, while proximity to Durham and Raleigh keeps additional services within easy reach. Wilborn, a Person County native, and Eatmon, who relocated to the area several years ago, both point to a work ethic rooted in the county’s agricultural history. “Our agricultural roots mean we have a strong work ethic,” Wilborn says. “You’ll find people here that are good and welcoming and hardworking, and I think that’s kind of our secret sauce.”

For Wilborn, the county’s recent wins reflect a broader lesson about rural economic development. “You can come to a rural community and find the infrastructure you need, find the workforce that you need, and find the support, maybe even more so at the local level, to be successful,” she says.

Eatmon echoes that commitment to the companies the county recruits. “Once a company comes here, they’re getting a bit of a concierge treatment, because they are important to us and we know the value of a company that decides to come here and wants to invest here,” he says. “We want them to be part of this community. We want them to stay here.”

With a megasite already claimed by Microsoft and a legacy manufacturer rebuilding under new ownership, Person County’s economic development leadership is positioning the community for its next chapter of growth.

The post Manufacturing Momentum: Two Entities, One Mission<p class="company">Person County, North Carolina</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Behind the headline growth figures sits an industry recalibrating on several fronts at once: travellers are rethinking where and how they spend their money; governments are tightening the rules around who can cross their borders and on what terms; and destinations from Venice to Kyoto are openly rationing the very demand that keeps their economies afloat. For operators, planners, and everyone working across the travel and tourism supply chain, 2026 is shaping up to be a year defined less by simple recovery and more by adaptation.

For years, “sustainable travel” functioned mostly as a marketing category, a badge hotels and tour operators could apply to a handful of green initiatives. That framing is shifting. Overtourism has become one of the defining pressures on the sector this year, and a wide range of governments have moved from talking about visitor caps to enforcing them. Venice has required QR-coded access for day trippers, Santorini has introduced a daily visitor cap, and Amsterdam has cut cruise calls and relocated docking further from its historic core to reduce pollution, noise, and crowding.

Barcelona has raised its combined hotel tax to up to €12 per person, per night, and doubled its nightly rate for five-star properties. Japan is tripling its international departure tax in July, alongside sharply higher lodging taxes in Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Hiroshima. Norway, a relative newcomer to this trend, is introducing a municipal tourism tax of up to three percent on overnight stays this summer to relieve pressure on its fjords and the Lofoten Islands.

The scale of these changes marks a genuine shift in strategy rather than a series of one-off fee hikes. Industry analysis of the trend frames the 2026 tax increases as a deliberate pivot toward high-value tourism, driven by overtourism concerns and environmental targets. Destinations are increasingly judging success by the value tourism delivers to residents and local infrastructure, not simply the volume of arrivals passing through.

That has direct consequences for how travellers plan trips and for how travel businesses need to position their offerings. Two-thirds of travellers say they would avoid a popular destination if they expected it to be crowded, and nearly half now actively support incentives for off-peak travel, according to Simon-Kucher’s Global Travel Trends 2026. The rise of the so-called “anti-tourism” traveller, someone deliberately seeking out quieter, less-visited alternatives to hotspot cities, is feeding a corresponding rise in interest around secondary destinations, with search interest in emerging spots now climbing noticeably faster than in a region’s established hubs.

Climate is compounding this shift. Changing weather patterns are steering more travellers toward off-season trips and destinations with milder, more predictable climates, adding an environmental dimension to decisions that were once made purely on cost or convenience. For operators, that means the destinations and travel windows considered “shoulder season” only a few years ago may need to be re-evaluated as peak product going forward.

None of this means eco-sensitive travel is a niche pursuit confined to a small segment of conscientious travellers. It is increasingly the default lens through which destinations are managing capacity, setting prices, and shaping the visitor experience, whether individual travellers are actively seeking sustainability or not.

If sustainability pressures are reshaping demand, geopolitical volatility is reshaping supply, specifically which regions and nationalities can move freely at all. Security intelligence firm S-RM notes that rising political tensions in various regions have driven new visa requirements and travel restrictions, while military tensions and open conflict elsewhere have triggered regional airspace closures, diverted flight routes, and evacuations. The firm points to a rise in disruptive incidents linked to Russian activity, including drone sightings that have triggered temporary airport closures across Europe, as an increasing factor affecting European travel specifically.

The United States has been a major source of this volatility in 2026. It has fully or partially suspended entry and visa issuance for nationals of 39 countries, including broad suspensions for 19 nations and narrower restrictions on visitor, student, exchange, and immigrant visas for 19 more.

The State Department’s Worldwide Caution, issued in July over heightened tensions in the Middle East, adds another layer of uncertainty for both leisure and business travellers. Travel industry groups have warned that these measures risk deterring international visitors and denting revenue in sectors that depend heavily on inbound tourism.

Europe, meanwhile, is tightening its own systems in the name of security and efficiency rather than restriction. The European Entry/Exit System, which replaces passport stamps with fingerprint and facial recognition data, becomes fully operational in April, making overstays past the 90/180-day limit far easier to detect. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System follows later in the year, requiring pre-travel authorization for visa-exempt visitors from the U.K., the U.S., Canada, and Australia among others. Visa rules are changing quickly enough in 2026 that keeping track of the requirements has itself become part of the planning for individual travellers and corporate travel managers alike.

For an industry that runs on predictability, booking windows, and cancellation policies, this level of regulatory flux is a genuine operational headache. Even the anticipation of new restrictions can shift booking behaviour before any rule changes, as travellers and travel managers alike hedge toward destinations with more stable entry conditions.

Corporate travel budgets are rising regardless, projected to reach $1.69 trillion globally in 2026, but travel teams are having to build far more contingency and verification into every itinerary than they did even two years ago.

Cost sits at the intersection of both trends above, and it is arguably the pressure travellers feel most directly. Tourist taxes alone can now add hundreds of dollars to a two-week, multi-city trip, a cost that rarely appears transparently at the point of booking the way flights or hotel rates do. That has already begun to nudge behaviour toward what one industry report calls “destination dupes,” lower-cost or lower-profile alternatives to the cities absorbing the heaviest new levies.

