Home Posts tagged growth

Window World of Western Massachusetts Continues to Grow

By
Window World of Western Massachusetts team members
Home Improvement

Home Team

Window World of Western Massachusetts team members

Clockwise from left: Window World of Western Massachusetts team members Grace Drost, Nick Drost, Lanéa Bushey, Anna Drost, and Tim Drost.

 

Growing a company from within is a philosophy Tim Drost has lived out for a long time. So is the value of a family business.

That much was evident as Drost, CEO of Window World of Western Massachusetts, sat down recently to talk with BusinessWest at his Belchertown headquarters alongside four key members of his team: wife Anna Drost, son Nick Drost, daughter Grace Drost, and Lanéa Bushey, the daughter of Tim’s former business partner.

“I grew up in the business; I had a lot of family in the home improvement and construction business — everybody was in that space,” he said, explaining that he and Bob Bushey worked for many years at a large home improvement company.

“We had a crew of guys that we worked with, and we developed installation standards across the country and Canada for them,” he noted, before Bob left in 2010 to launch Window World of Western Massachusetts. “Then, as Lanéa’s dad was getting older, looking toward retirement, I came on in 2018 — I took my whole install team with me — and continued to grow this company.”

Grow is an understatement. From about $2 million eight years ago, the enterprise now records between $40 million and $50 million in annual sales through what are actually four companies under one umbrella — Window World of Western Massachusetts, Go Green Home Performance, Hometown Exteriors, and the Kitchen & Bath Co. — with more expansion planned in the near future.

Those moves have come about in different ways. The Kitchen & Bath Co. arose from the acqusition of the Kitchen Squad, a company that had been in business for 40 years.

“We had a great relationship with them, and their father was looking to retire. So we brought their team here. And we just built a new, almost 70,000-square-foot warehouse down the street. We renovated that whole property.”

One of the buildings on that site is a fabrication shop, the equipment for which was purchased from a millwork and fabrication company that had gone out of business. “So we put those two together and expanded that service in-house, and the kitchen business has been phenomenal for us,” Drost said.

“We want to be having an intelligent conversation with our customers when they’re replacing things, to not just look at fixing the thing that’s broken, but also improving the spaces where they live.”

Go Green, on the other hand — which specializes in insulation and the performance of a building’s envelope — was built from the ground up.

“We brought in some experienced guys that we’d been working with for years and years at a local company, brought their team in, and developed that,” he said. “You need to be looking at the building, not just from a carpentry standpoint, but also from a building performance. Obviously, with all the ice dams and things like that, people really can see it this year. But we want to be having an intelligent conversation with our customers when they’re replacing things, to not just look at fixing the thing that’s broken, but also improving the spaces where they live.”

All these companies — and Window World is also looking to purchase another local company in the HVAC and solar realm — essentially work together to give clients, which include builders, developers, and homeowners alike — a one-stop shop for anything they may need.

“I understand the service portion of the business and how companies need to evolve to meet customers’ needs today,” Drost added. “Also, I realized that there’s a massive gap in the way that home improvement businesses are managing the field today, compared to years ago, with a lot of the work being done by subcontractors and poor-quality labor. You don’t have an unbelievable labor pool today like you did when I was a kid, 30, 40 years ago, where people were passionate about being in the trades.

“I mean, if you look at the roofing business today, probably 90% of it is done by subcontractors or inferior labor. That’s a weakness in the marketplace, and it’s become accepted because everybody’s doing it,” Drost went on. “So we’re very focused on developing labor.”

He said he works closely with manufacturers in developing in-house apprenticeship programs.

“Then we break it down by trade. So window guys just do windows, door guys just do doors. We feel it’s been the rocket fuel of our growth — because it’s not normal to deal with subcontractors and unskilled labor. Customers want things done right,” he said. “So as we bring these other trades in to the family business, we can offer a complete service for the customer, and take the complexity out of doing home improvement. We’re very focused on that, and we will continue to be.”

 

From the Ground Up

Window World’s leadership, however, often wear many hats, Lanéa Bushey said.

“We have our hands in everything. But primarily, what I’m focused on is working directly with our customers, talking about energy efficiency, making sure their installation is perfect,” she explained. “I go to customer homes and do assessments; I love to work directly with our customer base and be able to be in the field, seeing what’s going on.

“And we all are heavily involved in our marketing and making sure that all of our businesses align and present a clear representation of who we are,” she added.

Grace Drost said she handles more of the back end in the office, speaking with customers at the start of the process and ensuring that the process goes smoothly on projects.

“With both Grace and Lanéa, we think that the brick and mortar is a massive piece,” Tim said of the company’s showrooms in Belchertown, Westfield, and one soon to open in Adams. “A lot of times, planning for home improvement is done on people’s kitchen tables, and you can’t get a real feel for what that actual building material is. With our showrooms, you can actually touch and feel and see those pieces installed. It helps customers make educated decisions.”

“Our family’s been in the trades for generations, so we’re passionate about that, and the apprentice program has been fuel for our growth for sure. People love working for a company that’s passionate about what they do.”

Nick Drost, meanwhile, is more focused on installations and spends most of his time in the field handling everything from the design phase and assembling a material list to seeing the job through to completion.

