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GEORGE SMITH: Great resources, efficiency, marketing key to driving Maine's economy

George Smith

While we wait for the governor and Legislature to engineer a prosperous new economy, the greatest hope lies outside that arena, where good sustainable resources, efficiency and marketing already are creating Maine's new economy.

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Efficiency is one critical piece of that economic future.

Maine makes more paper than ever, with only about half the workers employed in the forestry-papermaking industry in 1990. We'd make no paper, however, if the industry hadn't made significant investments to become more efficient. The remaining 7,500 jobs are good ones, with average pay exceeding $61,000 a year.

Sappi recently announced it has reduced its dependence on expensive oil by constructing a biomass plant that burns old tires and wood waste. This most recent investment of $49 million will reduce Sappi's annual oil consumption from 900,000 barrels a to 200,000 barrels.

I have benefited from Sappi's presence in Maine by contracting with the company for a harvest of trees on my Mount Vernon woodlot two years ago.

The Sappi forester who supervised the harvest, Joe Stephenson, is a Wayne native who I know well. He did a superb job, and his work (and the check I received) reminded me of the impact the paper industry has beyond the jobs provided in the mills.

On March 23, I was in Kingfield, where U.S. Sen. Susan Collins presented the town's Poland Spring bottling plant with a "Best Factory in North America" award from its parent company, Nestle Waters North America.

This was a significant achievement for a plant that's been open for only two years. Nestle Waters invested $60 million in the plant and used 40 Maine companies to build it. I was impressed with the efficiency of the plant and the enthusiasm of its 70 workers -- including all three selectmen from neighboring New Portland.

The Kingfield plant uses a sustainable supply of something we have a lot of -- water -- and bottles it in an amazingly efficient plant, which is the first in Maine to win LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Nearly 100 percent of all waste is recycled.

I noticed two things right away. There are no wastebaskets in the plant. And there is no water in the urinals!

The plant manager, Cameron Lorrain, started as a Poland Spring mechanic. I had a long talk with John Goldfrank, the caterer for the event and owner of my longtime favorite Kingfield restaurant, Longfellows, and learned that the plant has had a very positive impact on his business and other businesses in the Kingfield area.

Both Sappi and Poland Spring use a sustainable natural resource in efficient plants that employ lots of Mainers at very good wages.

Two small businesses, however, really opened my eyes to the state's economic future. It's widely recognized that small businesses generate most of the new jobs in this state. So how do they do it? One answer is found in Greene at the Hurricane Café & Grill, where Phil Wilbur and his family offer more than great food. They offer a lesson on marketing a Maine business through social media.

Wilbur makes and markets a delicious line of soups and chowders. He sells 300 gallons each week. Hurricane's excellent website (www.hurricanedeli.com) has a list of his soups and chowders that are available commercially and a link to the foodzie.com website, where you can order them.

And here's the lesson. Wilbur sells one-third of his total production of soups to the owner of three restaurants in Manhattan, that he found through Twitter.

Social networking apparently drives a lot of business decisions these days. This is not the type of marketing I learned in the business college at the University of Maine 43 years ago.

Another marketing lesson comes from Al Theriault, my favorite fly tier and a retired Maine game warden. Theriault sells his flies in retail stores throughout the north country and online at www.theriaultflies.com.

At a legislative hearing last week, I learned that Theriault has recently expanded his business in a new direction, selling feathers to women in the western states for hair extensions.

Theriault's special chickens are home-grown and unique for their long tail feathers -- a primary product in many fishing flies, but apparently also in great demand for hair extensions.

Theriault got most of his hair extension customers through the state website at www.mainemade.com maintained by the Department of Economic and Community Development.

Great resources, efficiency and marketing are where the governor and Legislature should be looking for our economic future.

George Smith is a writer and TV talk show host. He can be reached at 34 Blake Hill Road, Mount Vernon 04352, or georgesmithmaine@gmail.com. Read more of Smith's writings at www.georgesmithmaine.com.