At the same time, spending on travel itself is not contracting. American Express’s 2026 Global Travel Trends Report found that 40 percent of respondents plan to spend more on travel this year than last, and 74 percent of Millennials and Gen Z surveyed describe travel as a non-negotiable expense rather than a discretionary one. “Travellers are being incredibly intentional about how they spend their vacation time,” says Audrey Hendley, President of American Express Travel. A meaningful share of younger travellers say they would even accept a job with fewer benefits in exchange for greater flexibility to travel.

That intentionality is producing a split within the travel market rather than a uniform one. Deloitte’s 2026 Travel Industry Outlook identifies a bifurcation inside the luxury segment itself: ultra-luxury properties remain largely insulated from economic headwinds, while mass-market luxury and premium cabin upgrades are showing early signs of softness as more affluent travellers turn price-conscious. Budget-conscious travellers are not disappearing; they are simply becoming more deliberate about where their money goes, prioritizing experiences and flexibility over volume or status.

Technology is playing an increasingly direct role in how travellers manage this squeeze. Nearly a quarter of travellers now use generative AI tools to plan trips, per Deloitte’s research, three times the share who did in 2022, even as the industry works to connect AI-assisted planning more seamlessly with actual booking and content. Google’s AI Mode now assembles full day-by-day itineraries complete with hotel recommendations and loyalty options, and hotels are using AI to personalize everything from room preferences to in-stay amenities before a guest even arrives.

For cost-conscious travellers, that same technology is also becoming a tool for finding value, comparing properties, surfacing lesser-known destinations, and building itineraries that avoid the newest layers of tourist taxation.

Running alongside the financial and regulatory pressures is a less tangible but equally consistent theme: travellers want their trips to mean something. Wellness tourism is projected to surpass $1 trillion globally this year.

American Express’s research found that a large majority of respondents believe the skills or experiences they gain while travelling stay with them longer than any souvenir would. Nearly nine in 10 global respondents say they like to leave room in their itinerary for unplanned local discoveries, and roughly three-quarters say they are likely to try something outside their comfort zone while away from home, a figure that climbs even higher among Millennial and Gen Z travellers.

This pursuit of authenticity dovetails naturally with the anti-tourism trend discussed above: travellers avoiding overcrowded hotspots are often the same travellers seeking deeper, more localized experiences rather than checklist sightseeing. For operators, that suggests genuine opportunity in secondary destinations and community-based tourism, provided the infrastructure and staffing exist to support a more personalized style of service.

One further trend deserves mention alongside the headline pressures of sustainability, geopolitics, and cost: the composition of leadership within the sector itself. The appointment of Shaikha Al Nowais as Secretary-General of UN Tourism marks the first time a woman has led the organization, and it arrives alongside a broader recognition that hospitality, an industry built on people and local communities, has historically underrepresented women in senior roles relative to its workforce.

Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council since 2021, continues to shape policy across sustainability and workforce development for a forum representing 200 CEOs across airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and travel agencies.

Whether such a shift in leadership translates into faster progress on the sector’s other challenges remains to be seen, but it is a structural change worth tracking alongside the more immediately visible trends.

No single trend defines travel and tourism this year. Instead, the sector is navigating three pressures simultaneously: destinations imposing real limits on visitor volume in the name of sustainability; governments tightening and complicating cross-border movement for security and political reasons; and travellers recalibrating how and where they spend against a backdrop of rising, less transparent costs.

Businesses that treat these as separate, isolated issues risk being caught out by all three at once. Those that build flexibility into pricing and traveller communication while leaning on technology to personalize the experience without adding friction stand the best chance of turning a genuinely complex operating environment into a competitive advantage.

The post The New Rules of Getting Away<p class="company">Sustainability, Security, and Cost Are Reshaping Travel</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Rocky Mountain Supply traces its history back to two predecessor cooperatives, Gallatin Farmers Company in Belgrade, Montana, founded in 1931, and Coop Supply of Dillon, established in 1938. Both companies emerged from the Great Depression era, when farmers and ranchers across Montana banded together to gain better buying power, particularly for the gasoline and diesel their operations depended on.

“A lot of coops were formed coming out of the Great Depression era,” says Brad Gjermo, Chief Executive Officer. “They were looking for ways to enhance their buying power and to purchase things more competitively, and it did generally start surrounding the petroleum industry.”

Over the decades, the two coops merged to form Rocky Mountain Supply, expanding well beyond fuel to serve the full range of needs facing modern producers. What began as a way to secure better prices on petroleum has grown into a company with a presence across nearly every corner of rural life.

The agricultural landscape Rocky Mountain Supply serves today looks markedly different than it did 90 years ago. According to Jason Rorabaugh, Chief Operating Officer, agriculture is far less labor intensive than it once was, and the number of individual farms and ranches has fallen dramatically as the industry has consolidated. Total farmed acreage has held relatively steady and livestock numbers remain comparable to where they stood in the 1930s, but the operations working that land today are much larger than their predecessors.

Gjermo points to two forces behind that shift: consolidation and technology. Some acreage has been lost to urban development over the decades, he says, but the producers who remain are operating at a scale that would have been unrecognizable to the coop’s founders. Machinery and equipment have advanced accordingly, and Rocky Mountain Supply has had to keep pace, adapting its own facilities and equipment to serve fewer, larger operations rather than a high volume of small ones.

“We like to look at ourselves as kind of a business partner,” Gjermo says. “We’re here to help them succeed in what they’re doing, and we try to play our role in providing them what they need to be successful.”

Rocky Mountain Supply operates as the only cooperative in its trade territory, a distinction that shapes its entire business model. The company is owned by its members, and its mission centers on serving them rather than external shareholders.

“The customer is the company,” Rorabaugh says. “It doesn’t really benefit Brad or me per se; we’re just employees of the company, but the members are the owners. So, when Rocky Mountain Supply is successful, we return dividends and patronage back to the members.”

Each year, the coop distributes its earnings back to members in a combination of cash and equity. Retaining a portion as equity allows the company to reinvest in its own operations without relying entirely on outside borrowing.

“That equity portion that we retain helps finance the company and reinvest back in it, replacing and adding assets,” Gjermo explains. “Instead of us distributing everything that we make back to the membership in cash, we retain part of it, so we’re not having to borrow to reinvest back in the company.”

Governance follows the same member-first model. Gjermo reports to a seven-member board of directors elected by the coop’s voting membership, all of whom are working farmers or ranchers. As a producer cooperative, only agricultural producers may serve on the board or vote on governance matters such as director elections and mergers. Membership itself remains open to anyone, and all members share in the company’s profits regardless of voting status. The distinction, Gjermo explains, is purely about governance—anyone can be a member and benefit from the cooperative, but shaping its direction is reserved for the producers it was built to serve.