“I’m at pretty much every job, or at least I try to be. And if not me, one of our other project managers is,” he explained. “We decide how we’re going to handle a job, and we make sure that we’re there with the customer at the beginning, throughout the job, and at the end — that there’s always someone there for the customer to talk to and make sure that they have the exact experience that we promised them at the sale.”

That requires plenty of continuing education and staying up to date with changing codes and new technology, meaning training at the company goes far beyond its apprenticeship programs.

“We need to be able to look at the whole building envelope and the science behind it and understand the effects of what we’re doing on the house,” Nick said. “We’re doing training for energy and to understand even things like HVAC systems, things we don’t install ourselves, so we can understand what’s going on in the building, why is this happening, how we can help the customer on every front, not just saying, ‘OK, we can put this window in, and that’s the only thing we’re worried about.’ We want to help the customer in every aspect of it.”

Meanwhile, Anna Drost runs the kitchen business and also focuses on internal processes to ensure a better experience for customers, as well as technology initiatives, worker safety, and training.

The emphasis on apprenticeship and training programs helps ensure that this company — now 120 employees strong — can continue to grow from within, at a time when recruitment and retention are challenges across all building trades.

“There’s zero turnover,” Tim said. “Our family’s been in the trades for generations, so we’re passionate about that, and the apprentice program has been fuel for our growth for sure. People love working for a company that’s passionate about what they do.”

Nick agreed. “One reason why I feel like our retention is so good is, at the end of the day, people want to work somewhere they can grow and get better and have something new to learn, and continue evolving,” he said, adding that manufacturers often come out to participate in trainings on codes, technology, and the like, and the company partners with Milwaukee to make sure teams are using the latest tools.

And the passion of the workforce gets relayed to customers through constant communication, Tim added. “There’s not different companies converging on one project. It’s our employees. We have the same messaging, the same communication, and everybody’s on the same page.

“That’s why most of us live in the field — because that’s where our business is. We’re not a sales organization; we’re an installation organization. So how we communicate and how we develop our teams is part of that communication piece for our customers.”

 

View to the Future

Another priority at Window World of Western Massachusetts is constant growth from within, Tim explained.

“I’ve been working with some of our project managers for 30-plus years, but everybody in this company has started in the field,” he told BusinessWest. “The apprentices are working with skilled guys who have been there and worked their way up. All our foremen started off at the bottom and were very focused on constant education. We work both locally, where we see opportunities to develop our guys, and then with national programs to bring all those pieces in.”

And, as noted earlier, Drost and his team aren’t done evolving.

“We think building performance and that envelope piece are huge for our customers, and that is the future, whether it’s in remodeling or home building. So we’ll continue to add pieces,” he said.

“We really want to be a great service for our customers,” he added. “And the great thing for me is, even though I’m an old guy, the next generation is already in the business. So I think the businesses are in good hands, and our customers are in good hands.”

How AI Search Strengthens Manufacturing Business Growth

By Contributor
Manufacturing

On the Cutting Edge

By Brick Marketing

 

It’s true that manufacturing has been driven by precision and innovation, so any way you can gain the advantage over a competitor is always welcomed. This means it is important for manufacturers to embrace innovation themselves, to better create innovations for customers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important part of this. It has moved well beyond experimentation and is now in the mainstream, and it’s time for manufacturers to embrace it. It is also helpful to think of AI search as a new opportunity to connect with the audience.

Why? Because it plays a clear role in how manufacturing companies are evaluated, especially when you’re deciding which companies or partners to trust. It has become a signal of credibility, readiness, and professionalism.

Here are some ways AI search helps strengthen business growth for manufacturers.

 

AI Search Signals Modern Capability and Industry Relevance

Manufacturers and their customers now operate in an AI-driven information environment. Search engines, recommendation systems, personalization tools, and automated support have set new expectations for speed and relevance. When a manufacturer’s marketing feels generic or outdated, it often suggests the systems supporting it haven’t kept pace.

A manufacturing company that actively uses AI signals that it understands the business environment. AI-powered research, audience analysis, and content optimization allow marketing strategies to align more closely with how people search, browse, and make decisions today. When AI is integrated thoughtfully into a manufacturing company’s marketing approach, it communicates that the brand or agency isn’t relying on outdated tactics, but building for how customer behavior is right now.

 

Clear Information Builds Confidence Through AI Search

Trust doesn’t come simply from claiming to use AI, and in manufacturing, trust is built on clarity. It comes from being clear about how it’s used. Buyers are likely cautious of vague promises or black-box solutions that sound impressive but offer little insight into process or accountability.

AI search prioritizes companies that clearly explain what they do, how they do it, and why it matters. Manufacturers that publish structured, accurate, and informative content send a strong signal that they understand modern discovery behaviors. This positions them as current, capable, and relevant within their industry.

As AI becomes more prominent, manufacturers that align their content with these systems are better-positioned to be trusted.

AI Search Supports More Relevant Buyer Experiences

Relevance is one of the strongest drivers of trust. AI allows marketing efforts to be more precise, timely, and personalized across channels. Content can better match search intent. Ads can adapt to performance signals in real time. Reporting can surface insights that matter to your actual business goals rather than vanity metrics. This is how manufacturers can generate leads — by leveraging AI and the insights that are generated from it.

