At the beginning of the pandemic, leaders and administrators in Windsor came together to chart a course through unfamiliar COVID waters. Seventeen different programs were introduced to support local businesses and the result was even better business.

It was anything but business as usual for Windsor’s economic development team, who fielded a record number of inquiries from business prospects. Economic development staff received 1,177 prospects from 2011 to 2021. The town attracted and expanded several businesses over that time period, resulting in the creation of 3,042 jobs, $176 million in total payroll, and over $640 million invested in the community.

There’s a definite buzz around the Town of Windsor that comes from it being a welcoming, business-friendly community, and there’s no doubt it’s a fabulous place to call home. This reputation has contributed to business growth, population growth, and the need to grow services and infrastructure.

“We are at over 40,000 people right now. With houses we have plotted out, just as of today, if we built what was approved, we’d be over 60,000 in population and we have the capacity to go to 100,000,” says Director of Economic Development, Stacy Miller.

Miller notes that, January through June, Windsor approved 311 single-family home permits, as well as 46 multifamily permits totaling 362 units and 26 commercial permits. From a residential standpoint, one must look no further than the Raindance development to get a sense of how quickly growth is taking place.

The 2,800-home Raindance subdivision was planned to be built out in fifteen years, but it was completed in five. It’s home to the town’s fourth golf course, Raindance National, designed by PGA golfer Fred Funk, drawing residents and visitors alike.

Windsor is certainly a place for athletes. In addition to golf and outdoor amenities galore, a major draw is the Future Legends Sports Complex, opening later this year, though it has already started welcoming guests and holding some events.

The 118-acre complex boasts multiple baseball diamonds, multi-purpose fields, an indoor bubble sports arena, and a 6,500 seat stadium that will be home to two professional sports teams, the Northern Colorado Owlz and the Northern Colorado Hailstorm. Retail and lodging will be available to support the expected increase in sports tourism.

Tourism is a relatively new sector in Windsor but a gratifying one. As Miller says, “We consider tourism a cleaner dollar because people come in, spend their money, and go home,” strengthening the tax base without added costs.

To support this growth in tourism—and population—Miller has worked to attract and create retail opportunities to encourage people to spend locally. In particular, the town has done a great job of attracting new restaurants. Over the last ten years, the food and beverage industry in Windsor has acquired or built 160,000 square feet of space, which represents over $33 million in investment, 300 new jobs, and $5.55 million in payroll.

Some of the newer restaurants that now call Windsor home are Betta Gumbo, Howlers and Growlers Taphouse and Eatery, Cacciatore at Heller’s Kitchen, Hearth Wood Fire Pub, The Windsor Mill Tavern, Fuzzy’s Taco, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburger and Cancun Mexican Grill & Cantina.

“From a retail perspective, they’re starting to realize that our community’s growing. There is wealth and a lack of existing services—a trifecta for retailers,” Miller says.

Another untapped asset Miller would love to see leveraged is the interchange where Interstate 25 meets Highway 392.

From a development standpoint, Windsor is ideally located in the center of the Loveland / Fort Collins / Greeley triangle in Northern Colorado, affording it access to Interstate 25, the Northern Colorado Regional Airport, rail infrastructure, and the people and goods that use these infrastructural assets.

As Miller says, “We have the land and the ability to build and we’re also in the center of this perfect core of mobility, with I-25, U.S. Highway 34, Highway 257, and Highway 392, so all the corridors north, south, east and west allow for movement of the workforce, as well as products and services.”

Building on these logistical advantages, the Town of Windsor has maintained a focus on industrial and commercial growth. The area offers a spread of fourteen business parks, a number that’s sure to grow as spaces fill up in existing parks.

Great Western Industrial Park alone is home to Vestas Blades, Front Range Energy, Halliburton, Owens Illinois, Norfolk Iron & Metal, Metal Container Corp, and Intersand, as well as Lineage Logistics and Gotham Greens, two newer additions that are expected to have a large economic impact locally.

Lineage Logistics, the world’s largest temperature-controlled industrial REIT and logistics solutions provider, will add to its global network of over 400 strategically located facilities. These total over 2 billion cubic feet of capacity with the newly added 200,000 square-foot facility in the Great West Industrial Park, leveraging its location and rail access.

JBS is a leading global food company that will benefit from expanded blast freezing and storage capacity. Its new fully automated facility will serve as a strategic distribution hub for JBS customers on the West Coast and will have a $102.9 million, ten-year net fiscal benefit, including 80 new permanent jobs in Windsor.

Gotham Greens is another example of strong growth in Windsor, and the Great Western Industrial Park in particular. The operator of year-round, commercial-scale agricultural greenhouses, which serve local and regional markets with fresh, nutrient-dense produce, has begun construction on a new facility in the park, with plans to grow.

The facility will begin with 140,000 square feet, with plans to take it to 400,000 square feet over the next three to five years. It’s expected to bring 55 new permanent full-time jobs and will have an economic impact of more than $15 million.

What makes this project unique is that in a time of heightened focus on water sustainability, Gotham Greens leverages data-driven, climate-controlled facilities equipped with advanced hydroponic irrigation systems to produce high yields using 95 percent less water and 97 percent less land than conventional farms.

With economic achievements of this magnitude, it’s clear that opportunity in the Town of Windsor is robust and many companies and people are taking full advantage of it. Best of all, Miller and her growing team are geared up to sustain the growth while welcoming new opportunities. Always something exciting in the pipeline, it seems.

For Miller, the goal continues to be, “How do we build on that economy? How do we maintain and absorb that growth while maintaining the close-knit community, good amenities, and high level of service that we offer?” The aim of the crew at Windsor is to elevate those experiences in the interest of a healthy and vibrant economy and community for the long term.

Sidebar:
Meet the Economic Development Council of Colorado
When Stacy Miller is not serving as the Director of Economic Development for Windsor or winning awards like last year’s Women of Distinction Award in the Government category, she is also working to advance the state economy as Chair of the Economic Development Council of Colorado (EDCC).

The EDCC is a state-wide non-profit economic development organization that is dedicated to working with economic developers across the state by providing educational resources and support to private and public entities, helping them capitalize on all opportunities to grow.

To learn more, visit www.edcconline.org.

The post Where People and Businesses Grow Together<p class="company">Town of Windsor, Colorado</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

For most people, instigating change isn’t just difficult, it’s downright terrifying. Whether personally or professionally, thinking “outside the box” and choosing to follow a different path takes conviction, confidence and courage. While playing it safe is seen as the wiser choice for many, the ability to take a chance—and possibly fail—on something new is what differentiates imitators from innovators.

For those in business—especially those who are self-employed—embracing innovation not only provides a method for navigating any potential upheaval, but is crucial to a company’s ongoing success. Entrepreneurship is certainly not for everyone, but those who are willing and able to strike out on their own not only light the way, but forge a path for others to follow.

In society, we tend to admire people who make their own way in life, even as they’re mocked or ridiculed before they’re truly appreciated for the gains they make and the world they create. Simply described, a changemaker employs innovative solutions to address social issues and resolve social problems, whether by founding a venture or working for a multinational corporation, while also constantly on the lookout for chances to ultimately advance the greater good, according to The Global Hues. Motivating others to join them on the path of transformation and perseverance until that goal is realized is another necessary trait, because while everyone has the potential to be a changemaker, not everyone has the skills.

The innovators and entrepreneurs of the world generally embody three traits: open-mindedness, creative problem-solving and risk-taking. Instead of giving up when goals aren’t met or being discouraged by failure, changemakers remain positive about any outcome and receptive to other viewpoints, which can often lead to finding solutions. Problem-solving via creativity means being passionate about finding a solution to an issue, which involves asking as many questions as possible every step of the way; embracing this process also aids in coming up with new ideas.

Teamwork is also key. Social entrepreneurs—think Blake Mycoskie of TOMS footwear, which donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair bought from the company—concentrate on bringing about systemic change in order to have a broad influence. Every social entrepreneur promotes teamwork and a strong emphasis on empowering others to work together to solve social challenges. For those willing to take a chance, the path requires a great deal of courage, personal strength, stamina, and vision to veer from the rules set by society, but the end result is worth it.

If necessity is the mother of invention, the COVID-19 pandemic created a need for innovation like none other seen in recent memory. Small businesses were severely affected by lockdowns, supply chain issues and loss of revenue still ongoing today. Being ingenious, innovative and forward thinking was necessary simply in order to survive.

