Colorado women power the new manufacturing economy—and ponder their future

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Eric Peterson’s terrific profile of Rubadue Wire and CEO Sue Welsh serves the much-needed purpose of shining a light on one of Colorado’s most accomplished manufacturers. It’s also segue to a worthy topic, that of the profound influence of leading women in Colorado manufacturing.

Welsh’s story is noteworthy because she leads a growth company in an industrial sector, operating in global markets. There’s added interest because she does it alongside more men than women. It’s compelling because she’s the one sibling of 10 who emerged to lead her father’s business. I’d say she has star power; she’d disagree.

In Colorado, she has company. We’ve featured a long list but the upshot here, in Colorado, is that more women are not only extending family legacies in industrial companies — like Welsh, Susan Cirocki (Arrow Sheet Metal), and Katie Munro (Munro Companies) — but are leading a regional manufacturing surge in other sectors.

Liz Myslik (Fresca Foods), Kim Jordan (New Belgium), Koel Thomae (Noosa Yogurt), Mo Shaffer (Coyote Gold), Beryl Stafford (Bobo’s Oat Bars), Megan Reamer (Jackson’s Honest Chips), and others we’ve profiled are the face of a regional food and beverage sector tipping the national scene on its side. Annelise Loevlie (Icelantic), Diane Boyer (Skea), Tamara Smith (Gibson Athletic), Jessica Montoya (COSewn), C.J. Riggins (KidRobot), and Nicole Smith (Mary’s Medicinals) are among the region’s lifestyle manufacturing leaders. And the list goes on.

Public figures like Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech are effective advocates. Kniech is especially well suited to advance manufacturing. She hails from a Midwestern family with roots in manufacturing. “Denver is blessed with some strong women leaders in manufacturing, in sub-sectors like apparel where they are clearly leading, to women inventors using contract manufacturers and those who grew up in the industry and now run smaller, family owned shops,” she told me. “The challenge,” she added, “is whether and how the industry is willing to adapt to attract women workers.”

It’s a provocative assertion — that manufacturing must change to be a more diverse sector. “Lessons learned from other industries indicate that you can’t just ‘add women and mix’,” she says. “You have to think thoughtfully about the fact that statistically, women are still responsible for more home and parenting/eldercare responsibilities, which impacts the kind of workplaces most likely to attract them. For example, last-minute mandatory overtime, a practice in some manufacturing environments to cope with staff shortages or sudden changes in demand, might not be a good fit for women.”

Kniech adds, “The good news is that changes that make workplaces more attractive to women benefit all workers, including men, and are also similar to some of the trends more likely to attract millennials.”

Stacey Bibik, controller at Stacy Machine & Tooling and also a manufacturing brat, sees it differently. “I’m a tough gal,” she admits, “and I tend to stay away from the whole ‘workplace needs to be more female-friendly because we’re caregivers’ argument. Statistics and surveys have supported the fact that including, engaging, and advancing women in the workplace improves the bottom line.”

“So why the shortage in manufacturing?” she asks. “Because women lack encouragement and education about the realities of employment in manufacturing, and those realities relate to the personal satisfaction of making things and the diversity of career pathways available.” Bibik’s also standing up a Colorado chapter of Cleveland-based Women In Manufacturing.

Colorado’s lucky to have both women advocating manufacturing. More than that, the sector needs both voices. From my uninformed perch, there’s profound truth in each perspective. Both are right.

And the irony of manufacturing’s big tent (and getting bigger) is that high-growth industries like natural products and apparel, led by women, will shape manufacturing into one of the economy’s most diverse sectors. Regardless of historic barriers.

Now that’s rich.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Contact him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Reach Denver City Councilwoman Robin Kniech at robin.kniech@denvergov.org, or Stacey Bibik at sb@stacytool.com.

8 ingredients for Utah manufacturing success

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Since launching CompanyWeek in 2013 and CompanyWeek Utah a year later, we’ve profiled more than 400 manufacturing companies in the Rocky Mountain west. What’s emerged is a clearer picture of challenges and opportunities that frame the development of a modern manufacturing economy — and a blueprint for how communities can foster a robust and growing sector.