It’s all about formulating digital marketing campaigns that feel intuitive and aligned to a manufacturing-oriented audience. This helps your audience feel understood and valued, which over time will encourage business growth. Over time, consistent relevance reinforces the sense that the brand behind the experience knows what it’s doing and is paying attention.

Strong AI Visibility Shortens the Sales Cycle

Manufacturing companies dream of shortened sales cycles, and this could be possible by leveraging AI. You need a digital marketing strategy that leverages AI that also aligns with business goals. This means adapting as consumer behaviors change.

AI-forward manufacturers tend to appear more scalable, resilient, and prepared for what’s next. They show that they are investing in systems that support growth, insight, and adaptability, rather than reacting to change after it happens. That forward-thinking mindset reduces risk and increases confidence in the partnership. This is something that the audience values.

 

Bottom Line

At its core, AI as a brand trust signal is all about being keeping manufacturing companies at the forefront of innovation. When AI is used thoughtfully and communicated clearly, it signals competence, transparency, and long-term thinking. It can also help improve business growth and generate more leads.

 

Brick Marketing, a Boston-based digital marketing agency, drives digital marketing strategy and implementation that solves complex challenges, achieving business, sales, and marketing goals by offering a combination of expert digital marketing services, training, and consulting solutions.

Valet Park of America Marks 35 Years of Steady Growth

By
Angela and Ted Chagnon (front, second and third from left) and the leadership team at Valet Park of America
Features

Lots to Celebrate

Angela and Ted Chagnon (front, second and third from left) and the leadership team at Valet Park of America

Angela and Ted Chagnon (front, second and third from left) and the leadership team at Valet Park of America

 

When Ted Chagnon started his own business in 1990, he had big goals, but there were times, early on, when operating in seven states — from New England to Florida — and employing more than 1,250 people may have seemed like a dream too far.

But that’s precisely the growth trajectory Valet Park of America celebrated when it marked 35 years in business last month.

“It was kind of slow growth at first,” Chagnon said, recalling that his first two valet clients were Yankee Pedlar restaurant in Holyoke and Hotel Northampton, and other small businesses followed. It took two years before the company landed its first major client, Baystate Medical Center, and over the next several years, other large clients followed, particularly in the medical realm, from UMass Medical Center to MetroWest Medical Center in Natick and Framingham.

“Around 2005, we started adding ski resorts, locations in Albany, some locations in Connecticut, and we started to build some momentum. It was tough because we didn’t have any resources in the beginning.”

Initially focused on valet parking only, the business later expanded into parking management, operating lots and garages, and then other transportation services.

“That was simply because a lot of our clients, whether it’s a medical facility, a college, a casino, or a ski resort, sometimes need more than just valet; they need parking management services or transportation for guests, patients, or even transporting employees off site,” Chagnon explained. “Sometimes you’re moving the employees to off-site parking garages and parking lots when you run out of space.”

The company operates in a wide geographic footprint, from Buffalo, N.Y. to Boston, as well as in Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Florida. “We’re in Virginia as of last year, and we’ve been in Florida for five years now, and we’ve really grown tremendously there.”

Many employees have been with Valet Park of America for decades, some more than 30 years. Some of those are family, and Chagnon called this a family business; his wife, Angela, is senior vice president, with responsibilities in client relations, human resources, payroll, auditing, and marketing, and other relatives work in leadership positions as well.

“It’s so important to remember what those frontline people are doing out there, with the weather, and the circumstances, and the vehicles, and the hectic days. It can be stressful at times, and to have somebody in here who understands that and appreciates that is huge.”

“My sister was one of the founders. My niece runs our payroll department. My brother runs our fleet management and quality control department. So we are very much a family-run and owned and operated business,” he said.

But he also attributes this employee loyalty to a culture of opportunity, where someone can start by parking cars and eventually move up as other opportunities arise.

“As we grow, we have to hire more people, more regional managers, and it’s nice that we can promote from within. Many worked for us during college and came on board full-time right after college. I don’t think many of them thought they were going to have a career in parking, but then they stayed with the company. In fact, some of their kids are in college now and working for us.”

 

Getting Behind the Wheel

The Chagnons initially operated the company from home, then moved into an office at 191 Chestnut St. in Springfield, where Valet Park of America is still headquartered today.

“Then we kind of grew,” he said, but it was very gradual growth until about 20 years in, when both the roster of clients and the company’s geographic reach started to create more noticeable momentum. “Then you start becoming a bigger company, with different challenges. But one of the biggest, I think, has been keeping the mentality of a family-run and owned business and maintaining that culture.”

Angela agreed. “I think that just came naturally to Ted and me. I love seeing somebody that starts off as an entry-level valet attendant, and now they’re in the payroll department, or they’re helping me in the accounting department. It’s very rewarding to know that we can do that for them. Anytime we have an opening in the office, we post internally. I love to bring somebody up who knows us, who knows the business, who knows our culture, who appreciates what those frontline employees do.