Entrepreneurs had to step up and make the most of a truly challenging situation, and many of them did, through business concepts such as curbside pickups and online sales, while others offered Zoom classes for everything from fitness training to learning how to cut hair at home.

Embracing technology and digital equipment has been vital to survival in the past few years, and while many small-company owners used technology as a secondary strategy for conducting business before the pandemic, that changed drastically in 2020. According to a 2020 Salesforce analysis, small firms that are expanding are more likely to speed up their technology investments as a result of the epidemic, as highlighted by Nerdwallet.

According to a Federal Reserve study from April 2021, we won’t know for sure how many small firms have shut down since the pandemic began until it finally ends, but on the other hand, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 4.3 million enterprises were established in 2020, a 24 percent rise over 2019 in the number of new businesses.

When you talk about change, while many people who lost their jobs remained employed in their respective fields, such as accounting, real estate, or marketing, many others struck out on their own to try something new. By pivoting and taking a chance on a brand new venture either personally or in a new work environment, these independent professionals have discovered and created new opportunities within the landscape of new small enterprises.

Socrates said that, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” Walking the talk goes a long way when trying to change the status quo, so overpromising and underdelivering isn’t going to cut it. Following through on commitments goes a long way in motivating others to bring about constructive change in society.

Obstacles will abound, of course, so patience is necessary, and a skill and virtue that many people simply do not possess. Even if they’re committed and excited about change, they want to see results sooner rather than later—but everything takes time. The difference is that innovators who experience setbacks or long wait times refuse to give up. For every success, there have been countless failures, but the changemakers didn’t view them as failures, only as lessons learned for next time.

When working on a project you’re extremely passionate about, it’s easy to get caught up in thinking about each and every little detail and losing sight of the greater picture and the original purpose. Changemakers think large, aim high, and ensure their effort is in line with the ultimate goal.

Ultimately, the future belongs to those who take risks rather than those who prefer comfort or the status quo. Risk-takers who believe in their instincts make the difference, forging ahead when others call them unrealistic or delusional. The confidence and courage to keep going in the face of sometimes overwhelming adversity is the only way to create real and lasting change in life. Of course, to have that desired influence, motivating and inspiring others means embracing empathy and listening skills, vital to any dynamic leader.

Even if you’re not a changemaker yourself, there are many talented and intelligent individuals working tirelessly to promote change that can inspire you to try something new that may not only impact your own life, but inspire others as well. In short, change is difficult and to bring it about requires hard work, perseverance, dedication, creativity and, above all, the ability to collaborate with and listen to those around you.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some inspiration, here are just a few innovative changemakers making a huge difference right now:

Rhea Simms, Senior Manager of Global Programs, Planeterra: Liaising with 305 communities in 72 countries to help them ensure local tourism “puts money back in the hands of the locals,” Simms is working to make the future of tourism sustainable and socially responsible, write Tamar Satov and Rosemary Counter in a special to The Globe and Mail. A native of Newfoundland, Simms is making a difference by bringing support, training, and networking opportunities to local tourism enterprises while also encouraging travelers and travel companies to making community tourism a priority. Plus, Planeterra’s services and support are free of charge.

Emily Stevens of CareerFoundry shines a light on Arlan Hamilton: While homeless in 2015, Hamilton started her business, Backstage Capital—a venture capital firm that addresses financing gaps in the tech industry and invests in startups run by entrepreneurs who identify as women, people of color, or LGBTQ—and has since raised more than $15 million and backed over 160 entrepreneurs. The company—which allows anyone to invest as little as $100 and get ownership of the business—also made history on Feb. 1, 2021, when it hit $1 million in contributions in less than nine hours.

Stevens also highlights Dr. Sasikala Devi: As researcher and professor at SASTRA Deemed-to-be-University in Tamil Nadu, India, Dr. Devi did what many innovators do: she saw a problem and developed a solution when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Devi developed the first version of LungXpert, a cheap, 90 percent accurate AI-based prognostic tool that enables early identification of cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders, including the new coronavirus, after reviewing 500,000 X-ray pictures from Stanford University. She then equipped medical experts with the means to save lives while the nation was under lockdown.

Changemakers, of course, can be any age, as demonstrated by Ryan Hickman, who, at the age of three, started gathering his family’s recyclables and accompanying his father to the neighbourhood recycling facility, where he was paid $5, writes Michelle Lodge for Investopedia. Hickman was so motivated he began going door-to-door on his bike with a bag for recyclables from his neighbours. By the age of seven he had his own company, Ryan’s Recycling Company, in Orange County, California, and now at 13 has received praise from media outlets, including being named a CNN Young Wonder.

Hickman offers T-shirts with the slogan “Make the Sea Trash Free” for sale on his website, with all proceeds going to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. More than $14,000 has been raised so far, and 1.5 million cans and bottles have been recycled. Hickman has also launched a non-profit organization called Project 3R, with goals to coordinate and oversee neighbourhood clean-up initiatives while educating children and people around the world about the value of recycling.

Finally, Michael “Mikey” Wren of St. Louis, Missouri founded Mikey’s Munchies Vending, a group of vending machines, at the age of eight. Wren, now 13, volunteers his time to teach financial literacy and organizes an annual drive to give new presents to nearby children in order to give back to the community. He’s also written two children’s books: Biz Is a Wiz, for children from pre-K to third grade, and Mikey Learns About Business, which addresses networking, marketing techniques, and developing a business plan. He schedules speeches about his efforts on a regular basis, participates in two national boards for children, and has donated $10,000 of new apparel to kids in his neighbourhood.

The post Conviction, Confidence, Creativity<p class="company">Being the Change You Want to See</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

But this conversation with Jamie Rayner, founder and owner of Kildare Fisheries, on the Kildare River and the Northumberland Strait in Prince County, PEI, is about much more than how to achieve success in the seafood market, which he has in spades.

Instead, the conversation begins with colourful anecdotes about lessons learned and homespun wisdom about what to do when roadblocks and walls go up in front of you. “Walls are made to stop people, until you find a way to get over them, go around them, or go through them,” says Jamie.

That’s something he’s done many times, for more than 30 years, “as he built this company from the ground up,” his son Collin Rayner, General Manager overseeing quality control, tells us.

Although it began as a one-man operation, today the company employs between 100 and 120 year-round—remarkable in an industry where most seafood businesses can provide only seasonal employment.

As a young man in the late 1980s, Jamie Rayner’s dream was to purchase a lobster license as his father and three older brothers had done, however, the skyrocketing price of the licences and the reduced number available stood in the way of that dream. At the time he was fishing eels and oysters but when the eel market dried up, he did his research and located a live-eel buyer in Toronto.

“I built a water tank in my garage to hold them alive, but I didn’t realize the tank needed a cover to keep them in,” he says, “and so the next morning I found 70 percent of the eels crawling across the grass, heading back to the river.” He recovered all except seven, “and that was the first lesson learned. The next lesson was when I was pulling a trailer with a tank of fish behind my Camaro, heading to the Fisherman’s Market in Halifax. But I hadn’t gone a quarter-mile from my house when the wheel bearing went in the trailer.”

Determined to make the delivery, he bought a 6-wheeler truck with a refrigeration unit and that is how the company started in 1993. At that time, Kildare’s business involved mainly pelagic fish (mackerel and herring) and groundfish (flounder and cod), which were ferried across the Northumberland Strait and on to Halifax where they were filleted and packaged. “When the bridge [Confederation Bridge] opened in 1997, it made a huge impact in a positive way for handling seafood,” he says.

In 1999, he registered Kildare Fisheries to process oysters, which it did under the Kildare Princess brand, and scallops and lobsters, “so for the next ten years we continued in oysters as well as being a service provider and commissioned broker for many plants in Atlantic Canada for which we provided live lobster, snow crab and rock crab directly,” he explains.

“One packer to which we sold millions of pounds of lobster was Cape Bald Packers in Cap-Pelé, New Brunswick, a strong ally in the business and a wonderful company to deal with.”

There are two inherent challenges for packers and processors of fresh seafood products: one is that most of the fishery is seasonal and so can’t offer year-round employment, and the other is the relatively short shelf-life of fresh products with 75 to 85 percent of it taken up during transportation.

Rayner, however, came up with some creative solutions to get around those walls, which led to the development of the pasteurized Jonah Crab products, and which at the same time broke through the wall that was stopping the U.S.-based year-round Jonah crab fishery from realizing its potential.

Jonah crabs are found in the deep waters off the Atlantic coast, mainly in the area between Rhode Island and Shelburne, Nova Scotia, with 85 percent of the landings centred around Cape Cod, Fall River and Sandwich, Massachusetts. They have a sweet mild flavour, with flakey white meat, and they are not only tasty but nutritious.

