Women’s Exchange of Washtenaw wins SBA champion award
Source: Concentrate, 4/28/2010
Women's Exchange of Washtenaw is making
room on its shelf for a new award and room in its ranks for a new
chapter or two.
The U.S. Small Business Administration will
present the non-profit's co-founders, Carrie Hensel and Debra Power,
with the "U.S. Small Business Administration’s Michigan Women in
Business Champion of the Year for 2010" award later this week. That will
come as the duo make preparations to grow the organization across the
state in the near future.
"We think we have found something very
unique and special and we want to share it," Power says.
Women's Exchange of
Washtenaw was founded two years ago as a place for businesswomen to
network and create new business opportunities, generate referrals and
find work. It now has a database of 800 women who partake in the
organization. Women's Exchange of Washtenaw is not a membership
organization, which allows participants the freedom to pay as they go.
Hensel
and Powers have enjoyed quite a bit of success with this model,
creating an open and engaging environment for entrepreneurs without a Y
chromosome. They expect to try and spread this model into the Lansing
market later this year.
Women's Exchange of Washtenaw will host
the Women's Exchange of Washtenaw Forum 10 on May 21 at Kensington
Court, 610 Hilton Blvd in Ann Arbor. The all-day event will feature
regional speakers, workshops, breakout sessions and networking
activities to engage the business community and work through the common
issues women business leaders face in their efforts to grow and improve
their companies. The event costs $75 before May 1 and $95 after. For
information, click here.
Source:
Debra Power, co-founder of Women's Exchange of Washtenaw
Writer:
Jon Zemke
Dexter's ReCellular grows into new markets and cultivates new customers
Source: Concentrate, 4/28/2010
The last year or two have not been kind to
General Motors, but the same can't be said for the GM of the cell phone
recycling world - ReCellular.
The Dexter-based firm is still
recycling millions upon millions of cell phones, refurbishing them for a
second life and keeping their toxic chemical innards out of landfills
and water tables. The company recycled in excess of 5 million cell
phones last year and looks to exceed that number again this year.
"We
created this industry and we have remained on top," says Mike Newman,
vice president of marketing for ReCellular. "Even though a vast
majority of cell phones that are retired are left in someone's drawer
and forgotten. We're trying to get them to recycle them."
It is
accomplishing that by reaching out directly to customers to recycle
their phones. Before ReCellular relied on other businesses to collect
them through donation drives. This year it has premiered SecureTradeIn.com,
which offers cash for old cell phones.
ReCellular refurbishes
many of those phones and then sells them on the open market. Sometimes
they end up in North American markets and sometimes they end up in other
markets in the Third World.
"We're selling more phones then we
have ever sold before," Newman says.
That has forced the company
to reconfigure its Dexter manufacturing space to accommodate at least
one year of growth. Today the company employs several hundred people at
its Dexter facilities. It has held its employee count steady over the
last year and expects to next year, too, as the company focuses on
creating efficiency and maximizing profits.
Source: Mike
Newman, vice president of marketing for ReCellular
Writer: Jon
Zemke
VANGUARD USA hires 2, plans to continue staff expansion
Source: Concentrate, 10/14/2009
One of the leading photography accessory
manufacturers calls Whitmore Lake home, and continues to grow in the
small lake town just north of Ann Arbor.
VANGUARD USA has just
hired two new people for its local U.S. headquarters, expanding its
payroll to 21. It plans to hire a handful more people within the next
year as it continues to revamp and upgrade its product portfolio.
"It appears to be nothing but growth on the horizon," says Jody Lamb, marketing manager for VANGUARD USA.
The
company got its start 24 years ago when Anne Lee, a native of Taiwan,
began making tripods and ball heads for cameras. One of her colleagues
had ties to Ann Arbor and persuaded to open up her U.S. office in
Dexter shortly after she started the firm. A few years later it moved
to Whitmore Lake and expanded its portfolio to include more photography
equipment, such as camera bags.
The company went international
in the 1980s, expanding into the Japanese and European markets. It even
started offering hunting/outdoors equipment in 1997. Today VANGUARD USA
employs 3,000 worldwide.
The company recently overhauled its
product line, causing it to focus more on advertising and getting the
word out about its new products. That has prompted the recent expansion
of the Whitmore Lake office.
"There has been a great need to focus on marketing and customer outreach," Lamb says.
Source: Jody Lamb, marketing manager for VANGUARD USA
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter's MediaOnion hires 3, prepares for expansion
Source: Concentrate, 9/23/2009
Susan Hardin and her new employees are just starting to peel back the layers of MediaOnion.