What makes a great manufacturing community ‘of the future’? Here are eight ingredients:

  1. A cross-industry mix of maker businesses and supply chain. Communities that develop multi-industry manufacturing economies will lead a U.S.-made resurgence. High-tech fabricators, consumer lifestyle and natural products companies will revitalize manufacturing’s image as legacy manufacturers lead the way with expertise and other resources, such as important supply-chain components. A growing, cross-industry supply chain will be transformative. Technology leveraged across all sectors will be a catalyst.
  2. Focus on connecting the manufacturing community, including regional partnerships. Regional and inter-state cooperation is in the offing. Why? Because company-to-company collaboration surpasses local, single-industry investments in business incubators and accelerators in return on time and money invested. It’s also common sense: Want to onshore a service contract? Today it’s hard to find good options — though they likely exist. Get maker businesses connected and best-practices, expertise, contacts and contracts flow more efficiently.
  3. Focus on ‘company creation’, not ‘job creation’. Manufacturing may never be the job engine it once was; for towns like Reno, wins like Tesla come far and few between. But today industry clusters serve the same purpose. In Ogden, Mayor Mike Caldwell has established the city as a destination for lifestyle companies including a growing list of manufacturers. Create a compelling environment for manufacturing start-ups and build a job base from the ground up. Like-minded companies – and jobs – will follow.
  4. Nurture the sea change underway in education. Manufacturing’s again a compelling career option. Industry is helping educators understand that a new generation of manufacturing employees is needed — and now. Some schools, such as Utah State University, get it. Lindsey Shirley and her colleagues there have developed the nation’s first Outdoor Products Design degree, an initiative that aligns with the state’s growing lifestyle manufacturing push in Ogden and under Brad Peterson at GOED. It’s time to embrace innovation in .edu, and push back against the status quo.
  5. Develop manufacturing-specific business financing strategies. CompanyWeek Utah will host the first-ever Utah Manufacturing Growth and Investor Conference next spring. Investor events dot the technology landscape and many others. Time for debt and equity investors to learn more about manufacturing, too — and vice versa. Family-owned manufacturers, in particular, have unique needs. Entrepreneurs always need money. Let’s prioritize manufacturing businesses.
  6. Develop informed public policy support for manufacturing. What constitutes a pro-manufacturing public-policy platform? Renew the Ex-Im bank charter (here’s why); agree on comprehensive immigration reform; fund innovation agendas, such as new internship and job shadowing programs; invest in ‘placemaking’ initiatives featuring mixed-use developments that include light manufacturing; invest in infrastructure, including transportation strategies that enhance the Utah lifestyle experience and business recruitment. The pro-manufacturing list is long, and will take coordinated action.
  7. Women are powering the new manufacturing economy — celebrate their success. Manufacturing is perceived as the domain of men, but a new maker economy can be a posterchild for a diverse workforce. From family-owned companies increasingly run by women to industries such as food and apparel — where women lead the manufacturing resurgence — Utah boasts nation-leading gender diversity. Celebrate it.
  8. Celebrate the connection to our manufacturing legacy — as the foundation for the future. Utah is littered with iconic industrial brands that have endured, succeeded and are now pointing the way to a U.S. manufacturing revival. We’ve profiled dozens, including Peterson Inc., May Foundry & Machine, NRP-Jones and others.

Finally, rally around business leaders willing to challenge business-as-usual development strategies and use whatever leverage necessary to change the way manufacturing is supported in the city, state and national dialogue.

Utah’s poised for great things.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Gov. Hickenlooper’s cycling gambit falls just short. Here’s how to fix it.

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There’s much to like about Gov. John Hickenlooper’s bold pronouncement at the Interbike conference last week to invest $100 million in Colorado cycling infrastructure — trails, bike lanes and interconnectivity. It’s practical and progressive and on the surface it’s a timely and well-aligned economic development strategy. Building on Colorado’s already strong national reputation as a destination for outdoor enthusiasts, Hickenlooper’s making a wise bet that ongoing leadership will translate into an economic windfall.

It’s also expensive, especially relative to money not being spent on roads and highways. But cycling enjoys bipartisan support and not every politician who complains that dollars should instead be spent on roads can stand in Sen. Randy Baumgardner‘s shoes. Last year, the Republican from Hot Sulphur Springs introduced a bill to raise $3.5 billion for road projects. (It failed.) Most of Hickenlooper’s opponents have done far less to advance transportation infrastructure funding. The politics fall the Governor’s way.