A 4-ounce/113-gram serving, at only 120 calories, is a low-fat, low-carb treat, containing important minerals—calcium, potassium and iron—plus 25 grams of protein, a whopping 50 percent of the daily recommended amount.

But despite these excellent qualities, Rayner says the Jonah crab fishery was broken to the point where it was no longer sustainable because the market was underdeveloped and the price was low. Fishermen could fill their boats, but the only market was for small ma & pa shops.

Plants in Canada were bringing in small amounts to process as filler for crab cakes, mainly to help employees fulfil employment labour contracts, “and this is how we were introduced to the opportunity to have a year-round supply of seafood.”

Kildare started buying Jonah crab from the owners of Canal Seafoods, in Sandwich, MA, where the company also operates two Jonah crab fishing vessels, as well as a fine dining establishment on the same wharf where their vessels unload and continue to be their main supplier. “I want to give Canal a shout-out as they are a very important supplier to us,” Collin says.

“The first thing we did,” Jamie explains, “was adopt three of the most prominent vessels in the New Bedford area that caught the most crab year-round and were ready to be involved in a development program. Subsequently, we tripled the value of their product from a low of 65 cents a pound to two dollars a pound over five years, and doubled their catch rate from an average of 600,000 pounds per boat/per year to 1.2 million,” he shares.

“Then we reached into the state of Maine, where Jonah crab is a by-catch of the lobster fishery, and worked with the marine resources department there to have that zone considered as a Sustainable Fishery Under Examination. That opened the supply wider, so this year we’ll have a supply coming from both Maine and Massachusetts, with the bulk still coming from Massachusetts.”

But by overcoming the roadblock to year-round production (and hence year-round employment) with a plentiful supply of Jonah crab, Rayner was about to face another wall: how to get the crab claws and meat to market while still fresh.

“Fresh seafood has a shelf-life of five days, maximum,” he says, “so if I pack it on Monday after my truck brings it in across the border, and ship it back across the border on Tuesday, arriving Wednesday, customers only have Thursday to Saturday to use it. If they want it for a party on Sunday, they’re out of luck. We saw the market growing to the point where we couldn’t accommodate it and the only answer was to develop a pasteurization process that would provide bacteriological protection for a minimum of 180 days and could be challenged to go as long as 360 days.”

Rayner’s first stop was Martin’s Machine Shop, near Tignish, PEI, where the grandfather of current owner Dougie Martin, built Rayner’s first fishing tool, an eel spear, in the late 80s. “It’s the kind of place where if they don’t have it, they can make it.”

When the stainless-steel pasteurization unit, a basket measuring 36” by 30” by 24”, fitted into a batch cooker operation, was completed, Rayner contacted the BioFood Tech Centre in Charlottetown where Leigh Gao is the senior food processing scientist. He’s considered to be the leading authority on thermal treatment of food in Atlantic Canada, and Rayner was cautioned that so high were Gao’s standards, it was unlikely that his unit would be approved.

“But I felt if his standards were that strict and precise, I wanted to meet them and get his stamp of approval because then no one could question the safety of our product.”

With approval obtained by December 2019, that first unit, which Rayner now calls the “Volkswagen version,” capable of pasteurizing 180 pounds an hour with daily shutdowns for complete sanitization, was up and running.

However, because the product was so good and unavailable elsewhere, the market exploded, and Rayner faced yet another wall. The company simply couldn’t keep up with demand, as their trucks, arriving from Massachusetts with freshly caught crabs, had to await pasteurization of their loads before returning to the U.S. markets.

This meant going back to Martin’s Machine Shop to build the “Cadillac version” of the pasteurization unit, redesigned as a continuous feed cooker allowing 900 pounds through in a single hour. This new unit, now fully operational, also received Leigh Gao’s stamp of approval.

Originally, Kildare’s fresh, pasteurized Jonah crab was intended for the fine-dining restaurant market, but when restaurants were forced to close in March 2020 due to the pandemic, people turned to supermarkets looking for the quality seafood they’d grown to love. That opened a new market for Kildare Princess Brand Jonah Crab, exposing the product to a new tranche of seafood lovers, with supermarket sales skyrocketing.

With restaurants closed and tourism halted in PEI as well as in the U.S., local lobster fishermen too were facing a potential catastrophe, but Kildare had a solution. The company opened its doors to 127 lobster fishermen, pasteurized their catch, and sold it in pouches, just as they had marketed the Jonah crab under the Kildare Princess brand.

“It would have been the worst time ever for them,” says Jamie, “and we’re glad we could help.”

Since the pandemic, Kildare Fisheries continues to pasteurize PEI lobster, rock crab, and snow crab in the relatively short season while simultaneously working with Jonah crab, before focusing exclusively on Jonah crab for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, Jamie, after discussions with Collin, is transferring the oyster portion of the business over a period of ten years to nephew Timothy Rayner, who has been farming it for him. As these high-quality oysters grown in the Biddeford Waters are a little darker in colour, they are being rebranded as Black Magic Oysters. Collin will continue as Quality Consultant for the new company.

Concludes Jamie Rayner, “As a young man all I wanted to do was fish. I never dreamed I would be in seafood production with a product you can’t get anywhere else in the world.”

So maybe he didn’t envision this exact future, but from an early age he did indeed envision a future in which he could go around, over, and through walls and roadblocks, and this is where it led him.

The post From the Ocean to Your Plate<p class="company">Kildare Fisheries</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

It all begins with the company’s underlying value system. When asked why Bell and Howell is driven to support food banks, he replies, “I believe that question can be answered by our company philosophy of ‘Doing the Right Thing.’ Doing the right thing is our promise to each other as part of the Bell and Howell family. If we take care of each other, we take care of our customers, take care of the company and our community, we will all be successful.”

Food insecurity is a particularly salient issue in our pandemic world. “The arrival of COVID-19 impacted many parts of the economy,” Hermanowski says. “Unemployment skyrocketed, and food insecurity increased dramatically. Headline news across the country showed videos of hundreds of vehicles lined up to receive boxes of food put together by wonderful teams of volunteers. Adding more pain to the picture, food prices are skyrocketing, items are scarce, and more people are negatively impacted. Many pockets of the population—our neighbors—struggle and juggle the cost of medicine, food, and fuel each day.

“COVID-19 also disproportionately impacted some people at higher risk of severe illness. This includes older adults (65 years and older) and people of any age with serious underlying medical conditions. However, volunteer ranks are heavily weighted toward older adults, many of which have stepped away from volunteering to protect themselves and their families from a potentially devastating infection. In other situations, the concern was too great and the burden too much to bear that organizations took preventive measures and asked at-risk volunteers to stay away.”

There is a clear need for a more flexible system in which people can access food banks on their schedule, without having to rely on volunteers. “The services our neighbors depend upon for nutritious food face a bleak future unless there is change,” Hermanowski says. Food assistance programs “are left understaffed yet need to service an increasing population. Consequently, the open hours available at food access locations have been reduced to the level where there is just no possible way for our neighbors to pick up the food they need. In some communities, it is down to just two hours each week, and unfortunately, those two hours are at a time when many recipients just cannot be there.”

Consumers are not the only ones reeling from the pandemic landscape. COVID-19 has accelerated new grocery trends that the industry must accommodate with little time to adjust. “COVID-19 has also had a dramatic impact on our partners in the grocery space,” he says.

“Online purchasing of groceries has exploded from a small percentage of the total spending pre-COVID to over 10 percent, or $100 billion, in 2021. That trend has not abated with forecast [compound annual growth rate] of 18.1 percent over the next few years reaching $300 billion. Grocers are building the next generation infrastructure to support this tremendous growth with much of it focused on digital and online shopping. Digital investments include better websites optimized for mobile users, digital coupons, digital recipes and the ability to allow consumers to ‘opt in’ so the store can track their arrival using their mobile phone so their order is ready when they arrive.”

Grocery stores must navigate this rapidly evolving landscape while simultaneously dealing with a worker shortage—not unlike the challenge facing food banks. “Grocers also face similar challenges finding people,” Hermanowski says. “They do not rely on volunteers but they, too, find it challenging to hire enough labor to keep grocery stores and their online systems running. However, they have access to technology that helps them overcome these challenges,” he shares.