“That’s the biggest factor for me,” she added. “I’m more internal; we’re more support staff on the back end, and it’s so important to remember what those frontline people are doing out there, with the weather, and the circumstances, and the vehicles, and the hectic days. It can be stressful at times, and to have somebody in here who understands that and appreciates that is huge. It makes a difference, I think, to the frontline employees when they see that. I’ve parked cars. I know what’s happening.”

With the company’s growth, Ted said he’s competing with a number of national firms, and dealing with the sorts of economic shifts that any industry faces — and, like many of them, he relies on a diverse client mix to weather those trends.

Angela and Ted Chagnon launched their enterprise 35 years ago last month

Angela and Ted Chagnon launched their enterprise 35 years ago last month

“During COVID, which was unusual, colleges got shut down; they’re doing well now, but they’re finding some fiscal restraints. Hospitals right now are finding some fiscal restraints as well; there have been some cuts there. And restaurants, in some cases, with inflation, have had to cut back, and valet services might be something that’s cut,” he explained.

“But we’ve expanded to ski resorts and casinos and still have medical facilities, colleges, and independent parking lots. So we have a wide range of industries that we service,” he added. “So we do well; one industry might be seeing some cuts or finding some fiscal restraints, and something else might be flourishing. And some states might be doing better than others. It’s never completely smooth sailing.”

The pandemic, as Chagnon noted, was indeed unusual, and particularly challenging, as colleges, casinos, and ski resorts shut down and hospitals cut way back on visitor traffic.

“We had to evolve and adapt, and we had to lay a lot of people off, but here’s what we did: we went back to our hospital clients especially and said, ‘is there anything you need us to do? You don’t need us to transport anyone. You don’t need any parking services, but what can we do for you?’

“And as things progressed, we ended up staffing a lot of COVID testing sites. We were greeting people, lining up the parking, queuing them up, checking them in. That rolled into screener services at a lot of facilities where you would come in and we’d check your temperature, and we’d ask you an array of questions pertaining to travel and things like that before you could enter the hospital. We’d register you. Because the hospitals were short-staffed, and we had a lot of people that had been working with us for a long time, and we wanted to retain them.”

Two scenes from last month’s 35th anniversary celebration, a family-friendly event that drew about 500 people.

Two scenes from last month’s 35th anniversary celebration, a family-friendly event that drew about 500 people.

It was a time of pivoting and resilience for most businesses, he noted.

“Everyone just said, ‘what do we need to do to keep the lights on?’ Because we still had bills to pay, mortgages and insurance and leases on vehicles. You still had to charge through that and make it happen. So we were fortunate that we had a decent number of people that were willing to do that,” he continued. “I was here at work every day just fighting through those challenges. It was a difficult time.”

 

Shifting into the Next Gear

With the pandemic well in the rear view — literally and figuratively — Valet Park of America continues to grow its services and footprint while maintaining that culture the Chagnons value. Last month, the company marked 35 years with a family-oriented celebration in its expansive parking lot, featuring inflatables, rock climbing, cornhole, face painting, and other activities.

“That brought about 500 people here — about 200 employees and all their kids and their spouses — and it was a very much a family environment for everyone to celebrate,” Ted said.

The event also individually recognized employees who had been with the company for 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 years. “We wanted to start with the fifth year, but we had over 150 employees that were here more than five years and a large number of employees over 10 years, and would have been here for two days celebrating each one of them individually,” he said.

“We take pride in our employees’ tenure and the environment that we provide for them,” he added. “It’s a company that can’t run on its own. You can’t have just one person or two people running it. You need a large, supportive team behind you.”

The company also invests in plenty of training for its employees, he told BusinessWest. “We do a lot of training year-round for all our staff because we feel it’s important to make sure that they’re educated, that they know the business, and it gives them opportunity to advance.

“And it helps maintain our culture, too, because we’re in the people business, any way you look at it. We might be in the parking business, we might be in transportation, but it takes people to provide those services, and our employees are really our greatest asset.”

That culture extends to community involvement in many ways as well, supporting organizations like the USO, Jenna’s Blessing Bags, and the various foundations of the company’s medical clients — not to mention encouraging employee volunteerism with nonprofits and charitable events, like the annual UMass Cancer Walk. And those efforts are multiplied across the company’s seven states.

Looking ahead, Chagnon said Valet Park of America will continue to grow smartly and innovate in a number of ways — like its adoption some years ago of automation in the parking process at many sites.

“It’s a company that can’t run on its own. You can’t have just one person or two people running it. You need a large, supportive team behind you.”

“We distribute magnetic parking gates and started building our own entrance and exit payment kiosks for parking garages and parking lots. We kind of branched off into that a little bit to try to be a multi-faceted service provider for our clients.

“We try to control costs for them, provide a very good service, evolve, and adapt to their needs as a vendor or partner. And I think we do that well,” he continued. “Every year we see growth, and it’s primarily because of the services that we provide and the quality that we provide and a lot of good referrals.”

Angela agreed. “Our culture is so important to us, and it always has been. It’s something we focus on every year when we talk about our goals. We make sure to maintain, as best we can, communication and relationships with all the employees as we continue to grow,” she told BusinessWest. “And we have seen that nice, steady growth … obviously minus the COVID years.”