While Rocky Mountain Supply’s producer members remain central to its mission, its customer base has diversified considerably over the years. At least half of the company’s business today comes from non-producers, including a growing roster of commercial customers in construction and excavating, alongside a large volume of retail business through its farm supply and convenience stores. The company’s product range has expanded well past its agricultural origins to include clothing and sporting goods, categories that did not exist within the coop’s offerings in 1931.

Gjermo frames that growth as a natural extension of the cooperative’s role in rural America. Because Rocky Mountain Supply operates primarily in small agricultural communities, it has taken on the job of providing goods and services that might not otherwise be available locally. “We play the role of providing goods and services that others may not be able to, or are not providing in the community,” he says. “That’s what’s driven us to be more diverse than we were when we were formed almost 100 years ago.”

That diversification has required real investment. Serving customers across agriculture, commercial, and consumer segments takes far more product knowledge than the coop needed in its early decades, and the company has built out its staff and expertise accordingly.

Rocky Mountain Supply employs agronomists and energy specialists who provide education and support alongside the products the coop sells. The company holds regular customer meetings throughout the year to share information with its membership, a practice Rorabaugh ties directly back to the cooperative model.

Technology plays an increasing role in how that support gets delivered. Rocky Mountain Supply has used remote fuel tank monitoring for several decades, improving delivery efficiency while giving customers visibility into their own inventory levels. Its agronomy team has adopted drones for field scouting, allowing staff to survey a 300-acre field far faster than would be possible on foot. On the administrative side, the company has begun implementing artificial intelligence and Power BI tools to strengthen its accounting and decision-making.

Rorabaugh expects the shift toward AI to accelerate. “I think AI is probably the biggest thing that’s come along in technology since probably the invention of the internet,” he says. “I don’t even think we’ve scratched the surface of what’s going to be possible.”

Rocky Mountain Supply currently employs between 160 and 180 people, depending on the season, and Rorabaugh attributes the company’s employee retention less to any single program than to the overall environment it has built for its team. Wages and benefits are competitive, he says, but freshly remodeled stores, a modern administration building, a newer vehicle and delivery fleet, and a generous approach to paid time off all contribute to turnover rates that run significantly below national averages across every part of the business. “Providing a good, comfortable workspace and a good culture is really what sets us apart,” he says.

One of the more distinctive pieces of Rocky Mountain Supply’s community role is its foundation, established roughly a year and a half ago. Its origin traces directly back to the cooperative’s ownership structure. When the company distributes patronage and equity payments to members, a portion of those checks occasionally goes unclaimed. Rather than let those funds sit idle, Rocky Mountain Supply created an informal foundation to redirect that money back into the communities it serves.

The foundation’s mission centers on three priorities: supporting agricultural education, particularly for young people considering a career in the industry; funding resources for fire departments and other first responders to better serve their communities; and awarding grants that improve overall quality of life in the areas where Rocky Mountain Supply operates. The company has built a formal application and evaluation process for the program, with the board of directors making final decisions on which requests to fund.

To date, the foundation has distributed roughly $50,000 in grants, with another $25,000 planned over the next six months. The program is currently structured to distribute up to $50,000 annually, a figure Rocky Mountain Supply expects to grow over time. For Rorabaugh and Gjermo, the approach is simply an extension of the cooperative’s core purpose: channeling profits back to the people and places that generate them.

The foundation is only part of the picture. Over the past decade, Rocky Mountain Supply has reinvested close to $50 million into the company itself, upgrading assets, remodeling stores, constructing a new corporate office in 2017, and pursuing acquisitions. Looking at the broader 10-year picture, patronage dividends and equity retirement have returned close to $25 million in cash to the communities the coop serves.

“That all goes back to the people that we serve and the communities that we serve, that is ultimately reinvested back in those communities,” Gjermo says. “We plan to continue to do that well into the future, and hopefully those dollar amounts each year will continue to grow.”

Rocky Mountain Supply is continually investing in new ways to serve its members, and a new online shopping platform for its retail stores is still in the early stages, with more products being added regularly. A retail rewards program is set to launch this winter, returning cents per gallon on fuel purchases along with rewards on retail spending, an offering Rorabaugh describes as a natural evolution of the patronage model the cooperative has run for decades.

The company is also eyeing expansion into new communities, though leadership isn’t sharing specifics at this time. “We feel like there are some areas that we can grow into,” Gjermo shares. “We want to be able to expand that reach so the company can grow, but also so those communities can enjoy what we do the same as the communities we’re currently present in.”

For Rorabaugh and Gjermo, the message they hope readers take away is straightforward. “As a cooperative, our entire purpose and mission and passion is to serve our members,” Rorabaugh says. “Providing our agronomists and our livestock experts and our fuel experts and our people here in the office with what they need because at the end of the day, it’s all about customer service, and they’re our owners. Our goal when we come to work is to provide excellent service to them and provide them what they need to be successful.”

The post Putting Cooperation to Work<p class="company">Rocky Mountain Supply</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Positioned between two of Canada’s most influential economic centres, Halton Hills, Ontario is emerging as a destination of choice for companies seeking room to grow, access to talent, and long-term business support. Located in the heart of the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, the community is leveraging its strategic location, available employment lands, and collaborative approach to economic development to attract investment across a range of high-value industries.

At the centre of these efforts is Invest Halton Hills, the Town’s economic development division. Invest Halton Hills has quickly established itself as a trusted partner for businesses looking to invest and expand in one of Canada’s most competitive economic regions.

“We function as part of the Town of Halton Hills, and our focus is twofold,” explains Graham Lowe, Senior Economic Development Officer. “It’s about supporting the growth of our existing businesses while also attracting new investment to the community.”

Working alongside Lowe is Tony Boutassis, Director of Economic Development, whose responsibilities include overseeing the Town’s Business Concierge Program. Together, their team provides support across investment attraction, business retention and expansion, tourism, agriculture, community improvement initiatives, and major development projects.