The Dexter-based company provides online conference management services, and is in the midst of a product redesign. That has forced Hardin to change from a one-person consulting firm to employing three people, with plans to add interns this fall. More hires are likely as the 6-year-old start-up prepares to launch its new product in January.
"I'd like to keep it small but there is a lot of room for development," Hardin says.
The Dexter resident was inspired to start the company when she was working for the University of Michigan and couldn't find a program to help her manage conferences. She created her own program and has since turned it into her full-time job.
"The excel spreadsheet method just wasn't working," Hardin says.
She now provides these services to the university and other customers. That client list is expected to grow next year with the debut of the new product. Hardin also expects to add some support and marketing staff, along with other personnel, within the next year, too.
Source: Susan Hardin, CEO and owner of MediaOnion
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter Research Center plans to expand, hire 47
Source: Concentrate, 6/17/2009
Sometimes the sirens call for strategic partnerships is too strong to keep companies where they were founded. Not so with the Dexter Research Center.
The 31-year-old firm has renewed its lease on life by choosing to expand in its hometown, a move that will lead to 47 new jobs in the next five years. The defense contractor has strategic partnerships in Ohio and Massachusetts that were wooing the firm away from Michigan. A $313,000 state tax credit over seven years helped quiet them.
"We have always been here in Michigan," says Cory Ziegler, controller of the Dexter Research Center. "We enjoy being here."
The Dexter Research Center manufactures infrared thin-film thermopile and silicon detectors used in the automotive, oil and military industries. It's also working on new products in what will be the $3 million expansion the firm plans to undertake.
"The last couple of years we have had some good growth but we realized we need more products," Ziegler says.
The Dexter Research Center employs 58 people and has 4-5 positions open right now. It expects to hire another 2-3 people on top of those by the end of the year.
Source: Cory Ziegler, controller of the Dexter Research Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter's Adair wins gold award for comic book
Source: Concentrate, 6/10/2009
Dexter's Adair Digital Services has been talking about branching out into different segements of the printing world for a while, but now it’s starting to pay off in more ways than one.
The printing firm received the Gold Printing Award from the Detroit Club of Printing House of Craftsman for a comic book created by Detroit-based Monolith. The special edition comic book ("Rapid City Comic Book B-Sides") went to a select group of fans in what was a once unheard short-run for the company.
"This comic book was so well done," says Kim Kachadoorian, creative project manager for Adair Digital Services.
It also cemented Adair's new-found place in comic book publishing. Before the company just printed things like leaflets and owners manuals. Now the 77-year-old, family owned company is spreading out into other areas, like comic and children's books using its new digital press.
"The truth is if you want to survive in this economy you need to have a new innovative approach," Kachadoorian says.
Source: Kim Kachadoorian, creative project manager for Adair Digital Services
Writer: Jon Zemke
Thomson-Shore prints books, wins award, invests in Dexter
Source: Concentrate, 4/8/2009
Thomson-Shore isn’t growing in Dexter as much as it is investing in the town it has called home for 37 years.
The
company downsized from 260 to 245 people since last year, but has
invested about $10 million in its book-printing business. Thomson-Shore
prints lots of short-run books, ranging anywhere from 500-20,000
copies, that are usually special orders for universities or religious
institutions.
"The last year has been a lot about installing new
equipment and focusing on our core products and customers," says Kevin
Spall, the president and CEO of Thomson-Shore.
The
new equipment includes three new sewing machines, web press and
multi-color press. This is the type of equipment that will allow the
company to perform its job more efficiently and effectively.
Thomson-Shore
is also looking at breaking into some new markets. These range from
graphic novels and comic books to digital printing and ebooks.
"We'll be looking at a lot of new markets," Spall says.
The
company expects to use its organic growth from it core products and
expansion into new markets to expand its payroll within the next year
or two by a handful of people. Spall estimates it could be 2-3 new
people for every million dollars in growth.
The employee-owned
company also recently won the 2008 ESOP Company of the Year Annual
Award for Communications Excellence from the ESOP Association. The award recognizes outstanding communications and educational programs.
Source: Kevin Spall, the president and CEO of Thomson-Shore
Writer: Jon Zemke
Dexter Research Center refines competitive streak, looks to add five positions
Source: Concentrate, 6/4/2008
Dexter Research Center isn't taking a back seat to any business now that it's leaders have decided it won't let that happen. The military technology research firm is on quite a little run, hiring about 30 people in the last three years and planning to hire another five or six this year.