“We’re just looking forward to the next number of years,” Ted added. “Hopefully we have quite a few ahead of us.”

UMassFive College Federal Credit Union Remains Focused on Growth

By
Rich Kump says UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is persevering
Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Setting Its Sites

Rich Kump says UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is persevering

Rich Kump says UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is persevering through challenging times for this sector.

Rich Kump says UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is in a mood to “make up for some lost time.”

Elaborating, he flashed back more than two years, to when the institution was starting to move ahead with plans to move its flagship location in Hadley to a new location just down Route 9, while also advancing efforts to make a push into Hampden County with a location in or near Springfield and a smaller satellite office within Springfield that would serve one of the city’s many banking deserts.

Returning to today, he said the credit union — which he serves as president and CEO — has made very little, if any, progress on those fronts, due to issues with all three sites that we’ll get into later.

He summed it all up with some understatement, and a needed sense of humor, saying, “what I have surmised from all this is that we’re not very good at picking branch sites.”

Now, the institution is looking at 2026 for the Hampden County locations, and a longer timeline for the new Hadley location, which he admits is less of a priority now than it was back in late 2022, due primarily to remote-work options that have alleviated space concerns that were a prime motivator for relocating the flagship branch.

“Moving the Hadley branch does not generate a whole bunch of new loans and deposits and members.It provides some great visibility, but not many growth opportunities.”

These are all still priorities, but they have been supplanted by larger concerns and dramatically changing times — for all banks and credit unions, one in which the rising interest rates of 2023 and early 2024 tightened already-thin margins, reduced profits, and pushed many credit unions to the point where they needed to merge with another institution or close.

“It’s been a troubling time, with many credit unions posting losses,” Kump said, noting that there were 41 credit-union mergers nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, some of them generated by a need for small credit unions to expand services, but many others prompted by poor financial condition.

UMassFive has been looking to move its flagship branch in Hadley

UMassFive has been looking to move its flagship branch in Hadley (pictured) to a new location down Route 9, but other priorities are currently more important.

UMass Five, which has six branches across Western and Central Mass., including one at its namesake, UMass Amherst, is not so imperiled, but it has seen deposits tumble and overall performance slide due to these colliding factors.

“We had to increase our rates to keep the deposits we had, and, of course, that increased our cost of funds quite a bit. And while the cost of funds increased, we still have a loan portfolio, much of which was at much lower than market rates,” he said, explaining, in simple terms, the main challenge facing all institutions.

UMass Five, with roughly $570 million in deposits and around $700 million in total assets, didn’t load up its balance sheet with large numbers of low-interest borrowings, he went on, but it certainly felt the pinch.

“Our net interest margin did shrink a little — not as much as others, but overall, we saw our net income decline,” Kump said, adding that the bank grew at just 0.24% in 2024, what would normally be considered an off year, but, under these circumstances, acceptable.

Moving forward, the credit union, like many other financial institutions, must balance life in these more difficult times with the need to grow, attain more deposits, and create economies of scale, and thus become better able to handle the ongoing headwinds.

UMassFive is not in a position to be acquired, and it is not exactly looking for opportunities to acquire others, although it will certainly consider them as they emerge, said Kump, adding that, for now, the preferred method of growth is organic.

Which brings us back to those branches that have been in the planning stages. They are important parts of the credit union’s overall growth strategy, and while the institution will move forward, it is not going to rush anything.

Indeed, while he regrets losing time with these initiatives, as he said at the top, the process of selecting new branch locations — an art and science that involves everything from visibility to the volume of other traffic-generating businesses, to the number of competing banks and credit unions in the general vicinity — is necessarily slow and involved, and UMassFive will take its time and get it right.

“We’re back to square one,” he said of the Hampden County locations. “But it’s more important to do this well then do it quickly.”

For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, we talked with Kump at length about what’s in the business plan for UMassFive, and just how the institution will make up for that lost time.

 

Points of Interest

Recapping what’s happened with those three planned branches, Kump said not much has gone right, and each story is different.

In Hadley, the property where the credit union intends to go is occupied by an auto-repair shop and a small single-family home being rented from the property owner. Long story short (we’ll do a lot of that), that tenant has not gone quietly — the matter has wound up in Housing Court in a protracted battle — and won’t be out for another six months or so.

“We’re still interested in that site … we’re putting together a new purchase agreement because we hadn’t anticipated such a lengthy delay,” Kump said. “But it’s still in our future, and we do want to move our flagship location to that more visible site on Route 9.”

Meanwhile, in Hampden County, at a location in East Longmeadow near the Springfield line, a site chosen after extensive research, a new branch has been scrapped due to issues with the sewer system. And that satellite location? After more than a year of deliberations, the owner of that property ultimately decided not to sell or lease it.

So UMassFive is now essentially where it was two and half years ago on all three projects — waiting to get started in Hadley and trying to find the right sites in Springfield, Kump noted, adding that, over that time, the landscape for credit unions and banks has changed when it comes to liquidity, profitability, and, in this specific case, priorities and growth strategies.

“As many other financial institutions are doing, we’re managing our growth,” he explained. “Your income fuels growth, and when your income is down, you can’t grow as much.”