Location, location, location
Geography has always played a significant role in Halton Hills’ economic story. Situated between Toronto and Waterloo, the community benefits from direct access to two of Canada’s most dynamic economic ecosystems. Toronto serves as the country’s largest metropolitan market, while Waterloo has earned international recognition as a technology and innovation hub. “Our location gives businesses access to major markets, a large labour pool, strong transportation infrastructure, and established regional supply chains,” says Lowe.

For companies operating in manufacturing, food processing, agribusiness, clean technology, and advanced manufacturing industries, those advantages translate into operational efficiencies and easier access to customers, suppliers, and skilled workers.

The Town’s economic development strategy is closely aligned with broader provincial and federal priorities, particularly in sectors that are shaping Canada’s future economy. Advanced manufacturing, food and beverage processing, clean technology, renewable energy, and agribusiness remain key areas of focus.

“Our goal is to position Halton Hills as a high-value, future-ready employment location within the Greater Toronto Area,” Lowe says. “We want to attract investment that creates quality jobs, strengthens our business community, expands the tax base, and supports sustainable growth.”

Industrial opportunities
One of Halton Hills’ most significant competitive advantages is something increasingly difficult to find within the Greater Toronto Area: available industrial land. As neighbouring municipalities continue to experience land constraints, Halton Hills offers businesses opportunities to establish new facilities on greenfield sites while remaining connected to the GTA’s vast economic network.

This opportunity is concentrated within the Premier Gateway Employment Area, which encompasses approximately 2,200 acres of prestige industrial land.

According to Boutassis, the Premier Gateway represents the Town’s most important economic asset. “It provides excellent access to the 400-series highway network, the broader GTA, Southwestern Ontario, Pearson International Airport, and U.S. markets,” he says. The area is expected to accommodate a substantial share of Halton Hills’ future employment growth as new industrial developments and serviced lands become available.

What makes the Premier Gateway particularly attractive is its rarity. Across much of the GTA, new industrial development increasingly requires redevelopment of existing sites. Halton Hills offers businesses the ability to build facilities designed specifically for their operational needs. “Many municipalities adjacent to us are running out of available land,” Boutassis explains. “We still have opportunities for companies that need room to grow.”

Additional employment lands are also being brought online through long-term planning initiatives, helping ensure that future investors continue to have options within the community.

Building business success
Location alone is rarely enough to secure major investment. Companies evaluating new jurisdictions often consider factors such as approval timelines, municipal responsiveness, access to information, and the ease of navigating development processes. To address these concerns, Invest Halton Hills has developed a hands-on approach that guides businesses through every stage of investment.

The Town’s Business Concierge Program serves as a central point of contact for major projects, helping coordinate across multiple municipal departments while providing clarity around requirements and approvals. “Our approach is very coordinated,” says Boutassis. “We provide site selection assistance, labour market information, connections to partners, and support in understanding municipal processes.”

The program is designed to identify potential challenges early and ensure that businesses have access to the information they need to move projects forward efficiently. For a municipality of approximately 65,000 residents, the level of support available through Invest Halton Hills is notable. “Many larger cities have business concierge programs,” Lowe says. “What’s unique here is that we’re able to provide that same level of sophistication while maintaining the responsiveness and accessibility of a smaller community.”

That combination allows businesses to work directly with municipal staff who have a personal investment in project success while benefiting from services often associated with much larger urban centres. The impact of this approach can be seen in one of Halton Hills’ most significant recent investment successes: Conestoga Cold Storage.

The company selected Halton Hills for a major cold storage development that represents a multimillion dollar investment across multiple phases. While cold storage facilities are often viewed through the lens of logistics, Lowe emphasizes that Conestoga’s operation represents something much more sophisticated. “This is a highly automated cold storage operation powered by proprietary technologies and advanced robotics,” he says. “They’ve developed their technology in-house, and much of the facility is automated.”

The operation utilizes advanced robotics and proprietary systems to manage inventory within highly specialized cold storage environments. The project also demonstrates the broader economic opportunities that can emerge when anchor investments take root.

The full food supply chain
Once a major logistics and food supply chain operator establishes a presence in a community, related businesses often follow. Food manufacturers, processors, distributors, and suppliers benefit from proximity to critical infrastructure and industry partners.

“We’re seeing increased interest from food and beverage companies that want to be close to those supply chain assets,” Lowe says. The result is a growing ecosystem that strengthens Halton Hills’ position within Canada’s food production and distribution network. Among all of Halton Hills’ target sectors, food and beverage processing stands out as one of its strongest value propositions.

The region’s agricultural heritage, transportation connectivity, and proximity to major consumer markets create an environment where businesses throughout the food supply chain can thrive. “In our part of Ontario, you have the full food supply chain,” Lowe says. “From agricultural producers to processors to transportation and logistics, everything is connected.”

Companies located in Halton Hills can reach approximately 150 million consumers within a day’s drive, providing efficient access to both Canadian and U.S. markets. The community is already home to a diverse collection of food-related businesses, ranging from multinational corporations to rapidly growing entrepreneurial ventures. Among them are major industry names such as Kraft Heinz and Cargill Chocolate, alongside innovative companies including Freshouse Foods, Terra Cotta Cookies, and Vision Food Innovations, whose products are distributed nationally.

The sector’s continued growth is supported by a combination of market access, transportation infrastructure, industrial land availability, and competitive development costs.

Sustainability at the forefront
According to Lowe, development charges and real estate costs in Halton Hills often remain more competitive than many neighbouring GTA municipalities, providing additional advantages for expanding businesses. And as economic growth and environmental responsibility are increasingly interconnected—particularly as investors place greater emphasis on sustainability during site selection—Halton Hills has embraced this reality by integrating sustainability into both municipal planning and economic development initiatives. According to Lowe, many companies now evaluate communities based on factors such as energy efficiency, green building standards, waste reduction strategies, and access to cleaner energy sources.

The Town has spent years developing policies and initiatives that support this shift. Climate planning, low-carbon transition strategies, green building initiatives, and sustainable infrastructure investments all play a role in shaping future growth.

The focus extends beyond policy statements and into practical implementation. Municipal capital planning, land-use decisions, and economic development strategies are increasingly viewed through a sustainability lens. That alignment positions Halton Hills to compete for investment from companies that prioritize environmental performance alongside operational efficiency.

A rich pipeline of talent
Of course, a strong workforce remains one of the most important factors influencing business investment decisions. Halton Hills benefits from access to one of North America’s largest labour markets, with approximately 4.7 million people located within commuting distance. The region’s transportation connections support significant commuter movement throughout the Greater Toronto Area, giving employers access to talent from a wide geographic area.