All that said, Hickenlooper’s bold stroke falls just short. Today, the economic benefits of cycling — or skiing, hiking, and other health and fitness industry for that matter — go beyond the number of new trails or urban bike lanes. Hickenlooper missed a chance to make a bigger splash.

A plan that truly taps the economic benefits of cycling would have included a vision to establish Colorado as the new U.S. destination for cycling industry. The seeds of an international-leading sector are here: trailblazing frame, component, clothing and cycling gear brands and entrepreneurs, lifestyle talent to employ and world-class terrain and topography including Colorado’s embarrassment of outdoor riches to support testing and training.

To be fair, the dynamics of manufacturing domestically have to this point been a significant barrier. Outliers like Hanson ski boots notwithstanding, most everything we’ve bought the past generation to ski or hike or ride or wear have been made offshore.

But that’s changing, and in a profound way. Over the past two years we’ve written about dozens of equipment, component and apparel companies making things here and in Utah. The sea change, for those paying attention, is unmistakable: The economics of making in the U.S. have shifted, and those who realize this will birth new industry clusters that transform communities.

It also requires developers to connect the dots and ironically, Hickenlooper’s own economic blueprint is a barrier. Tourism and Outdoor Recreation is largely disconnected from lifestyle manufacturers. A new Office of Outdoor Recreation was developed last year and could provide a bridge but it’s unclear how the office plans to marry up related sectors into effective outdoor industry clusters.

The governor’s pronouncement was timely and informed. It will benefit from a related industry push that costs less money as it challenges Colorado’s economic development orthodoxy.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Craft giant Etsy invites manufacturers to the party

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There’s a line that separates artisans from manufacturers. It varies industry to industry but those who cross it describe the telltale sign similarly. One night you go to bed a hobbyist and wake up a manufacturer, having spent a sleepless night wondering how in hell you’re going to make more.

Game on. Welcome to manufacturing.

We spend millions to make this path easier for some. In technology and healthcare, we incubate and fund ideas before anything’s made. The business landscape is dotted with Think Atomic and Techstars and Innovation Center of the Rockies, an incredible ecosystem that provides a lifecycle path where an idea is vetted, business planned, funded, prototyped, market-tested, and mentored before anyone is asked to buy or manufacturing bottlenecks are encountered.

But there’s a larger and equally passionate ecosystem, thousands of inventors, designers, crafters, cooks, and homebrew artisans with limited resources or expertise. They’re also eager to make a business out of it, but for this group it’s a harder path. Manufacturing’s a pain point for many.

Increasingly business is finding a way — credit a widespread maker and manufacturing revival — and this week an important service will be available to fledgling small businesses seeking enhanced manufacturing capabilities. Etsy, the giant online sales outlet for homemade, crafty products announced the launch of Etsy Manufacturing, a new platform, as the New York Times described it, that “grew out of a realization that many Etsy sellers wanted to grow, but were having trouble finding manufacturers willing to take on small orders from untested business partners.”

Etsy’s inviting manufacturers to the craft party. “Starting Monday, Etsy will invite manufacturers to apply to list a profile, complete with pictures, on Etsy Manufacturing,” the Times wrote. “‘Etsy will review those applications based on a set of criteria,’ said Amanda Peyton, and Etsy executive, ‘including how much the manufacturer makes in-house and how much it outsources itself.'”

Etsy’s not the first — Techstars graduate Dorian Ferlauto launched BriteHub to match industrial designers with manufacturers — but it’s easily the most newsworthy given its size and potential impact. Not for industrial giants but for the wave of American-made products over the horizon.

Will the current community of contract manufacturers benefit from registering on Etsy? According to the Times, the “site now lists over 32 million items from 1.5 million sellers and generated $1.93 billion in sales last year.” It’s conceivable that some manufacturers will find small-batch orders from a tier of products poised to become the next BB-8.

More likely Etsy’s move will advance the maker and manufacturing revival by encouraging even more collaboration between businesses in the manufacturing supply chain just beginning to find one another after decades of finding partners overseas, in Asian factories or European fabric and materials markets. And growth will result. It’s not a game changer; it’s a game enhancer.