“One extremely helpful solution employed is known as ‘automated pickup’ technology. Automated pickup technology is equipment that holds a customer’s order for them until they arrive to pick it up. The systems maintain proper temperatures for groceries and do not require a store employee to be there to deliver the order. As a result, consumers are able to pick up their groceries at their convenience even if the store is closed,” Hermanowski explains.

“Like many new technologies, automated pickup systems create new paradigms never considered before. Consider the automated teller machine or ATM. When it first appeared, no one ever thought it would be possible to obtain cash from their bank account anytime day or night. Automated grocery pickup systems are the new ATMs for food.

“The trends are surprisingly clear,” he continues. “The grocery ecosystem is quickly moving in a digital direction where access to computers, mobile phones and the Internet are becoming the minimum requirement to participate. When Amazon first arrived, it offered vast quantities of products, often priced lower online than locally. Those with access to Amazon’s website benefited; those without, paid more. As grocery moves to the digital domain, the same is expected to happen, and the beginnings of that are visible today with many grocers offering ‘digital only’ deals.

“Yet, studies continue to show that households with incomes below $30,000 per year are significantly less likely to have access to broadband services, a computer or a smartphone. Although smartphone availability and use is higher than for a computer, there are many cases where the mobile number changes over time because the user is unable to pay for mobile service for a given month. Furthermore, the keys to grocery’s digital kingdom revolve around a user account, which requires an email address or a mobile phone number, and in many cases, both—something not often available to those suffering from food insecurity. If something is not done promptly, the new digital ecosystem being built by grocers will continue down a path that leaves our neighbors with food insecurity behind.”

Bell and Howell’s ability to leverage a grocer’s own tools can mitigate this digital divide. “Automated grocery pickup systems and the ecosystems to support them are being rolled out by grocers across the United States, making them readily available and produced in economical volumes,” he says.

“Some grocers can and do place the machines in food deserts, supporting communities that would otherwise have no access to a full assortment of healthy foods. Most importantly, deployments are giving communities access to that food at a time and location convenient for them.

“This same technology can be readily deployed to address food insecurity and vendors such as us have partnered with food access programs and others to create features specifically designed to address the needs of our neighbors, for example, the ability to access the technology even without a computer or mobile phone. Innovations like these not only improve food access but level the playing field and reduce the digital divide.”

Typically, automated grocery pickup systems come in two forms, depending on the volume and how often they are used. Grocery ‘PODs’ address high volumes of groceries, while grocery smart lockers, like Bell and Howell’s QuickCollect GL address low to moderate volumes of groceries. Both options are popular with food banks and grocery stores around the country because they provide secure, temperature-controlled environments to safely store groceries until the consumer can collect them.

The Bell and Howell team believes that the use of automated technology will continue to increase in the future. “Non-profit organizations such as Feeding America are addressing hunger across America,” Hermanowski says. “They are expert at acquiring and moving large quantities of food across the nation, serving millions of our neighbors just like any leading grocer, except it is a non-profit organization. We see the same types of technology used by large corporations and grocers to manage customer interactions, improve supply chain efficiency, and run complex organizations making its way into the non-profits that support food access programs.”

Having this technology utilized for non-profit applications to reduce food insecurity across America is certainly welcome news and evidence that Bell and Howell’s ‘Doing the Right Thing’ mentality is at work throughout the nation to create positive, lasting change.

The post Doing the Right Thing<p class="company">Bell and Howell</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, with additional facilities in Windsor, Ontario (DSC), and Saltillo, Mexico (DSM), the company recently celebrated its thirty-second year in Canada. Here, longstanding relationships and superb results reside in in-depth dialogues, exploring best practices, and ideal outcomes through debate.

Problem solvers
“Design Systems benefits our partners by being in the cost avoidance business. Clients do not need to attempt this type of work on their own. We may not be experts in their products, but we’re experts in finding solutions to their daily issues,” says Aaron Anson, Managing Partner and General Manager. As part of its well-honed service portfolio, DSC is also a full-service engineering consultant and true solver of problems, leveraging advanced planning and program management skills. That typically includes gathering relevant data, analyzing it, and planning the processes that will deliver results.

DSC’s innovation improves its customers’ efficiency and helps firms find the best system sizes for their operations when expanding or consolidating these operations. As a result, investing in the latest technology is imperative. Design Systems prides itself on being so advanced in its field that it was basically fully prepared for pandemic lockdowns, with its teams already accustomed to working at a remove across the vast reach of its operations.

Therefore, when the time came to handle more customers remotely, it was just a matter of reaching for its existing tools and technology to increase online networking capacity.

One such advanced tool is the company’s tried and tested terrestrial 3D-laser scanning suite used to survey and record job site dimensions and SMART factory conversions. While DSC has been employing this method for quite some time, it recently upgraded by adding photogrammetry capabilities to its drones. To use this tool to its full potential, selected staff members must qualify as drone pilots under the Federal Aviation Administration Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Rule, displaying a sound understanding of the technology and all its finer details including safety regulations, and master the necessary handling skills.

In addition, a Siemens Simulation software suite brings a significant punch to the company’s simulation prowess. DSC can offer virtual commissioning services that can prove out the designed production rates, warehouse operations, or conveyor systems logic before any investments are made in reality on the job site.

The company’s consistent attention to detail and quality care have secured the firm the favour of many an industry leader—many of these having been clients of the company for its entire existence. One such manufacturing customer recently cut the ribbon to a state-of-the-art facility that has been in the making for just over five years. “Every completed project is a proud moment for our team,” says Anson.

Building on teamwork
None of DSC’s accomplishments would be possible without its loyal and skilled team of industry professionals who keep the cogs of this well-oiled machine turning through rain and shine. The average length of tenure of the staff is impressive, with several having been with the company for over twenty years.

To say that Anson is proud of and grateful to his team for their stellar contribution to the company is no understatement. “What makes my staff great is their attention to the customers’ needs. We rely on repeat business. And if our clients do not trust that we are working in their best interest, the partnership suffers. My team is well known for their reliability, dependability, trustworthiness, and timely, quality work,” he says.

DSC’s leaders guide with respect—a respect not only directed toward the individuals it employs but also to the families of those who blow life into its enterprise. There is no question about what comes first in this company; family always wins. People are invited to continue their education, and everyone’s ideas are taken seriously and considered for adoption and development.

DSC also has an impressive capacity for looking toward the future. Every year, it supports the Robotics team, HUBS team #772, at Sandwich Secondary School in LaSalle, Ontario.

“They are consistently a force to be reckoned with in the FIRST Robotics Canada competitions. Participating in local and regional competitions to design robots in a limited timeline, the resulting developed robot is used to complete specified tasks, both remotely and autonomously,” Anson reports.

Faith in the future
The company’s investment in future generations is motivated by its faith in technology and local manufacturing to benefit the community. As COVID-19 exposed the realities of fragile local supply chains, DSC is proud to be a part of the solution by helping to establish the infrastructure needed to return fabrication to North American shores.

Due to its close involvement in the manufacturing market, the company notes strong growth in electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle manufacturing by large, historically strong automotive companies, as well as single-launch brands.

The same goes for all the industries that support such expansion. “There are huge expectations of new jobs and contracts that will bring back a strong financial market for potentially the next decade,” says Anson, pointing out how the natural state of flux in the market will continue to change wherever business happens.

One aspect of these changes is the arrival of well-educated young adults with zero to little experience filling the shoes of retiring mature workers who are taking all their experience with them. The challenge here, Anson notes, is to encourage and establish the same depth of relationships between longstanding clients and the company’s younger arrivals.

“These individuals need to understand that by allowing DSC to do what we do best and allowing their staff to do what they do best, their bottom line will only improve,” he says. Anson believes that cultivating the confidence it takes to communicate the company’s strong brand message and continued dedication to clients is paramount to maintaining trust.

More to come
In terms of growth, DSC is ready and prepared to take on the avalanche of work that currently lends effervescence to local markets. And due to the translatable nature of engineering in processing industries like automotive, appliance, forestry, medical, and food-and-beverage manufacturing, this growth is set to continue for some time.

As it is, the team is forging valuable new relationships that will lead the way to an even more prominent presence in local markets.

To ensure that it moves in tandem with the leading market curve the company is welcoming the future with an equitable balance of bright young minds and seasoned mentors to take DSC forward with heaps of fresh innovation and excellence in execution. While its primary value is firmly rooted in its employees, continuous improvement means DSC saves clients money by working faster and mitigating risk.