At the same time, the community itself boasts a highly educated population. According to Lowe, approximately 75 percent of local residents possess post-secondary credentials, exceeding provincial averages. Educational institutions across Southern Ontario further strengthen the talent pipeline, with more than 20 colleges and universities located within an hour’s drive of Halton Hills, many of which operate specialized research centres and industry-focused programs. For sectors such as advanced manufacturing, food innovation, agriculture, engineering, and technology, these institutions provide ongoing access to skilled graduates and collaborative opportunities.

“We have access to a highly educated local workforce, a massive regional labour pool, and strong connections to post-secondary institutions,” Lowe says. Those factors help companies meet both their immediate hiring needs and long-term workforce development goals.

Quality of life, always
Amidst its economic ambitions, Halton Hills remains committed to protecting the qualities that make the community attractive to residents and businesses alike. Growth is guided by a planning framework that directs employment development to designated areas while preserving established neighbourhoods, agricultural lands, and natural spaces. “We don’t pursue growth for growth’s sake,” Boutassis says. “It needs to support the broader community through jobs, services, infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life.”

The Town’s two primary urban centres, Georgetown and Acton, retain their distinct character, while employment growth is concentrated within areas specifically designated for industrial and commercial activity. This approach helps maintain the balance between economic opportunity and community livability. For residents and visitors, that means access to parks, trails, green spaces, and recreational amenities. For businesses, it means operating within a community that understands the importance of long-term planning and sustainable development.

As Halton Hills continues to evolve, its economic development team sees significant opportunities on the horizon. The community already supports approximately 23,000 jobs and more than 1,400 businesses. Additional employment lands, ongoing infrastructure investments, and a growing reputation among investors position the Town for continued success.

For Lowe, the formula is straightforward. “The fundamentals are already here,” he says. “We have the land, we have access to talent, we’re connected to major markets, and we’re ready for investment.”

As companies evaluate locations across Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area, Halton Hills is increasingly demonstrating that growth need not mean choosing between business opportunity and quality of life. Instead, Halton Hills offers a combination of both, supported by strategic planning and a clear vision for the future.

The post From Vision to Investment<p class="company">Invest Halton Hills</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Based in northeast Edmonton, Alberta, QPP is a 100 percent Canadian-owned manufacturer of polyurethane pipeline pigs and pigging accessories. Its product range spans sizes from compact-diameter water and chemical lines right up to the large-diameter transmission pipelines that cross North America. The company serves customers in oil and gas, mining, water and wastewater, and industrial process sectors. And since 2016, it has operated as a subsidiary of Suncast Polytech Inc., a strategic acquisition that changed the scope of what QPP is capable of, and what it aspires to be.

What’s in a name?
The name raises eyebrows in boardrooms and on job sites alike. Tim Canete, President of Quality Polly Pig Ltd., is used to the question. “A pipeline pig is essentially a device that travels inside a pipeline, pushed along by the flowing product or by water or air, to do a job,” he says. “The main function is cleaning the inside of the pipe during new construction, for ongoing maintenance, and for prepping lines ahead of inspection.”

Beyond cleaning, pigs serve two other primary roles. Batching pigs separate different products travelling through the same pipeline so a transmission operator can move bitumen down the line one day and switch to a different fluid the next, with a pig acting as a physical buffer between the two. Foam swabs, meanwhile, are used to dewater newly constructed lines before they enter service.

QPP manufactures its pigs exclusively in polyurethane (PUR), in both solid-cast and medium-density foam configurations. The choice of material is deliberate—polyurethane is a family of materials whose properties can be tuned by adjusting prepolymers, curatives, and processing conditions.

QPP engineers select and blend formulations to suit specific duties including harder compositions for aggressive mechanical scraping, softer ones for sealing inside slightly out-of-round pipe, more chemically resistant grades for refined product lines, and highly abrasion-resistant versions for slurry applications in mining.

“Polyurethane provides the combination of properties that pigging demands,” Canete says. “It needs to be soft and flexible enough to conform to the pipe yet tough and durable enough to clean the pipe.”

Partners in success
QPP began operations in 1996. For its first two decades it operated as a focused pig manufacturer, building a reputation for quality across the Canadian oil and gas sector. The transformative moment came in 2016, when Suncast Polytech Inc., an Edmonton-based manufacturer of large-scale polyurethane wear parts for mining, oil sands, industrial, construction, and forestry applications, acquired QPP and brought it under its roof.

Suncast itself had been founded in 1998, driven by a technology it developed in-house, ReCast™. The premise of ReCast is straightforward in concept and technically demanding in execution. New polyurethane is bonded directly to worn, cured polyurethane, rebuilding the original part to its design specifications. The result is a restored component that performs like new. Suncast spent years perfecting this process in some of the harshest industrial environments on the planet, including the oil sands operations of northern Alberta.

“Suncast has been doing ReCast since around 2000,” Canete says. “Initially it was focused on pipeline pig components for Suncor, then it expanded into larger wear parts. The 2016 acquisition of QPP was really about spreading that technology into the broader pigging world.”

Today, QPP and Suncast share a single 22,000-square-foot facility on 3.3 acres in northeast Edmonton. Under one roof sit five automated pour machines, multiple curing ovens, lathes, a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), and a large-format 3D printer added in recent years for rapid prototyping. The combined team numbers around 15 people, small by industrial standards, but deep in expertise.

What the acquisition gave QPP was access to Suncast’s accumulated materials science. Where QPP once operated with a handful of polyurethane formulations, the combined operation now works with approximately 30 distinct recipes, each developed through years of real-world application.

“We’ve gone from a three-recipe company to 30-plus recipes,” Canete says. “All of that knowledge in materials, processing, and parts design, goes into every QPP product.”

The role of ReCast™
In most industrial contexts, a worn polyurethane part follows a familiar path: removal, disposal, replacement. A pig cup that begins its working life with a sharp, precisely dimensioned sealing edge gradually rounds with use. Traditionally, the logical endpoint is the landfill.

ReCast interrupts that cycle. The worn component becomes a core onto which new PUR is cast, creating a permanent bond between the new and cured material. The rebuilt part is restored to full specification dimensions and, based on more than two decades of oil sands service history, performs equivalently to a new component.

