The Colorado Manufacturing Awards reach a milestone in 2020 — five years of celebrating companies and people reimagining manufacturing in this most unlikely industrial outpost. Surprising or not, Colorado’s sector is today a national model of diversity and innovation, and the 40+ companies and people selected from a record number of nominations represent the best-ever […]
As Denver flashed its diversified manufacturing economy in the first wave of CMA finalists announced last week, a Colorado Springs-based contingent emerges in this second group of industry finalists, even as Northern Colorado continues to make its case as the the most growth-oriented manufacturing community in Colorado. Colorado Springs’ Titan Robotics and Montrose’s Mayfly Outdoors […]
Among America’s growth industries, none seem to value the importance of company culture more than the Outdoor Industry. OI companies and the trade groups that support them — including the Outdoor Industry Association, its powerful national mouthpiece — are today leaders in sustainability, climate and environmental awareness, diversity, employee empowerment and other progressive values. It’s […]
Eight years of employment growth brings the future of California manufacturing into focus. California manufacturers are writing the next chapter in a storied century that’s already, in 20 short years, been a blockbuster tale of bust to boom to high anxiety. Consider a recent report that documents “that since 2001, when China joined the World […]
The answer is no, the party’s not over. But as we begin the decade, I think factors have aligned to create some stiff barriers. Manufacturing will have to work harder for its gains. Here’s why 2020 is shaping up to be a tough year: A trade deal will still leave manufacturing investment lacking Last week’s […]
As CompanyWeek Editor Eric Peterson recaps some of the standout manufacturing companies featured in 2019, it’s also a good time to look forward. Much has been made recently about U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data. We summarized Colorado’s numbers here. What to make of California’s 2018 and 2019 data, but more importantly, the […]
As we look back this week at a great 2019, it’s also time to forecast the storylines shaping 2020 manufacturing in Colorado and the region. 1. Food’s undersized brand gets a lift Before publishing last week’s manufacturing employment report, I asked a handful of respected manufacturing executives and development officials to name Colorado’s largest manufacturing […]
Conventional wisdom holds that manufacturing’s recent job surge is an aberration, that automation and robotics, combined with cost savings from offshore production, will diminish the need for U.S. workers and the importance of manufacturing at the same time. It’s not a trivial conclusion. Jobs matter. People starting a career or business, or developing a city […]
There was a time when American manufacturing’s most effective promotion was products Made in the U.S.A. Today, products designed in the U.S. but made offshore tend to capture the imagination of consumers. “I design it, you build it” is still a rule of thumb for industrial designers, and the build is often “over the wall” […]
A reader in California took us to task last week for “promoting” O’Neal USA, a sports apparel company we featured in CompanyWeek. A legend in the powersports market, Jim O’Neal’s jerseys are a motocross staple. He also moved apparel manufacturing offshore, a reality not lost on our reader. Instead, the reader said, “highlight and promote […]