But if Etsy works to connect more small businesses, directly, only good things will happen. It won’t take long for the next ProBar, Voormi, Lizard Skins, or New Belgium to emerge. In a fascinating report by the National League of Cities — Four Ways City Leaders Can Boost Entrepreneurship and Propel Economic Growth — the number one recommendation was to ‘Build Connections.’ The report suggested:

While capital constraints represent one of the primary challenges to entrepreneurs, research has shown that public venture funds and local incubation centers result in little to no benefit to entrepreneurs. Instead, cities should focus on fostering local connections among entrepreneurs and businesses. These local connections, as opposed to national or global contacts, are vital to an entrepreneur’s success. Focus should be put on events that cause entrepreneurs to think and act together, building a robust local ecosystem.

We couldn’t have said it better, though we tried.

Connect the players and let business find the way. And rest easy in the process.

CompanyWeek is hosting the next, important connections-building event. Don’t miss the 2nd annual Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit next Thursday, September 24 from 3-6:30 p.m. Register here.

CAMA turns a corner

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CAMA was developed and funded by OEDIT to do what CAMT wasn’t, leading to Confusion Around Manufacturing Acronyms that today is more a humorous sidebar to the evolution of Colorado’s official manufacturing trade association. (We could go on: CAMT, the erstwhile Colorado Association of Manufacturing Technology — now Manufacturer’s Edge — was neither an association nor dealt with technology.)

Paul Harter, president and CEO of Aqua-Hot and chairman-elect of CAMA‘s board of directors, is bemused with the naming convention. “I think we should consider dropping the ‘advanced’ and leaving it at Colorado Manufacturing Alliance,” he told me, half in jest, referring to the second letter in CAMA’s name that still causes some headaches for the association. He’s serious though in his reasoning. “We need to drop the exclusionary language that works to keep this community apart and do everything we can to bring it together.”

It’s this mindset, shared by the new CAMA board chair Brian Burney, CEO of La Junta standout Oliver Manufacturing, that assures many industry stakeholders that CAMA is catching its wind after a couple of tumultuous years. I recently spoke with Burney and Harter to discuss CAMA’s direction and objectives.

“We’re a startup organization, still,” Burney admits. “We’ve been in an evolutionary state and to some degree haven’t yet set a clear strategy . . . but we have to keep asking, ‘How do we energize manufacturers across the four corners of this state?’ CAMA has to have as much benefit for rural companies as it does for those in urban areas.”

It’s Harter’s calling card. “We have to link manufacturers together, even share spaces where we can. It’s a new way of thinking about manufacturing. I’m going to look outside my industry, to food and beverage, to cut and sew, to learn and add value to my business. They’re producing as well!” he exclaims, echoing similar themes touched on regularly in this column. “It’s blocking and tackling. FourFront is only one means to an end,” he says, referencing the federally-funded initiative that’s become CAMA’s primary focus, “and we need to make sure there are other tools in the toolbox.”

FourFront, formerly SMART, provided CAMA much-needed resources and a mission: identify manufacturers who stand to suffer from defense-industry budget cuts, develop infrastructure and systems to retrain and retool operations to improve competitiveness, and leverage the investment across manufacturing to the betterment of the sector.

Again, after a somewhat rocky start, the program seems to be on more solid footing. (Here’s an overview.) Yet Burney echoes Harter’s sentiments that FourFront is one tool — not the endgame — in advancing manufacturing. “The project is a means to pursue the objectives of the Blueprint (OEDIT’s guiding economic development document), certainly an important one as it created a funding mechanism,” he says. “FourFront also helps us connect with other national resources that we need to increase our competitiveness.”

Burney’s unambiguous about manufacturing’s competitive challenge. “We are resource constrained, and a lot of things have to be done,” he states flatly. “Nobody’s working on the problem of ‘what are we doing from a resource level?’ Colorado as a whole has tapped and nurtured an entrepreneurial spirit, but connecting manufacturers with current resources is something that’s not being focused on.”

The honest assessment, from both men, is refreshing. That we’ve triangulated a conversation from Castle Rock, with Harter in Frederick and Burney in La Junta, is also promising for a sector that must tap energy and innovation from the entire region and not just Denver to be successful on a global stage.

But the promise of a more connected, synergistic manufacturing sector with CAMA at its center remains just that to a large degree. The organization is still challenged to widen its view outside the lens of its own operations. ForeFront, in particular, has relegated ‘rebranding’ and other early CAMA objectives to the backburner. CAMA also lacks mindshare among lifestyle and consumer manufacturers, or significant representation in Colorado’s incredible natural products community.