The numbers behind the program are significant. Suncast has processed more than 3.5 million pounds of polyurethane since 2000, with nearly half of that volume accounted for by ReCast rebuilds. The program has, by the company’s calculation, kept over one million pounds of polyurethane out of landfill, and ReCast parts cost approximately 30 percent less than new equivalents.

Until recently, however, ReCast remained largely unknown outside of the oil sands sector. “We have a proven rebuilding technology with decades of empirical evidence behind it in one of the toughest industrial environments in the world,” Canete says. “Sustainability is moving from a talking point to an actual procurement criterion in a lot of sectors. ReCast is well positioned for that shift, and we want to get the message out.”

The timing appears right. Canete observes that pipeline operators are increasingly incorporating lifecycle emissions, recycled content, and end-of-life material handling into supplier evaluations. What was once a value-add is becoming a differentiator that procurement teams actively seek.

Home-grown expertise
One of the less visible dimensions of what QPP and Suncast have built is the depth of manufacturing knowledge held within their team and the degree to which that knowledge had to be developed from scratch.

Polyurethane manufacturing for industrial wear applications is a niche with no formal training pathway. There are no degrees in pipeline pig formulation, no certification programs for oil sands-grade PUR wear parts. Everything QPP and Suncast know about the craft—every formulation, every processing technique—has been developed internally over nearly three decades. “There aren’t schools you can pull from. It’s all on-the-job development, and some of our people have been processing urethane parts for more than 20 years,” Canete says.

That institutional depth has a practical consequence and QPP now operates as a recognized engineering house, not merely a manufacturer. Its team uses advanced 3D modelling software for part and mould design and can either develop custom engineered solutions independently or collaborate directly with customer engineering teams. The large-format 3D printer added in recent years compresses the prototyping cycle significantly; where custom pig development once took months of design iteration, the team can now have prototypes in hand within a day in some cases.

The quality assurance program reflects the same discipline. QPP maintains strict vetting criteria for material suppliers, recognizing that formulation consistency starts at the raw ingredient level. Every finished part is inspected against customer specification before it leaves the facility.

The 3.3-acre Edmonton site sits on the CANAMEX trade corridor, with direct rail access via CN’s intermodal yard to the Port of Vancouver and the Port of Prince Rupert, connecting QPP and Suncast to Asia-Pacific markets. The corridor runs south to the U.S. border, giving the operation efficient access to its largest export market.

Canete frames the location in terms of what it makes possible with raw materials arriving from global suppliers and finished and rebuilt PUR parts moving out to customers across Canada, the United States, and international markets. The facility, which QPP and Suncast moved into in 2023, expanded the combined manufacturing footprint and production capacity at a time of growing demand.

The proximity to the oil sands region of northern Alberta, particularly the Municipality of Wood Buffalo, is equally deliberate. Suncast has supplied Suncor and other oil sands producers as an OEM polyurethane supplier for over two decades, and QPP, for its part, manufactures approximately 12,000 pipeline pigs and components annually, most of which are deployed within Alberta’s pipeline network.

For Canadian operators, the 100 percent Canadian ownership of QPP and Suncast carries supply chain implications that have become more salient in recent years. For U.S. and international customers, it represents a stable, allied-jurisdiction supplier with no cross-border complexity.

An industry in transition
The pipeline industry is in the middle of a period of convergence as aging municipal infrastructure is reaching design-life limits, smart pig technology is generating new demand for clean lines ahead of inline inspection, and emerging applications including hydrogen pipelines and CO₂ transport for carbon capture are creating requirements that no established pig formulation was designed to meet. Canete sees all of these as QPP and Suncast territory. “Companies that own their materials capability will be able to respond quickly. That’s exactly where we sit,” he says.

On the product side, QPP manufactures a complete range of solid-cast pigs including Utradisc, Powerdisc, Ball pig, Bell-cup, Dyna-flex, Multi-cup, and Pig-valve configurations; foam pigs including balls, squeegees, and swabs; component pigs for batching, bidirectional, construction, and brush-cleaning applications; and a full accessories program covering brushes, magnets, pigging poles, and transmitters. The intent is that a pipeline operator can source a complete pigging package from a single supplier.

Longer-term priorities include broadening the ReCast program to cover a wider range of pig components, expanding into water and wastewater applications where aging municipal infrastructure is generating increasing maintenance activity, and continuing to invest in the Edmonton facility as both product demand and technology capabilities evolve.

When Canete is asked what he most wants readers to take away from QPP’s story, he steers away from the product and toward the foundation underneath it. “When you buy a QPP pig, you are tapping into 30 years of urethane materials science, an Edmonton-based engineering team that solves real-world wear problems, and a sustainability story, through ReCast, that costs less and wastes less than the alternative. We are not trying to be the biggest pig company in the world. We are the company you call when the challenge is difficult.”

It is a precise articulation of a deliberately focused position. QPP and Suncast occupy a narrow slice of the industrial world—Canadian-owned, built on materials expertise accumulated over three decades without a textbook in sight. The pipeline operators, mining companies, and municipal water authorities that rely on QPP’s products are betting, ultimately, on the depth of knowledge behind each pig that leaves that 22,000-square-foot facility. By most measures, it is a solid bet.

The post Pigs, Polyurethane, and Purpose<p class="company">Quality Polly Pig Ltd.</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Blaine is safe, affordable, and offers a careful balance of nature and curated amenities, making it an ideal place to raise a family and put down roots—but also a place to visit. Located only 10 miles away from downtown Minneapolis, Blaine offers access, proximity, and a unique character of its own.

Regarded as a premier sports and recreation hub in the Twin Cities metro area, the city continues to find ways to bring people in and get them to stay by investing in the city and its infrastructure to ensure that growth is thoughtful and intentional, a strategy that has proven itself time and time again.

Investing in tomorrow, today
It’s no surprise that people are attracted to Blaine. Recognized as one of Money Magazine’s Top 100 Best Places to Live, the community offers countless draws that continue to drive growth in terms of population, investment, and payoff.

The city has grown its retail, commercial, industrial, and residential footprints, all while seeking to preserve the quality of life enjoyed by its residents in the process. Now with a population of just over 76,000, the growth has been sustainable thanks to continued investments in infrastructure, housing, and quality of life to ensure that the city remains a destination of choice.