Elaborating, he said the Hadley initiative is certainly still important, just less so in the larger scheme of things, adding that the relocation of that flagship branch is now targeted for completion in 2028 at the earliest, for a few reasons, starting with logistics.

A few years ago, the plan was to close an operations center in Hadley and move the employers there into space created by moving the headquarters branch to that aforementioned location at the Amherst/Hadley line. But with heavy use of telecommuting and hybrid schedules, the credit union has moved the last department from the operations center into the flagship site, with the branch still operating.

Meanwhile, with a focus on gaining new members and growing deposits, the credit union’s top priority now is expanding into Hampden County.

“Moving the Hadley branch does not generate a whole bunch of new loans and deposits and members,” Kump explained. “It provides some great visibility, but not many growth opportunities.”

He expects these to come in Hampden County, where the credit union has a small presence — a branch in Mercy Medical Center — with intentions to become a larger player in that region, through further use of what he called a “hub-and-spoke” operating philosophy.

Elaborating, he said this model calls for a main facility, such as the one in Hadley, with smaller, satellite facilities around it, including those at UMass Amherst, downtown Northampton, and the Veterans Administration facility in Leeds.

There were plans to create something similar in Hampden County, starting with the property at the East Longmeadow/Springfield line, as the hub. But, as we’ve seen, that site didn’t work out, a huge disappointment for the institution.

“We were very excited … we did an extensive branch study, used lots of data, socio-economic factors, traveling routes, destination points at this one location, and it came up roses for us,” he explained, adding that the roses soon wilted amid sewer-backup issues that could not be resolved, forcing the credit union to walk away from the deal four months ago.

Now, as he said, UMassFive is back to square one, and it will take its time putting a new plan together. With that, he gave some insight into the complicated nature of finding sites for branches, an undertaking many institutions are familiar with as they seek out growth opportunities in a no-growth area with many communities that could only be described as ‘overbanked.’

“There is a lot that goes into this … for bank branches, you have to be visible, you have to be in high-traffic areas, and there have to be destination points around you,” he said, adding that, to find such sites, institutions must invest time, money, and resources — and then hope things go right with the sites they choose.

But as difficult as finding good branch sites can be, securing them is critical, said Kump, adding that, in this environment, pursuing growth and achieving size are critical for all financial-services institutions.

“Eventually, you have to grow again, and we feel that will happen,” he said, adding, again, that, while the organic route is preferred, the credit union will certainly look at merger opportunities as they emerge.

“We’re not aggressively seeking mergers, but if there is a credit union that has interest in merging into us, we would definitely consider that, and that’s really who we’ve been throughout our existence,” he said, adding that the institution’s locations at Mercy and the VA facility came about through mergers.

 

Location, Location, Location

Looking ahead to the balance of 2025 and beyond, Kump said it’s difficult to project what will happen — with both the economy and financial-services institutions.

Indeed, only a few months ago, the Fed was projecting several interest rate cuts in 2025; by December, it was anticipating few, if any.

“All bets are off,” he said. “We see employment numbers coming down, inflation numbers seem to be going up, and if inflationary pressures continue to push, it wouldn’t surprise me if, in 2025, we saw some rate increases again.”

In this climate, UMassFive will continue to work to manage its growth and align its priorities to that end.

It will also endeavor to make up for some lost time and find some better luck and good fortune when it comes to picking branch sites and taking full advantage of those new locations.

It is certainly overdue.

Longmeadow Continues to Draw New Business

By
An architect’s rendering of the planned Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow.
Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

An architect’s rendering of the planned Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow.

An architect’s rendering of the planned Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow.

There were more than 800 people at Longmeadow’s recent special town meeting in the high-school gym.

They were there to consider 30 warrant items, most of them of the smaller, housecleaning variety, but most residents were focused on one matter — a proposed zone change (from residence A-1 to business) for the former First Church of Christ, Scientist on Williams Street, just east of the Longmeadow Shops.

The church property, which has been unused for several years now, was acquired by the Springfield-based Colvest Group, a developer of a number of retail facilities across the 413, and its future use has been the subject of considerable speculation and anticipation in this town of roughly 10,000.

And also one failed vote to change the zoning, said Town Manager Lyn Simmons.

This time, the request passed, easily garnering the needed two-thirds majority, she noted, adding that the vote, and the number of residents who took part in it, spoke volumes about the importance of the project to this mostly residential community.

“This vote tells me that residents want to see something happen there,” she said, adding that the church has been closed for more than a decade, and the parcel it sits on comprises more than two acres in what is considered by many to be not just a retail strip, but the town’s center.

While there is speculation about the site, to be named Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow — it is expected to become home to a mix of high-end shops and restaurants, similar to what exists in the Longmeadow Shops, which will only enhance that area’s prowess as a destination — no firm plans have been put in place and no specific tenants announced, said Simmons, adding that plans should be announced in the coming months.

“This vote tells me that residents want to see something happen there.”

But the church-property project is not the only subject of conjecture in this community. There is also the long-awaited start of work to rebuild the Maple Shopping Center on Shaker Road, known colloquially as the Armata’s plaza (because the market was the lead tenant), which was destroyed by fire almost exactly two years ago.