It’s a reality not lost on Burney or Harter. I ask if CAMA just needed to grow up a bit to find a new, more connected place within a broadening manufacturing economy. “I think there’s a lot to that,” Harter says, and Burney reinforces the notion, confident that FourFront will connect manufacturers in diverse industries by exposing them to “globally competitive ideas” — regardless of what the community is called.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

Rural Colorado Apparel Manufacturing idea a finalist for Walmart’s U.S Manufacturing Innovation Fund

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A highlight of last year’s inaugural Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit was the exquisite timing and passionate comments of a determined, spunky economic developer from Phillips County, Colorado. Julie Worley, executive director of PCED, rolled into the Summit from Holyoke, on Colorado’s eastern plains, with a desire to learn about the state of apparel manufacturing in the state, and an idea.

What she needed was an education. “Before the Summit last year I knew very little about the cut-and sew labor shortage,” Worley says. “As a rural economic development director, I was always on the lookout for industry that would work in small towns. I had done some limited research prior to the Summit, and what I learned through that research was enough to make me realize that cut-and-sew centers would work in our small, rural towns — and provide much-needed jobs and industry.”

The dialogue (here’s a recap) exposed Worley to apparel’s hard knocks and the mother of all barriers for emerging brands: the lack of domestic labor and modern equipment that today’s apparel and sewn-product entrepreneurs need to thrive. But halfway through the discussion, to a rousing applause, Worley informed the crowd that the labor, work ethic, and capacity to learn resided here, in Colorado, in the small towns of the Eastern Plains. Worley’s towns.

A year later, on the eve of the 2015 Apparel Manufacturing Summit, comes the stunning news that the idea, transformed with the help of collaborators Carol Engel-Enright, Darlene Carpio, Jack Makovsky, and Lisa Elstun, is now a finalist for the Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund. RCAM, short for Rural Colorado Apparel Manufacturing, with local investors already in tow, is making national news. And it could get even better.

RCAM aligns with Walmart’s push to reshore American manufacturing jobs and in the apparel sector decades of offshoring have decimated the cut-and-sew labor pool. It’s this sector’s version of the workforce challenge that most U.S. manufacturers wrestle with. Consumers have played an important role in revitalizing demand for U.S. product — think food’s locavore trend — but circumstances in Asia are also creating opportunity for American makers. Rising labor costs, instability in China, and the fatigue of managing long supply chains are factors.

Quality is another. As the RCAM outline explains, “Overseas manufacturing has resulted in ‘fast fashion,’ with the lowest price for the least style, poor quality fabric and materials, and poor craftsmanship. Domestic, local apparel production could bring a return of high quality craftsmanship and construction to the apparel industry if demand remains steady.”

Here, there’s little reason to believe it won’t. Colorado’s already a destination for entrepreneurs launching lifestyle businesses. This year’s Summit should feature a new crop. RCAM could be a catalyst, though the prospect of the state becoming a mecca for emerging brands seems more daunting without the resources and support other manufacturing industries receive here. Apparel and sewn-product manufacturers are companies without a home in Colorado’s statewide economic development plan.

That reality doesn’t diminish Worley’s enthusiasm a bit, though her view is informed by an authentic dose of modesty. She’s a bit overwhelmed her idea has gone this far. “I’m very pleased — and somewhat in awe — of how the RCAM network is coming together,” she says. “With the possible opening in the not-too-distant-future of the Wray center, the vision will soon be a reality.”

It’s here, in the small towns of eastern Colorado, where economic opportunities are sometimes far and few between, that RCAM could mean everything. The RCAM proposal calls for startup and operating capital for six months and is specific in identifying advanced equipment like a digital patternmaker and a laser cutting system as well as digital textile printing systems.

But it’s the people factor and rural setting that inspires Julie Worley. “Revitalizing economic development efforts in our rural communities — that’s what really got me excited,” Worley says. “For a variety of reasons, it is hard to locate any industry in the small, rural areas of the state, but this industry will work in small towns — and that’s what we need in the country.”

In the ‘country.’ Indeed.

Don’t miss the 2nd annual Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit, September 24 in Denver’s RiNO. Registration and details here.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

CompanyWeek at two years: Six takeaways as manufacturing surges

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Since CompanyWeek debuted two years ago this week, we’ve shined a light on 400 or so manufacturers, chronicled the policy efforts to support them (some good, some bad), and served as an advocate for manufacturing even as business voices debate the so-called manufacturing renaissance.