“We are developing in an orderly fashion, and our infrastructure is ready for that. Also, we are seeing a lot of improvements through the county infrastructure,” explains Community Development Director, Sheila Sellman. These improvements include efforts to expand water, energy, and highway infrastructure to sustain the growth.

Highway 65, specifically, is a great example of a long-advocated investment being made by the State, County, and City that will have a resounding impact for the residents and businesses in Blaine. This is a north-south corridor that runs through the city and is traveled by over 55,000 vehicles a day and soon, it will receive much-needed improvements, as site preparation is underway for 2027 construction.

This investment will not only improve connectivity and access from a logistical standpoint, but it will also open up additional land for development, which is needed as Blaine approaches its complete build-out.

A community in redevelopment
Like many other markets around the country, construction activity in Blaine has experienced a slowdown, largely due to extenuating circumstances beyond its control including high material costs, interest rates, and economic uncertainty, though the building inspection department continues to be busy.

While residential development has slowed, there continues to be activity, particularly in the retail and commercial sectors in northeast Blaine, which has been an area of development focus for years.

“We do have the northeast part of the town opening up for development; when I say that, I mean that city sewer and water will be extended to the north, which hasn’t been the case. With our development trends heading north on Lexington Avenue, that will open up our city sewer and water for those parcels,” says Sellman.

There is also an effort to make what was old new again. For instance, the Northtown Mall is experiencing a retail awakening thanks to the opening of Asia Village, a new Asian-themed marketplace that will breathe new life and culture into the community. With 11 different restaurants, a well-equipped grocery store, and much more, the development has been in the works for years and is now operating, much to the pleasure of residents from the community and surrounding areas who are willing to travel to take advantage of the plethora of choices.

“We’re hoping to see that really change the landscape of the mall and bring in some new stores to revitalize the area,” says Economic Development Specialist, Ruth Tucker.

There is also a growing focus on the North Meadows neighborhood through projects like Lexington Crossings and Lexington Meadows, multi-tenant mixed-use developments that will see the addition of housing, retail, and commercial tenants in what continues to be a challenging market.

“We continue to see challenges with high rental rates for commercial space, limited space, and limited land availability. We are getting closer to growing up fully and the land we do have left is quite challenging,” notes Tucker. She adds, “We have found some creative ways to get around some of that with public-private partnerships, and in some cases, incentives, when merited.”

From Tucker’s perspective, “We’re being much more strategic about our growth to make sure we’re getting the uses and amenities that our residents want to see and need versus just what we can infill.”

A big part of this strategy and intention has centered around one of the biggest draws to the community: sports and entertainment, which continues to be a driver that is bringing opportunity to Blaine.

Game on!
As a sports and entertainment destination, a great deal of effort has gone into Blaine’s 105th Redevelopment District, the sports entertainment district that is home to the National Sports Center, restaurants, hospitality, entertainment, and residential, and continues to draw the attention of locals and visitors alike.

“There’s been a lot going on out there. They are working on the utilities for that district, so the water and sewer have gone in, and they’re upgrading 105th Avenue by adding another roundabout,” says Sellman of the project, which was under construction at the time of writing.

Centered around the National Sports Center, the world’s largest amateur sports campus. Featuring the world’s largest indoor ice arena of its kind and spanning 600 acres, the NSC is the most visited sports facility in the state, generating over $70 million in annual visitor economic impact. The facility, which features 17 artificial turf fields and more than 30 grass fields, hosts the Target USA Cup, one of the largest amateur soccer tournaments in the world, and its eight sheets of ice are the training grounds of the USA Women’s Olympic Hockey Team and athletes of all skill levels.

The true spectacle of the site has to be the M Health Fairview Dome, a 110-foot-tall space that holds two full-sized soccer fields and two full-sized baseball diamonds, making it the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, the 58,000-square-foot NSC Sports Hall and a 5,000-seat stadium hosts countless events.

Blaine is also home to Victory Links Golf Course, an 18-hole championship golf course and the only PGA-Tour designed course open to the public in Minnesota, which sees some of the world’s best golfers engaged in competition during the 3M Open each year, Minnesota’s only PGA event. While this event brings with it an impressive economic boost for the community, Blaine has also found a way to maximize the impact of the sport.

Waggle, one of the fastest growing golf apparel and lifestyle brands, has relocated its headquarters and flagship retail store to Blaine’s Radisson Road Business Center, which proves that the city is truly capitalizing on every avenue of growth available to it, doing so in a way that complements the community and its growing assets.

Growing with intention
Not all economic wins are loud, but that doesn’t mean their impact is any smaller. Through continued economic growth and success, Blaine continues to build confidence in its ability to meet the needs of a growing population while maximizing the quality of life and return on investment of these activities.

As it approaches full build-out, there is an acute awareness that the needs of the community must be met, which is why, in addition to new permits and plans, the community is also conducting feasibility studies, including one to identify the viability of a new fire station in the northeast.

Through this growth strategy, Blaine maintains a future-focused approach to development, intentionally building on its strengths, sustaining its growth, and celebrating the many wins that will reinforce the character and identify of this community for the long term.

The post Where Hard Work Is Paying Off<p class="company">City of Blaine, Minnesota</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“Since the Riverport Authority was created almost 60 years ago, we’ve provided real value to Louisville, the state of Kentucky, and even to the entire nation,” says Steve Miller, who became the authority’s Executive Director in August 2024. “We’re actively shaping the future, not waiting for it.”

To understand where the Louisville Riverport Authority is headed, it helps to understand what it already is. Miller describes its value through three interconnected pillars.

The first is the authority’s two vibrant industrial and commercial parks in southwest Louisville, which are home to more than 120 businesses employing more than 6,500 people. These parks have developed over 2,000 acres of industrial and commercial real estate and continue to offer investment opportunities across available parcels and buildings for sale or lease.

The second pillar is Foreign Trade Zone 29. For businesses engaged in manufacturing and assembly, this can significantly ease cash flow pressures and reduce operating costs. With more than 300 foreign trade zones now operating across the country, businesses facing the complexities of today’s shifting global trade environment are looking more closely at what these zones can offer.

Miller notes that FTZ 29 closed 2024 with record growth across jobs and trade activity, a sign that the zone’s advantages are resonating. In early 2026, Foxconn announced a $173 million investment at its Riverport facility, further underlining the appeal of the park’s business environment.