Armata’s will not be part of the new plaza — owner Alexis Vallides cited high rebuilding costs and a lengthy timeline when she made that announcement in late August — but several new stores are expected at the well-traveled intersection, said Corrin Meise-Munns, Longmeadow’s assistant town manager and director of Planning & Community Development.

Lyn Simmons says there are many questions to be answered in Longmeadow

Lyn Simmons says there are many questions to be answered in Longmeadow in the months to come regarding everything from its middle schools to the reuse of Town Hall and the Community Center.

Meanwhile, there is more speculation about the fate of the town’s two middle schools — combining the two nearly 60-year-old facilities is one of many options on the table — and also the Community Center and Town Hall properties, with the offices in those buildings slated to be consolidated into the town’s former senior center.

In short, there are many questions to be answered in the months to come, said Simmons, who noted that this is an intriguing — and, in many ways, exciting — time for the community.

 

Getting Down to Business

While there is anticipation about what will come next at several addresses across town, there have already been some significant additions to the business landscape over the past years, and even the past few months, Meise-Munns said.

She cited the arrival of the town’s first brewery, One Way Brewing on Maple Road; a new pizza restaurant, Frankie’s, in that same area; another new barbecue restaurant, Fletcher’s BBQ Shop & Steakhouse on Longmeadow Street; a bakery, the Latest Kraze, also on Longmeadow Street in a different shopping plaza; a new taco restaurant under construction in the Longmeadow Shops; a planned Indian restaurant in the former AT&T storefront in the Shops; and a Jersey Mike’s (the chain’s first Western Mass. location), set to take a spot vacated by Subway in the Williams Place Mall, across the street from the Shops.

“There have been many new businesses opening, with more coming in the next several months,” Simmons said. “It’s been an exciting time.”

“There have been many new businesses opening, with more coming in the next several months. It’s been an exciting time.”

What will come next — at the Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow and the rebuilt Maple Center shopping plaza — should be known in the coming months, said Meise-Munns, noting that the high degrees of speculation and anticipation concerning these projects are reflective of how rare such large-scale developments are in this community.

“There are not a lot of opportunities for properties in Longmeadow to change zoning like that,” she said of the church project specifically, but also in general. “The town is mostly residential, and the number of undeveloped parcels is very low, and the number of parcels that are available for redevelopment at any given time is probably lower; this doesn’t happen very often.”

Corrin Meise-Munns says a number of new businesses have opened in Longmeadow

Corrin Meise-Munns says a number of new businesses have opened in Longmeadow over the past year, and there are more in the pipeline.

In a press release issued after the town-meeting vote, Colvest founder and CEO Colaccino noted that “development of the Towne Shoppes of Longmeadow will essentially be an expansion of the adjacent Longmeadow Shops, consistent with the design and character of the property. We are committed to attracting high-quality, specialty retail shops, all of which would complement the stores at the Longmeadow Shops.”

As for the Maple Shopping Center, site plans for reconstruction have been submitted to the Planning Board, said Meise-Munns, adding that, while the exterior will look very much the same as what existed before the fire (although it will be modernized), the interior space for a supermarket has been enlarged, although no anchor tenant — or any other tenant — has been announced publicly.

There were several stores in the former plaza, including a restaurant, a liquor store, a nail salon, and others, said Meise-Munns, adding that the recent additions to the area — the brewery and new pizza restaurant among them — have brought more traffic to that section and should help make the new plaza an attractive landing spot.

Longmeadow at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1783
Population: 15,853
Area: 9.7 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $22.92
Commercial Tax Rate: $22.92
Median Household Income: $109,586
Median Family Income: $115,578
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting; Town Manager; Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Bay Path University; JGS Lifecare; Glenmeadow
* Latest information available

Meanwhile, on the municipal side of the ledger, there are several ongoing initiatives, including a long-range strategic plan for the community. Work on the plan is now in its second year, said Meise-Munns, adding that, in a town with little, if any, land to still be built upon, the plan is focused less on development and more on such matters as climate action and social equity.

“Much of it focuses on municipal services, transportation, infrastructure, zoning, housing, educational opportunities, parks, and open space,” she told BusinessWest, adding that this “blueprint for the future,” as she called it, should be finalized next spring.

There are also continuing discussions regarding the town’s two middle schools, Williams and Glenbrook, both now approaching 60 years of age. Simmons said there are several options on the table regarding replacement or renovation of one or both, with consolidation of the two schools a possible course.

The next step in the process is a feasibility study that will identify options, she said, adding that there will be several informational sessions to garner input from the public as part of the process.

Plans are also being discussed to consolidate the offices in Town Hall and the adjacent Community House in space at the Greenwood Center, formerly home to the town’s senior center before a new facility was built.

“Such a consolidation provides a lot of benefits for us — better parking, one floor, better ADA access, more meeting-room space, even more bathrooms,” said Simmons, adding that the project, as proposed, could lead to imaginative reuse of the two current town-office structures.

“We would pursue that once we knew if we were moving and what the timeline on the move would be,” she went on, adding that the structures are in a historic district but not historic themselves. “There would need to be a public discussion about what happens to Community House and Town Hall.”