Looking toward its evolution, DSC will expand into new areas like the boutique food manufacturing industry, a term Anson is believed to have coined. And by implementing the latest techniques and software in digital data analysis and other technologies to optimize its concept engineering, written specifications for contracted work, designs, drawings, and project management, the company’s future promises to be peachy. Meanwhile, its commitment to conceiving and implementing new ideas and solutions and optimizing existing systems remains steadfast.

In this way, DSC not only meets the future in new ways but also honours its past and the legacy of precision left by the automotive engineers who established it.

The post Helping Manufacturers Manufacture Better<p class="company">Design Systems Canada, Ltd.</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Known as a major hub for mining and mine-related industries—and the fourth-largest gold-producing area on the planet—Northeastern Nevada is fast gaining popularity with manufacturers, warehousing and logistics, and many other sectors because of its prime location.

“One of the biggest things we promote is that from a logistics standpoint, our region is dead center in the middle of the Western United States,” says Sheldon Mudd of the Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority (NNRDA). “If a truck is driving 60 miles an hour for 10 hours, it can be in every major metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States west of the Rockies,” he says.

“To us, our positioning seems like a very lucrative asset. We’re centrally located in the western U.S., and from here you have access to 20 to 30 million customers within a day.”

Entering his sixth year as executive director of the NNRDA, Mudd has served as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force, worked as a geoscience database administrator, and spent time as a mining industry specialist, possibly the ideal kind of background for someone who leads the development authority.

Stepping stone to success
The State of Nevada is bordered by Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California, making it perfect for many industries across the United States.

Founded over a decade ago, the NNRDA represents the interests of four counties: Lander, Eureka, Elko (Carlin, Elko, Wells, and West Wendover), and White Pine County (Ely). Both Elko and White Pine’s incorporated cities contribute to the organization.

The mission of the NNRDA remains to encourage and coordinate “the continual, diversified development and economic growth of the Northeastern Nevada region and all its entities,” according to the official website.

Representing 36 percent of the State of Nevada, the enormous footprint of the NNRDA—35,799 square miles to be exact—presents its share of challenges and opportunities. The area is long exempt from certain corporate taxes (under $4 million annual revenue) and many others, making it attractive to businesses. But while the population for the entire region of 80,000, which averages to two people per square mile, is attractive to some, it has its downside.

“We like the idea of big facilities, but there’s not necessarily a huge workforce to support that; to have such facilities we’ll have to rely heavily on automation and things like that,” says Mudd. But while unemployment is extremely low, the area simply doesn’t have enough people to supply companies requiring 500 or more employees.

Bring on the houses
For instance, Northeastern Nevada, like many other communities across America, struggles to keep up with housing and new construction. Working with the State of Nevada, Mudd is aiming for reciprocating licensing so builders can come into the area from neighboring Idaho and Utah to create more housing.

“I think if we had housing stock available we could easily recruit workers from southern Idaho, which is growing exponentially because a lot of Californians are moving into that area, and housing prices are going up,” says Mudd, who hails from Idaho and has himself seen many leave the state because of growing unaffordability.

Creating additional residential property in Nevada would see the NNRDA start a recruiting campaign to bring more people to the area.

Within its existing industries, Northeastern Nevada has many secure, well-paying jobs. Nevada Gold Mines, a joint venture between Barrick and Newmont, is one of the biggest companies and has hundreds of vacancies in their workforce. Additionally, the Ely State Prison near White Pine County is short of staff. Part of the issue is lack of housing near the facility, which is located some nine miles north of Ely.

“It all goes back to housing,” comments Mudd. “If we could put up a thousand houses in my region in the next year—which will never happen, but if it could—then we could start recruiting from outside areas, and would have better opportunities. But as it is, the workforce is a big challenge. I think if we had housing stock here—because we’ve already got the jobs—we could easily recruit from nearby states.”

Working with businesses
A great location, local and state incentives, minimal regulation, affordable land, multiple industrial properties, and support from the NNRDA are just a few reasons companies are seeking out Northeastern Nevada.

“We have more companies on the hook now than we’ve ever had before,” says Mudd, who is in talks with a steel-building manufacturer, a company that does hydrolysis—separating oxygen from water to retain the hydrogen for fuel—a railway tie company, and other manufacturers, including Solmax International Inc.

Based in Varennes, Quebec, Solmax is a global leader in sustainable construction solutions and geosynthetics. It creates high-performance geomembranes for aquaculture, infrastructure, water management, oil and gas, mining, and other sectors. In 2021, the company purchased almost 22 acres at the Northeastern Nevada Regional Railport and should start building a plant this year.

Showing support
Every county, be it Lander, Eureka, Elko, or White Pine, offers something unique. This includes municipal-owned industrial parks to meet the needs of different business types.

Sometimes, communities will sign over acres of developed industrial park land, once projects are built and guarantees are in place, and reduce hookup fees. This is in sharp, welcome contrast to prices in urban areas of a million dollars and more per acre. And unlike major centers, the thresholds for qualifications are far less costly and challenging.

Capital investments for manufacturing are significantly less by millions of dollars, and rural Nevada requires 10 employees, compared to 100 or more in big cities.

Along with its easy-to-navigate and information-packed website, the Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority has other initiatives. These include a small business course called the READY AIM Small Business Primer. Held in various locations around the region, the Small Business Primer covers important subjects, including business plans, licensing, marketing, lending and financing, and more.

About a year ago, the NNRDA took over the reins of Launch Rural Nevada, a program begun at the state level, and amped it up. This marks the fourth annual “entrepreneurial, pitch, education, and networking” event, where small business owners can get advice, discuss accessing capital, and connect with others in a hybrid format. Mudd is excited about the upcoming November 3^rd program.

“We hope to continue to enhance our local small business ecosystem, so we can see more investment dollars coming right out of Nevada, instead of necessarily having to recruit business and industry,” he says, “and create more confidence in the local small business space.”

Building a bright future
Along with interest from manufacturers, Mudd is in talks with site selectors for a major carrier handling warehousing and logistics. The company is eyeing Carlin west of Elko, which is nicely placed halfway between Salt Lake City and Reno.

“We’ve got some nibbles from those industries, and we’re hoping to see a lot more because, between logistics and aerospace and defense, those are the best potentials we have in this area,” he says.

The area continues its work with MineConnect—Ontario’s Mining Supply and Services Association—and is looking forward to a trade mission coming from Northern Ontario to Nevada in the spring to see what partnerships can be developed between local companies and underground mining equipment in Northern Ontario.

When asked about the future of his role in economic development, Mudd’s confident response is not what one might expect. “One thing I’ve always said is that my personal goal with this organization is to work it out of business. What I mean by that is, I want economic development to happen organically in this area to such a degree that we are no longer needed.”

Naturally, people ask Mudd if he’s really trying to work himself out of a job. His reply: there are plenty of businesses he can be part of. What he doesn’t like to see is economic development organizations in communities that frankly don’t need them, and serve more as a placeholder than anything else. “That’s my personal opinion, and that’s not what I want to be. We are here to do a job, and I want to do it well enough that, eventually, we’re no longer needed.”

The post Big Area, Big Advantages, Big Ambitions<p class="company">Northeastern Nevada Regional Development Authority</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In addition to the outdoor opportunities for which Colorado is famous, Craig boasts a welcoming, friendly atmosphere. “It’s a small-town community, a small-town feel,” Scott says. This small-town lifestyle comes with a lower cost of living, without losing out on big city amenities. Craig has a major medical facility, broadband access, a community college, and a strong school district, and businesses relocating to Craig will find plenty of incentives as well as an experienced workforce ready to transition out of the coal industry. “These are hardworking [people] and they’re highly skilled and trained,” says Scott.

Local leaders are committed to staying ahead of changing times, keeping residents employed and the economy thriving, and looking to the Moffat County Vision 2025 Transition Plan to guide the community forward. “As a priority we immediately began to investigate ways to bridge the tax and revenue gap once our major primary employers started to shutter, by asking questions like, ‘how do we go about economically diversifying to the point where we could replace the economic benefits of the largest coal generation plant in the state of Colorado and two significant local coal mining sites?’” City Manager Peter Brixius explains.

As a result, the Transition Plan was created out of partnerships between local leaders in Craig and Moffat County, the El Pomar Northwest Regional Council, and the Keystone Policy Center. “The intent of the Plan is to provide actionable recommendations and guidance for the development of a community-driven, coordinated process to direct the region’s economic transition from a coal-centered economy and realize our vision for 2025 and beyond,” Scott details. The Plan identifies four key focus areas within the region to prioritize: tourism, new and existing industry, infrastructure and planning, and workforce.