Here’s six takeaways from two years in business that also shape the journey ahead — for us and for the manufacturing community:

1. Manufacturing’s cross-industry comeback continues unabated. I said last year at this time that manufacturers were the story. Today, it’s the collective momentum in the sector. It’s not creating a tsunami of jobs, a reality that fuels manufacturing’s doubters, but employment growth is nonetheless impressive. Consider Colorado: CU Leeds’ always useful Colorado Business Review notes in its mid-year report:

“Employment in this sector continues to make gains, increasing 2.9% in 2014 and 2.9% year-over-year in 2015 for a total of 139,800 Manufacturing employees in the state. Manufacturing employment surpassed committee estimates by 600 jobs in 2014, and is continuing the trend by adding 2,200 more jobs than projected based on growth rates through May 2015. Higher growth in the durables subsector (3.9%) is offsetting lower growth in nondurable goods (1.2%) so far in 2015 year-over-year. Gains in Manufacturing have now occurred for four and a half consecutive years following a decade of employment losses.”

The Review seems almost surprised at the level of activity.

But ‘jobs’ isn’t the takeaway. Manufacturing’s multi-industry growth is. Whether food and beer, aerospace and bioscience, consumer products and advanced, engineered design and manufacture, the maker economy is surging. Louisville’s brilliant co-packer Fresca Foods gets 500 requests a year from emerging brands to manufacture product. Growth market, or not?

2. Public and private sector support isn’t keeping pace with manufacturing’s advance. There’s dissonance and a lack of uniformity about how to measure and track manufacturing, which leads to confusion about how to support it.

CU’s efforts, as good as they are, nevertheless track the design of some manufactured products — like satellites — as Professional and Business Services, a NAICS-driven methodology that works to under-report the impact of manufacturing. To measure only the build of a satellite as a manufacturing activity and not its design underserves the sector.

As I’ve noted before, manufacturing is scattered throughout Colorado’s economic development “Key Industry” framework. It results in uneven support. “Advanced manufacturers” using high-tech processes are the beneficiaries of recognition and money. Sew a jacket or backpack or make organic soup and support is spotty. Ergo:

3. Manufacturing should be a ‘Key Industry’ in a simplified economic Blueprint. OEDIT should dispense with the ‘advanced processes’ criteria and classify every company that makes something as “Manufacturing.” It would simplify the support ecosystem and work to provide needed resources to manufacturers across industries in a simpler, fairer way.

It would also make it harder for elected official to avoid responsibility.

4. Congressional inaction in support of manufacturing is a travesty. Today it’s easy for Colorado Congressman Ken Buck to rationalize his decision to ditch the Export-Import Bank, an entity that provided support to manufacturers.

“It is a type of corporate welfare,” Buck said, quoted last week in the Denver Business Journal. “And when we have $18 trillion in debt and we need to find places to cut, the Export-Import Bank is one area.”

Buck had no such compunction about the welfare-laden ag bill. But without a unified industry voice pushing back on the issue, as no doubt Ag interests do, Buck tacked away cleanly. That it happened at a CACI event — the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the long-standing ”Manufacturing Initiative’ — was disappointing.

Congress has also refused to play from strength and negotiate with the Obama administration to eliminate the onerous 5% device tax on bio-manufacturers or the confusing employer mandate in Obamacare, instead pursuing the dead-end strategy to repeal. 50 times. No relief, no accountability, no support.

5. Where robust support has developed, it now must evolve. We’ve spent millions of dollars to repair a staggering skills gap in manufacturing — a vestige of decades of offshoring. It’s time to let the programs work and now focus on competitiveness and business development.

I asked Dale Denning, vice president of sales for Shop Tools, Inc., about business prospects for contract manufacturers. “If you’re in aerospace or medical, it’s great. If you’re a job shop not working in those sectors, not so much,” he said.

Industry and the public-private partnerships should rally around a new Manufacturing sector to promote Colorado as a destination for maker businesses. Time to feed the business pipeline and let workforce development efforts do their stuff.

6. Manufacturers must agree on the way forward — one that involves a bigger tent. Efforts by manufacturers and entities that support them to come together and rally the sector have been commendable — but they remain industrial-centric. Walls still divide sectors and cross-industry collaboration remains low. (see point 3, above.)