The third pillar, and perhaps the most distinctive, is the authority’s role as a multimodal logistics hub. Louisville’s central geography within the United States makes it a natural crossroads for freight movement, and the Riverport takes full advantage of that position.

Barge traffic on the Ohio River, rail connections, and truck access converge at the authority’s 300-acre port facility, creating what Miller calls a river-rail-road connection. And sitting just minutes away is UPS Worldport at Louisville International Airport, one of the most significant air logistics operations in the world, adding a fourth dimension to an already formidable freight infrastructure.

“We’re a strategic logistics hub that brings together these various ways to move freight based on Louisville’s central location in the country,” Miller says. “And we are working hard to be an entity for investments in Louisville’s future.”

When Miller arrived in August 2024, he brought with him a career spanning public policy, nonprofit leadership, and state and national politics. He quickly worked with the board to develop a new strategic framework, the Five Pillars strategic plan, which governs the authority’s full scope of operations across its entire footprint. That includes the 2,000 acres near the river as well as an additional 200 acres the authority owns near Dixie Highway in Louisville.

Alongside the strategic plan, the authority secured a federal grant through the office of Congressman Morgan McGarvey to fund the development of a comprehensive master plan focused specifically on the 300-acre port facility, the area where the rail, barge, and truck operations all come together.

The master plan was publicly launched in February 2026. When complete in early 2027, it is expected to serve as a transformational roadmap to modernize the port into a more resilient, future-ready logistics facility. The scope is broad: modernizing marine terminals and road and rail infrastructure; optimizing land use and site readiness; improving environmental sustainability; and positioning the facility to attract advanced manufacturing and logistics operations.

“The master plan is not just about what has been successful over decades,” Miller says. “It’s about the future. Through this master planning process, which is a very comprehensive one, we will position Louisville Riverport to better compete with our peer inland ports regionally for the decades ahead.”

The vision for the modernized facility includes a redesigned port with enhanced barge, rail, and truck integration, and the potential creation of a second dock on the river to expand capacity. Environmental stewardship near the Ohio River is also a core consideration, as is a forward-looking economic analysis to guide infrastructure investments that will need to remain relevant for decades.

Governance is another area where the authority has undergone a meaningful shift. Board member Rick Blackwell, a lifelong South End Louisville resident and former Jefferson County Metro Council member who served for 22 years, describes the change in tone and ambition as substantial.

“My main focus is on it being something that’s for the city and especially the opportunities for the South End,” Blackwell says. “With Steve’s leadership, I think it really has taken quantum leaps in terms of being the authority.”

Blackwell’s perspective is rooted in deep community knowledge. He has watched the Riverport develop from its earliest days and, during his time on the council, worked to consolidate its political representation to ensure more coherent support from local government.

He acknowledges that in previous years, the authority’s role was not always well understood or well communicated. “There was always confusion about the role of the Riverport Authority as opposed to the Riverport Business Association and individual businesses,” Blackwell says. “It didn’t come across to the community or to the Mayor’s office as an authority that was really driving economic development for the city.”

That perception has shifted, and Blackwell describes the current board as a group of active participants rather than passive overseers. “This is a board that’s very, very active,” he says. “Steve, to his credit, is not threatened by that in any way. He wants the feedback, seeks the feedback, listens to the feedback, and responds to it. We’re all on the same team.”

Indeed, Miller frames the board-staff dynamic as one of the authority’s key leadership assets. Alongside proactive planning and clear external communication, he says the alignment between staff, board, and community partners is what will ultimately determine the authority’s long-term success.

The timing of the authority’s transformation is not incidental. The global supply chain landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, and the dynamics at play—tariff volatility, reshoring and near-shoring of manufacturing, the rise of e-commerce, and the rapid evolution of automation and smart logistics—all point toward the kind of infrastructure the Louisville Riverport Authority is working to build.

Miller is closely watching how these trends intersect with the authority’s role. “Both the political decision makers and the business communities are committed toward bringing manufacturing back on shore and expanding it here in the United States whenever possible,” he says. “We’re analyzing the impact of e-commerce and how distribution chains and demand are working. We’re also trying to keep our minds focused on automation, robotics, and how smart logistics are changing the entire global supply chain.”

To serve a facility seeking to modernize its infrastructure with investments that must remain effective for decades, the master plan is being designed not just to address today’s freight volumes but to anticipate how goods move, where they come from, and what kind of infrastructure will be required to handle them in a future defined by technological disruption and geopolitical complexity.

The authority’s proximity to UPS Worldport, one of the most significant global import-export hubs on the planet, gives it an asset few inland ports can match. Combined with rail access, river connectivity, and the regulatory advantages of FTZ 29, the Riverport’s multimodal offering is positioned to become even more competitive as supply chain pressure continues to favor consolidated, flexible logistics operations.

Beyond the strategic and infrastructure plans, the authority has also taken concrete steps to raise its profile in the community. It recently purchased a new building a mile down the road from its previous offices, a more visible location that will allow it to function as a genuine community hub, hosting meetings with Riverport businesses and building the kind of relationships that have historically been harder to cultivate.

For Blackwell, this is as meaningful as any element of the master plan. Having spent decades watching the authority operate largely behind the scenes, he sees the move as symbolic of a deeper cultural shift. “We’ll be able to invite Riverport businesses there to have meetings about how we work together to improve the area, to improve access to the rails, improve access to the river, and make it much more vital,” he says.

The authority’s sense of renewed purpose extends to its advocacy work as well. Miller says the authority has become more aggressive in pushing for both the public funding and the policy environment its infrastructure investments require, a posture the board has actively encouraged.

The Louisville Riverport Authority is, at its core, a special purpose governmental entity. Its six-person board and Executive Director are charged with managing and overseeing a riverport and a set of commercial and industrial parks on behalf of the public. But the authority’s leadership is clear-eyed about the gap between what the institution has been and what it can become.

As the master plan takes shape over the coming months, built with input from businesses and community stakeholders across Louisville and Kentucky, the authority is making the case that a modernized, proactive riverport is good for everyone—for the companies that rely on its infrastructure, for the workers they employ, and for the region’s long-term competitiveness.

“This is the new Louisville Riverport Authority and the new Louisville Riverport,” Miller says. “It’s an exciting time for businesses and government and local leaders to partner with us.”

The post Charting a New Course<p class="company">Louisville Riverport Authority</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.