When it comes to tourism, “natural and recreational assets were immediately prioritized as we strategized on how best to include community and regional organizations and visionaries as part of the effort to build up our presence among outdoor enthusiasts,” states Brixius. “The Community’s ability to attract and retain visitor and tourism dollars was looked at critically.”

Indeed, visitors to the area enjoy wide-open spaces and unique outdoor destinations including The Dinosaur National Monument, Elkhead Reservoir State Park, the Yampa River, and Sand Wash Basin. Tourists can also enjoy a stroll through Craig’s quaint downtown and can learn more about the area’s rich history at the Museum of Northwest Colorado. In addition, the community hosts a number of local, signature annual events including Whittle the Wood, The Moffat County Hot Air Balloon Festival, Grand Old West Days, and the Moffat County Fair. These events are promoted with assistance from the Moffat County Local Marketing District (MCLMD). The MCLMD funds these legacy events as well as new events started by grassroots efforts of local community members.

Chris Jones, Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) and MCLMD board member, explains that the MCLMD plays a vital role not only in the promotion of tourism, but also in the transition of Moffat County’s economy. He expounds, “The MCLMD realizes the future of Moffat County is a balance of quality of life and economic diversification and expansion. MCLMD not only funds these events, we also fund feasibility studies for new business opportunities. The MCLMD uses its capital to help start-up business launch their ideas and we fund existing businesses to expand their operations. The MCLMD has intentionally created a large capital reserve to fund future major economic initiatives in Moffat County.”

Local industry, of course, is a major focus of the Moffat County Vision 2025 Transition Plan. “One of the most important aspects of Economic Development is the continued support of existing industries within our community by leveraging our resources and assets,” Scott says. She explains that, “We have recently formed two Urban Renewal Authority areas that will help encourage revitalization and redevelopment in blighted areas throughout the City and County through the use of Tax Increment Financing as an incentive to developers.”

In addition, over the past four years, the Small Business Grant Program has awarded over $450,000 in site improvement and economic development funding to local businesses, resulting in a total of $1.2 million worth of investments. The team has already completed ten Phase I and two Phase II environmental assessments through a recently awarded Brownfields grant, which will help assess and decontaminate abandoned industrial and commercial properties, making them more attractive for future development.

“In order to ensure that we create a diversified economy for future generations, it is also important that we attract new industry to the area,” Scott emphasizes. “We will focus heavily on marketing efforts that promote Craig and Moffat County as a great place to do business, with a variety of incentives and funding opportunities available through our two Urban Renewal Authority areas, an Opportunity Zone and Enterprise Zone,” she says. “We have a highly skilled and trained workforce that will be transitioning from the energy industry that can easily be re-trained to work in the manufacturing, industrial, construction trades, and transportation industries.”

This workforce also creates a great opportunity for potential entrepreneurs. As Jones explains, “These workers have spent many years creating new ways to efficiently maximize the production of natural resources while minimizing the environmental impact. This ingenuity is a great source for new business ideas. We are creating the infrastructure to maximize this potential.”

Infrastructure, of course, is vitally important to growing economies, and the Plan takes this into account. “As we continue to anticipate growth in our community over the next several years, it is important that our infrastructure and critical services can keep up with the demand,” says Scott. “We will continue to improve our recreation infrastructure by connecting trail systems and building out new ones, expanding transit and housing authorities to create a more balanced housing market and more affordable and accessible transportation options, continuing to promote our two Urban Renewal Authority areas, and investing in and maintaining our public services.”

To this end, the team has recently redone the sidewalks in the city’s downtown and along historic Yampa Avenue, and milled and overlaid Highway 40, the main transportation artery through Craig. They have completed a Housing Needs Assessment and Action plan to help identify how many and what types of homes the community needs for a balanced housing market, have secured over $1.8 million in grant funding for housing, water and sewer infrastructure, and are in the final stages of creating a Housing Authority and a Regional Transit Authority for the Yampa Valley. In addition, the team has completed the Craig Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails Master Plan.

The Moffat County Vision 2025 Transition Plan has a strong focus on supporting the existing workforce and attracting new workers. “Our goal is to attract a location-neutral workforce and retrain the affected coal workers through a small business innovation center, the continued partnership with Colorado Northwestern Community College, (CNCC), and marketing Craig as a relocation hub for remote workers,” says Scott. “Through the construction of an industrial park and innovation center, we can provide opportunities for new businesses to locate or expand, provide training that keeps people in Craig, attract remote workers and other residents with a lower cost of living and a better quality of life, and create connections and facilitate opportunities for affected coal workers remaining in the community. We will also continue to monitor state and federal funding opportunities that are specific to coal-impacted communities.”

Despite some challenges, the plan has been moving forward successfully. One of the first identified strategies was to hire Ms. Scott as the new Economic Development Manager in the spring of 2021. Her focus is “to help with the planning and coordination of city and county governments as well as local and regional partners to help allow all of the stakeholders within the community to successfully work together toward a shared vision and economic resiliency.”

During the spring of 2022, the Economic Development Advisory Committee re-organized into the leadership team that will help guide the transition process alongside the Economic Development Manager and Craig City Council. “The Economic Development Advisory Committee is a volunteer group of diverse individuals with the common goal of moving Moffat County forward,” explains Jones, also a native of Craig. “This group reflects the character of Moffat County. We are invested in our community, invested in each other, and invested in our future.”

With only seven months under their belt in 2022, and in coordination with the Craig City Council, the committee has awarded small business grant funds to eight different businesses to assist in everything from site enhancements and job creation to developing a marketing plan in order to attract new industry, tourism, and remote workers.

And this is only the beginning. The team is eager to continue executing the mission that has been laid out for them in the Plan. In the meantime, they want people to know that the community is already prepared for new enterprise. “We’re open for business. We’re excited to attract new industry to our region.”

The post Laying the Groundwork for the Future<p class="company">City of Craig, Colorado</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

“The single biggest change is that we’ve engaged our upstream strategy,” states President and CEO Steve Hightower, “and we’ve started Hightower EV Solutions, where we’re putting [electric vehicle] charging stations throughout the country.”

In the fuel industry lingo, ‘upstream’ gas or oil production refers to companies involved in the identification, extraction, and production of raw materials. It is a broad category that covers surveying, drilling, manufacturing, oil sands mining, and other activities. ‘Downstream’ refers to post-production fields such as retail and distribution.

HPC’s upstream work centers on crude oil and liquid natural gas. Core downstream services include bulk fuel deliveries for commercial vehicle fleets, supply chain and inventory management, and emergency fuel supply. The company provides bulk fuel that goes into new cars coming off assembly lines at Honda, Nissan, and General Motors plants and also has clients in the sports, retail, utilities, government, manufacturing, and education sectors.

Given the surging popularity of electric cars, its move into the electric vehicle (EV) market makes good business sense. Launched a year and a half ago, Hightower EV is the third company to operate under the HPC umbrella. The other two are Hi-Mark Construction Group, which works on water and wastewater facilities in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. and HP Energy, which tackles infrastructure projects that enhance energy efficiency. Hi-Mark and HP Energy are both thriving, along with their parent company, Steve reports.

Hightower EV can design, build, and install electric vehicle infrastructure. In partnership with various tech companies, the turnkey service provider has worked on roughly 12,000 EV charging units nationwide.

“In some cases, we’re providing charging as a service. We go in and make an investment, say, for a retailer. We would actually bring the [EV charging] units in, and we would own them. We would do a profit share with the retail service station or hotel if they didn’t want to do the initial investment due to lack of early traffic. We would take on the risk,” he says.

For all the attention on EVs, HPC has no intention of abandoning gas and diesel.

“We focus on our customers where they’re at. We are a strong liquid fuels organization. That’s our core. That’s what built us. We don’t shy away from it. We try to bring in clean fuels and biofuels that are more ecologically friendly. Electric is a new fuel for vehicles, and our customers have expanded into that area, so we expanded with them,” Steve explains.

Unlike fossil fuels, biofuels are derived from living plant material. Ethanol, made from corn, is a common biofuel in North America, while fuel made from sugarcane is ubiquitous in South America.

The company’s business-to-business (B2B) fleet card continues to be one of its most popular offerings in the gas and diesel space. Used to purchase services and/or products, the card is accepted at thousands of gas stations and truck stops across the U.S.

The popularity of the fleet card “is growing tremendously. We’ve got over 300,000 cards in the marketplace right now, all commercial B2B. It’s saving many of our customers lots of money, and it’s growing very rapidly,” he says.