Industrial manufacturing may never capture the public’s imagination as it once did. The clean rooms of bioscience and organic-food manufacturing and lifestyle shops churning out cycle parts and skis, can. Everyone benefits.

Manufacturing has never been more compelling. Its leaders and supporters should evolve and change the way it’s marketed to the public.

Follow their progress in year three at CompanyWeek.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at btaylor@companyweek.com.

CompanyWeek at 2 years: what’s in store for Utah

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Since CompanyWeek debuted two years this week, we’ve shined a light on 400 or so manufacturers, chronicled the policy efforts to support them (some good, some bad), and been an advocate for manufacturing even as business voices debate the so-called manufacturing renaissance.

We’ve published a standalone version in Utah for just under a year now in partnership with Todd Bingham and the Utah Manufacturers Association, profiling 80 or so Utah companies as part of the regional mix. Here are six takeaways from two years of publishing in Colorado. We’ll compare these six to factors shaping Utah’s manufacturing sector next issue.

But as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary, it’s important we communicate what’s ahead for CompanyWeek Utah:

  • We’re bullish on Utah manufacturing. The sector’s diverse mix of maker industries is compelling in nation-leading ways. We plan on doubling-down on our investment in you. As we know from publishing for two years, the focus on manufacturing is unique and much needed. We also know other media are preoccupied with the service economy: advertising usually follows content, and as manufacturers don’t really have a compelling reason to advertise in broad-based business media, content doesn’t follow.
  • Our first priority is creating a more Utah-centric user experience. In the coming months we’ll develop a digital community that feels better suited to Utah’s unique mix of companies, service, and economic development.
  • Secondly, we’re bringing in-person events to Utah to benefit manufacturers. This spring, we’re excited to host M2 Utah – the inaugural Manufacturing Growth & Investor Conference. Why? First-stage financing and closer relationships with debt and equity investors for growth companies is an acute need. How do we know? Read today’s profiles (and every week) in CompanyWeek Utah.
  • We hope to find media professionals in Utah who share our passion for manufacturing, in addition to the incredible photographers and writers who’ve chronicled the sector – all archived here, at CompanyWeek Utah. We realize UMA’s support isn’t enough. But we’re also a start-up manufacturing company — we make content – and comfortable the market recognizes our contribution thus far. More boots on the ground are on the way.

We know this: a broad-based cross-industry manufacturing revival is underway in Utah, the Rocky Mountain west and across the U.S. We’re confident CompanyWeek is meeting a growing demand for information.

Manufacturers can rally around their own media to advance the sector. More on what else must happen next time.

On Finance: The M&A market is “frothy”—if you can get there.

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Financing seems a universal challenge for business today, regardless of geography, and as a result we’re also featuring the recap today of last week’s Manufacturing Growth & Investor Conference held in Denver for the benefit of Utah readers. Trends shaping access to capital are more sector-specific than anything. Plus, we’re bringing the event to Utah next year.

Two or three themes emerged from the discussion:

Lenders and investors are eager to offer debt and equity financing to the right companies, largely growth companies with experienced, proven management teams with a solid balance sheet. The market for M&A was described as “frothy.”

Growth companies have always had preferred access to capital, but today it remains difficult for early-stage companies to get funded. The infamous financing “Valley of Death” is deeper today than in recent memory. Friends and family can only take a start-up so far. For manufacturing entrepreneurs this means alternative funding options are more important than ever. Panelists at the Investor Conference offered great ideas on asset and purchase-order funding, family offices, convertible notes, and tactics to sway lenders and investors to your side.

Aside from early-stage woes, a strengthening economy is providing a window of opportunity for companies’ intent on raising capital in the near term. Tony Giordano, President of BKD Corporate Finance, is bullish on the next few years.

“History tells us M&A cycles are typically five to eight years,” Giordano told me. “Assuming there is not a major domestic or international event that would derail the markets, and keeping in mind the capital raise or sales process is typically a six to nine month period, we believe there is still a two to three year window for business owners to complete a transaction in a very positive environment”.

It’s also evident that most any money, debt or equity would love to see the manufacturing sector thrive. And why not? It’s brick and mortar. It’s often family-owned. It’s tangible and consumers want more things made locally.

Last month, the first-ever Marijuana Investor Conference in Denver drew over 1000 attendees. Pot’s a fad. Manufacturing’s a backbone. We need a moneyed sector. That travels. See you in Utah next year.

Bart Taylor is founder and publisher of CompanyWeek. Reach him at 303-888-2832.

Technician at Boulder's Research Electro-Optics

Colorado’s Top 5 manufacturing communities

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Manufacturing’s rebound has even outspoken cynics taking note. Joel Kotkin from Forbes acknowledged as much in a useful take on the sector’s new boomtowns. The Cities Leading a U.S. Manufacturing Revival lists 10 communities experiencing measured growth, including Detroit’s eye-opening comeback:

“Since 2009 the Detroit area has seen a remarkable 31.3% rebound to 89,300 industrial jobs, including a 9.8% expansion last year. This growth has helped begin to reverse a long-standing decline in employment overall — still down 12.3% since 2003 — with overall employment up 5.9% since 2009.”

Kotkin’s list is rust-belt heavy, because, hey, that’s what we all think when we think manufacturing. The way economists measure manufacturing is also skewed to industrial metrics so it’s no surprise that Colorado is absent from the list.

But as we chronicle every week, a manufacturing revival is underway in the Rocky Mountain West. So after two years and over 300 profiles of maker and manufacturing businesses it’s time we ranked Colorado’s top manufacturing communities. Our criteria: a growing, compelling industry or cluster of maker industries, supported by purposeful public/private efforts to build a robust manufacturing economy.

  1. Boulder County. Boulder County’s modern manufacturing ecosystem is world-class and positioned for extraordinary growth. It spans multiple growth sectors that are redefining how we view manufacturing, none more so than BC’s natural products sector, a national juggernaut. BC is home to many of the state’s ascendant craft beverage brands. It’s high-tech manufacturing, with a news-making aerospace core buttressed by CU’s insanely rich R&D backdrop. It’s a lifestyle-maker magnet, a cycling- and outdoor-gear mecca. Manufacturing may be the sector that finally buries Boulder’s dated anti-business moniker.
  2. Denver. Sheer numbers aside, there’s heightened awareness across Denver’s business, government, and education interests that manufacturing may change the city’s urban economic landscape. RiNo is poised to breakout as a national model of mixed-use development with light manufacturing at its core. Its infrastructure assets including DIA now attract industry that once viewed its mid-continent location a global disadvantage. The Auraria complex, home to three complementary higher-ed outposts that each view manufacturing core to a workforce mission, is poised for great things. It also benefits from increasingly manufacturing-aware economic development and trade coalitions
  3. Ft. Collins/Loveland. Ft. Collins/Loveland is a wild card. Its combination of public/private assets gives it incredible upside. Its rich ag sector is an engine of food and craft beverage manufacturing. Tech-incubation is national-caliber. Otter Products is a global power and lifestyle-sector catalyst. Industry is leading innovative workforce partnerships with CSU — meeting an acute need. Economic developers are hip to manufacturing. Its not quite yet figured out that manufacturing is the tie that binds. When it does, it may top the list.
  4. Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs’ ambitious sector is hamstrung by aimless city government and lack of a more productive partnership with nearby Pueblo, one that might result in a regional industrial powerhouse. Nevertheless, a core industrial group is pushing hard to build awareness for a community rich in manufacturing brands — many that operate on a global stage — and defense-related legacy that’s left pieces of industrial acumen scattered throughout the region. A lifestyle sector simmers just under a combustible degree. Business here is trying hard to manufacture an industrial spark.
  5. Grand Junction/Palisade. Modern manufacturing is fermentation and fabrication, and Colorado’s western slope leads with a world-class agriculture/industrial complex that’s a catalyst for regional food and beverage manufacturing. The Slope’s wine industry is an established regional powerhouse. Grand Junction’s tech and industrial incubators are surprisingly manufacturing-aware. And with recreation assets to spare, gear and component manufacturing is poised for growth – if economic developers connect the dots.

Collectively it’s a strong group. Is it of national caliber? Yes, but there are reasons it’s not captured more attention. The state’s industrial soul may reside in Pueblo — absent from our Top 5. Pewag (profiled here), a well-known German firm, selected the city for its only U.S. location, in part because of its manufacturing heritage. Add a purposeful push from Pueblo industry to match the energy of its community college, and Colorado’s national bona fides might improve.

No matter. Colorado’s manufacturing star is on the rise.

Contact Bart Taylor, founder and publisher of CompanyWeek.