Hightowers Petroleum Company remains vigilant to the threat posed by COVID. While not as deadly as it once was, the virus has not been eradicated. “We’ve maintained a pretty strict protocol. We’re probably one hundred percent back to work. We are a critical business. People need to have fuel in the marketplace. We try to be pretty strict, based on lessons learned relative to mask-wearing in our facilities and common areas,” Steve says.

Now that the pandemic has hopefully peaked, trade shows and industry events that were shuttered or conducted online have reopened to the public. In recent months, he has been traveling a great, visiting trade shows in person to meet peers, promote the company, and network.

Another thing that has not changed since the last profile is the company’s ownership structure. The firm remains “one hundred percent” family-owned, states Steve. His son, Stephen Hightower II works as its chief operating officer, while his daughter works on contracts. Other family members, including a nephew, are also employed by the company.

“I’m extremely proud. If something were to happen to me, I know the business would continue to move forward,” he says.

Hightower family members participate in an array of business and community organizations, including the fuel marketing association SIGMA, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, the National Petroleum Council, the Cincinnati Opera, and the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE).

The company has ISO 14001:2015 certification for Environmental Management and ISO 9001:2015 certification for Quality Management. “When you talk about ISO, it’s not just words. It’s how you operate your business, how you document your business, how you continuously improve your business. We have customers that require, through their ISO procedures, that we are also ISO. A lot of the [original equipment manufacturers] require that. So, we have to maintain our ISO, our quality standards,” Steve states.

In addition to ISO, “We have continued to develop our ESG (environmental, social and governance) program that looks at ways in which we can reduce our environmental impact. Part of that would be Hightower EV Solutions. One initiative is to reduce carbon emissions, but there’s the social side of that as well. We’re continually making sure we’re doing the right thing by our communities—not just investing in our communities, but participating in the communities,” he says, adding, “Our company maintains its values of being an honest and socially responsible organization that has a reputation of working hard.”

Asked if he finds it odd that a company built around fossil fuels is so concerned about the environment, he says no. “It’s important for our company to remain relevant and forward-thinking. We know our customers. As they began to be forward-thinking, we also had to be forward-thinking. We never want to be the last horse and buggy on the street,” he explains.

HPC is not looking to get into hydrogen, touted as an up-and-coming miracle fuel for vehicles by some proponents. “I believe that the U.S. made a bet on electric as a primary fuel,” Steve says.

He anticipates that hydrogen will eventually make a mark in some parts of America, depending on federal government infrastructure funding. It is far too early for the company to get involved, given the nonexistent state of hydrogen infrastructure, and the company’s commitment to EVs.

In addition to the Middletown headquarters, HPC maintains offices in South Africa, New York, Michigan, and Washington, DC. The company has approximately seventy-five employees across all its companies, a number Steve believes will grow significantly once federal funding for infrastructure projects kicks in.

It follows a certain process when it comes to new hires. “Each and every time we go out, we look for the best possible person that we can. We don’t ask them about their politics. We don’t look at their color. We don’t look at their sexual orientation. We look at their qualification, abilities, attitude,” he says.

The result is HPC’s diversity, of which he is proud. The company is one of the leading African American fuel firms in the country. “We know there’s a level of uniqueness in our diversity, and there’s not much diversity in this industry. We’ve hopefully done a lot of things right,” he says.

Given the company’s ownership structure, it is not surprising that he describes Hightowers’ culture as family-oriented. “You have to be compassionate to your employees and their needs because they have families as well. My employees want the best for their families as well, their kids. Things happen, and when things happen, you have to be compassionate and understanding and try not to be strict or unreasonable when someone has a personal issue. You’ve got to support them, help them take care of it any way you can.”

Not counting COVID, he cites fuel shortages as the biggest challenge facing HPC at present. Global shortages and rising fuel prices are concerns that keep the company on its toes.

Still, Steve offers an upbeat forecast. “We really feel we can operate in the neighborhood of half-a-billion dollars. I am moving very hard to get to $1 billion over the next twelve months. That’s the ambitious part of me.”

Increased upstream business will likely drive this growth, he says. After reaching the billion-dollar mark, there is a new set of goals he wants to achieve. “Half a decade into the future, we want to be a global energy organization. At that point in time, then I can begin to look at possibly resting a little more,” he states, with a laugh.

The post This Gas and Diesel Downstream Wholesaler Goes Upstream and Electric<p class="company">Hightowers Petroleum Company</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

From tiny Centreville, New Brunswick, with a population of just over 550, one company has established itself as the premier manufacturer of specialty trailers. Now celebrating its fifty-fifth anniversary, BWS Manufacturing is moving forward as one of Atlantic Canada’s most successful enterprises and has an equally successful continent-spanning dealer network.

Like many businesses, BWS sprouted from modest beginnings: a small welding shop begun by Burney MacDougall in 1967 as ‘Burney’s Welding Shop’ to cater to local potato farmers. Potato giant McCain is headquartered just eleven kilometres away, and this proximity fuelled early growth. That growth was further boosted by Burney’s experience in the forestry sector, into which he carved a niche manufacturing trailers for that industry.

As the fledgling company expanded, so too did its varieties of specialized trailers. By 1975, the rebranded firm was manufacturing snow and ice equipment, truck bodies, and final-stage trailers for a variety of sectors. “We started in agriculture and forestry, and fifty-five years later, we cover many market sectors,” sums up Vice President of Sales and Marketing Scott MacRae. The company’s trailers serve the gravel, agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, nuclear, and even consumer products industries. “We’re very diverse.”

A new chapter for the company came in 2017 when it was purchased by Quebec business magnate Hugo St-Cyr. Today, it boasts over 220,000 square feet of production space where every one of its trailers is made, as well as a continental network of over seventy dealer locations across the U.S. and Canada.

MacRae says the industry is experiencing a boom following the pandemic-induced pause in buying, noting that most trailers enjoy a lifecycle of seven to ten years. “With COVID, with the uncertainty in the market, people extended that purchasing cycle to ten to twelve years,” he says.

New purchasing trends have outpaced production, which has shifted MacRae and his colleagues’ focus away from BWS’s fiftieth anniversary. “We have officially sold out of our production for 2023, and we have shown a forty-plus percent increase in our business sales for next year.” MacRae further commented, “So as far as celebrating, we’re just celebrating the increased sales at the moment.”

MacRae estimates the current increase in trucking will continue for several years and dismisses rumours of a recession on the horizon. “Everything you see around you has been on a truck at one point in its life,” he says. “Transportation is always something that is going to be necessary, so it is always going to be there.”

BWS’s trailers are capable of transporting almost any conceivable material, a testament to its in-house engineering and research and development team. Its cutting-edge painting facility is the largest of its kind in eastern Canada. The steel shot blast, epoxy primer, industrial topcoat and baked finish process guarantee maximum product durability and finish on all BWS trailers.

Finally, many of the company’s senior employees have previous heavy equipment operating experience, giving them the ability to put themselves in customers’ shoes and give a superior product experience.

BWS is now offering the new practice of zinc coated galvanizing as an option to most models of its trailers—an expensive procedure, but necessary in the harsh winter environments of Canada and the northern U.S.

BWS trailers are designed to be dipped into a molten zinc finish at 845 degrees Fahrenheit. “As the trailer is dipped in it, the zinc actually permeates the steel, which gives it a secure coating,” MacRae says.

The results speak for themselves. “You’ve now taken a trailer that typically, with a painted finish, you would get a good solid ten years out of,” says MacRae. “With a zinc finish, we’re seeing twenty-plus years. The return on investment far outweighs the cost in the beginning.”

Admittedly, the process does require each trailer to be designed to accommodate the unique properties of the zinc treatment. The entire process adds a day to the trailer assembly, but the company is adamant that the added benefits far outweigh the cost.

In addition to its extensive product line, BWS maintains a close working relationship with its dealer network across the continent. Trained product specialists visit dealers regularly, ensuring sales professionals—and therefore customers—have comprehensive and accurate information on the company’s products. “We have to ensure that they have the start-to-finish and follow-up of a complete sale package,” he says. The goal is to ensure that customers know everything possible about their new trailer before they leave the dealership.

To ensure consistent quality, the company also sends surveys to end users every six months, collecting data on how both it and its dealers can improve. The result is an annual dealer review, during which the information is filtered back network-wide, identifying both successful practices and those which can be improved.

Every BWS dealer is responsible for warranties, so any of the company’s trailers can be driven to one of those dealers and receive repairs. “We can honestly say we have a warranty network, from coast to coast, in Canada and throughout the U.S. as well,” MacRae says proudly.

In addition to its product line, it maintains a close working relationship with its affiliated company, Stargate Trailers in Ontario. The relationship is relatively new, having begun in 2020 when Hugo St-Cyr purchased Stargate, but the two companies have a naturally complementary relationship. “BWS is an all-steel manufacturing company; Stargate is all-aluminum,” MacRae explains, and this allows BWS to be the yin to Stargate’s yang.

The two companies’ similar business models have also enabled them to work together on their outreach as well. “We have a great overlap in our dealer network as well,” he says, “so that’s actually increased our footprint.”

As part of BWS’s and Stargate’s working relationship, the companies enjoy significant reciprocity in parts; many are interchangeable across models, helping to streamline logistics. The two have also combined their purchasing teams, allowing them to buy better and smarter. The production teams of both companies also work closely together, taking the best practices from both companies.

A prime example of the collaboration between the two comes with BWS’s pony trailers, which are designed to be towed by dump trucks. The trailers’ long central pole assembly and chassis would be made with BWS steel; these are then shipped to Stargate, which will complete the trailers with aluminum.

As with so many businesses in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras, BWS is naturally expanding its supplier network, though it is fortunate to have developed long-term relationships with its suppliers over the years. To MacRae, it is a question of balancing costs and quality.

“We’re creating new relationships, and we are endeavouring to look at any opportunity that is possible and makes sense, without compromising the quality of our product,” he says. With BWS having built a reputation over decades, it must avoid the siren song of cheaper, imported parts. “Our brands are synonymous with quality, and we have to ensure that we maintain that brand.”

To continue its business flexibility, the company is also expanding its workforce from an unexpected source. After growing tired of attempting to recruit with little to show for it, it sent a human resources representative to the Philippines, where she has recruited approximately forty-five skilled workers who are currently en route to Canada. “We just got tired of waiting and decided to take it into our own hands, and it’s a great opportunity for us, it’s a great opportunity for the immigrants,” MacRae says. “We are growing beyond our BWS and Stargate family.”

As it looks to the future, BWS is also experimenting with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics and how they may be integrated into its business model. Yet while the company sees itself as forward-thinking, MacRae is quick to point out that the company is not out to eliminate jobs. “We’re not looking at robotics or AI systems to replace our workers, only to complement who we have here now,” he says. “Our business is here because of our people. We are here because of the people that work with us and for us.”

With over half a century of experience and a bright future in transcontinental transportation before it, BWS is an exemplary member of Atlantic Canada’s manufacturing economy. Thanks to long experience, a dedicated staff, superior customer service, and an eye toward the future, it will continue its cycle of steady growth. “Our mission is to be the number-one specialty trailer manufacturer in North America,” MacRae says, “and we will get there.”

The post Celebrating 55 Years of Trailer Excellence<p class="company">BWS Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

Effective DE&I programs promote employee attraction, engagement, satisfaction and retention, reinforce stronger customer engagement and satisfaction across a broader market, and encourage greater rates of innovation, enhanced productivity, better decision making and problem solving capabilities, increased revenue and profitability.

All of this by simply doing the right thing. Here’s how DE&I can work for you.

What constitutes diversity and who benefits from inclusivity?

Diversity can take many forms: ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, age, education, religion, culture, physical abilities, political beliefs, or socioeconomic status. The onus is on business owners to open their doors to diverse employees to reflect the diversity in their communities.

To become diverse, companies must embrace these differences, be fair and equitable, and a good way to achieve this is through inclusion. Inclusion is the path forward when it comes to leveraging the advantages of diversity, while equitable policies, procedures and attitudes are entrenched in these inclusive workplaces and environments.

Some of the benefits of effective DE&I programs include two and a half times higher cash flows per employee, increased revenue by upwards of 20 percent, and a 70 percent greater chance at capturing new markets.

Reflecting reality

A major shift is taking place when it comes to demographics in North America. Almost half of Generation Z are racial or ethnic minorities, making this group 16 percent more diverse than Baby Boomers.

By 2044, minority groups in the U.S. are set to reach majority status, with no single ethnic or racial group set to be a majority by 2065, which means there is a long way to go to ensure companies reflect the unique composition of society. It is also high time to stop referring to these groups as “minorities.”

With a national average unemployment rate of around eight percent, a rate that is higher amongst underrepresented groups, there is significant ground to be made up to ensure a diverse, equitable and inclusive job market and robust DE&I programs are an opportunity to close this gap.

Diversity is not only good for individual companies; it is good for the economy. Global GDP would increase more than 25 percent with improved DE&I. For instance, if gender diversity was achieved and pay equity a priority, it could add $28 trillion to the GDP by 2025. The impact would be exponential if all diverse cohorts achieved parity.

Measuring success

Without follow through, investments in DE&I programs could be wasted. To be effective, DE&I programs must be monitored, evaluated, measured, and reported, but the truth is, only 0.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies make DE&I data public. This is likely because many programs are not as effective as intended.

According to a white paper sponsored by Affirmity.com looking at the Future of DE&I in 2022, many companies are struggling to mature their DE&I initiatives, with less than a quarter of respondents saying they reached an advanced or expert stage.

The same study found that only 40 percent of companies offer DE&I related learning and development opportunities to all employees, with 18 percent offering the bare minimum mandated by law. It’s no wonder why only 45 percent of companies say that their workforce reflects the current demographics of the workforce. These are missed opportunities.

Even in 2022, when almost half of U.S. employees are women, more than 40 percent of women still experience gender discrimination at work, on top of only earning 83.1% of their male counterparts’ wages.

And, despite more women obtaining four-year college degrees than men, they are less likely to be hired or promoted to C-Suite roles (when they are in those roles, they are more likely to focus on DE&I).

If women were hired on merit, without discrimination, these statistics would change. In blind applications, women were more likely to be hired than men, which goes to show how uneven the playing field remains.

In 2021, only eight percent of the CEO workforce of Fortune 500 companies were women, and that is the highest it has ever been. For every 100 men promoted to management, only 86 women can say the same. The stats are even worse for POC.

In 2022, only six Fortune 500 companies had a black CEO. POC are also more likely to experience workplace biases, with many leaving positions due to unresolved matters after reporting them.

Many minorities will change their names knowing that ethnic names are less likely to move forward in interviews. These are very longstanding biases that have been entrenched in the employment system since the first wave of immigration when newly landed immigrants would Anglicize their names to have a better chance of succeeding.

While we have come a long way from these times, biases still exist and work still needs to be done to ensure equitable access to jobs, and inclusive hiring processes are required to ensure that companies are diverse and reflect the current makeup of the community to reap the benefits DE&I can afford.

How to be diverse, equitable and inclusive

Inclusivity is the pathway to diversity: companies and their leaders must be welcome to diversity and approach these interactions with openness and intention for equity. This goes far beyond what is mandated by law.

Some of the best practices to draw from to foster a culture of inclusivity is to start at the top. Without the support of leadership, all efforts to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive will fall short. Managers need to be held accountable to ensure the culture is instilled throughout every level of the operation.

Data can be used to get a better understanding of the current state of your company culture, as well as monitor and measure progress. This will optimize resources and ensure that time and effort is not being wasted.

Further, leaders of today should be seeking leaders of the future, so when hiring, it is important to identify talent that can grow with the company. Be sure to develop this talent throughout their career, providing them with a fulfilling place to evolve that they want to remain loyal to and can serve as cultural change agents for the long term.

DE&I for the future

DE&I programs are no longer “nice to haves” but rather “must haves” when it comes to operating any business. After instituting a DE&I program to attract and retain workers, it cannot stop there.

Company leadership must continue to engage, involve, and evolve its operations to ensure it is always up to date and relevant which will ensure it is agile enough to adapt to market challenges as they arise.

At a time when demand for labor, skilled and unskilled alike, is at an all-time high, any efforts to improve employee attraction and retention are worth it, particularly if they are as effective as investing in DE&I.

Stronger DE&I will contribute to improved customer engagement and satisfaction, expanded market reach, greater rates of innovation and productivity, improved decision making and problem solving and increased revenue and profitability, in addition to a better reputation and a sustainable business plan for the future.

Knowing that there is a lot at stake for companies who are behind the eight ball when it comes to investing in DE&I initiatives and programs, leaders cannot wait to make this a priority. There is power in diversity, equity, and inclusion, but it needs to be unlocked via a robust program and a company-wide commitment to doing and being better and its starts from the top down.

The post More Than a Trend<p class="company">The Business Case for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.