 

Bottom Line

That would be the current Town Hall. What’s known as ‘old town hall’ on Longmeadow Street has long been vacant and unused, and its future is another of the questions to be answered by town leaders and residents, Simmon noted.

There are many such questions at a very intriguing time for this bedroom community with a rich history.

The answers will go a long way toward deciding what the next chapters in that history will look like.

Chase Bank Continues Ambitious Growth Plan in Springfield

By
Oumkar Tobaran
Banking and Financial Services

Branching Out

Oumkar Tobaran

Oumkar Tobaran says the human element is critical in banking even amid the rise of online and mobile tools.

At a time when a bank’s customers can conduct business from anywhere with a few clicks, dramatic branch expansion may seem outdated.

But it’s not, Ali Zaidi said, explaining why Chase Bank is looking to double its presence in Massachusetts over the next several years, starting with the opening of a downtown Springfield office on March 7.

“When you think about the important life events that customers go through, whether it be retirement planning, buying a house, or the birth of a child, people still have an appreciation for that face-to-face conversation. That makes an impact,” said Zaidi, Chase’s market director for Western and Central Mass. “And about 75% of our customers that have balances with us still come to the branches. So, clearly, the customers are telling us they would love to have that face-to-face interaction, especially with complex life events.”

Oumkar Tobaran, branch manager for the new location in Harrison Place — which has a long history of housing banks, including Third National Bank and, in recent decades, Bank of Western Massachusetts and People’s United Bank — said the human element is critical.

“With all the technology and innovation we have, think of the amount of things that we can go on our phones to do on a daily basis,” he told BusinessWest. “But the minute something doesn’t go right or the minute you need support or additional advice on something, we want to show that customer service matters, with a physical presence.”

The branch is Chase’s 38th in Massachusetts since opening its first Bay State location in Boston in 2018 — an impressive growth trajectory, and a number the institution is looking to double by 2025, including a location to open this spring in the former Silverscape Designs building on King Street in Northampton.

“This is a central point,” Zaidi said of downtown Springfield, noting that Chase has an office a few miles down I-91 in Enfield, but this is technically the first in Western Mass. “There’s definitely a rich history here on Main Street and its local businesses, as well as larger clienteles with MGM and the Hall of Fame. We’re serving clients of different demographics, and I’m very excited that we were able to secure this spot on Main Street.”

Tobaran said he expects plenty of foot traffic downtown, as well as visits from customers who may have been banking in Enfield or branches to the west, while Chase has been conducting outreach to build a larger base of business in the region.

“About 75% of our customers that have balances with us still come to the branches. So, clearly, the customers are telling us they would love to have that face-to-face interaction, especially with complex life events.”

“We wanted to make sure that we have a convenient place for them to visit because it’s important to be able to interact with the community,” he added. “There’s a lot of development happening in Springfield, and we wanted to be part of that momentum as well.”

Zaidi agreed. “Springfield is a key cog that gives us an entry point into expanding into Western Massachusetts and brings convenience to our customers. Springfield is being revitalized, and I feel we can be an integral part of that.”

He also feels there’s an opportunity to add customers who might already be familiar with Chase through its mortgage products and credit cards. “That’s what people know. So one of our consumer-banking priorities is to be a bank for all and make it easy for people to do business with us. And technology-wise, where customers were able to bank with us remotely, this now gives them a physical location to meet their diverse needs.”

Ali Zaidi

Ali Zaidi says downtown Springfield is the first Chase branch in Western Mass. and the springboard to an eventual doubling of the bank’s branches in Massachusetts.

As he showed off the space at 1391 Main St., from the tellers and ITM machines up front to the various offices further back, Zaidi said the new Springfield branch can do all of that.

“We will help our customers with any needs, and we have more licensed specialist bankers to navigate those complex life events — retirement, financial planning, or just navigating your credit-history trajectory if you’re looking to purchase something down the road. We’re so excited to be providing that face-to-face value, and we’re looking forward to continuing the expansion.”

 

Set Up to Help

This first Western Mass. branch is about 3,000 square feet in size and features a modern, bright design with plenty of natural light, quiet meeting areas, and state-of-the-art banking technology, including those ITMs, which allow a higher withdrawal limit than traditional ATMs, as well as access to Chase professionals.

“For customers who have commercial or small-business banking needs, we have our team of experts, partners who will be working out of here and supporting other branches to connect customers. So it’s a one-stop shop.”

A dedicated Chase Private Client team provides premium banking services, personalized attention, and access to the expertise and investment capabilities of J.P. Morgan to help families reach their goals. Customers may also meet with financial and home-lending advisors and business-banking relationship managers.

“Our retail banking operations are here, and we have our licensed bankers to deal with client management,” Zaidi explained, “and for customers who have commercial or small-business banking needs, we have our team of experts, partners who will be working out of here and supporting other branches to connect customers. So it’s a one-stop shop.”

Tobaran said the open layout will help customers easily navigate what they need. “We will have associates in the lobby greeting clients, interacting with them. And then, depending on the transactions they’ll need to leverage, we can go back here and figure out what we need to help them with,” he explained, gesturing away from the front door toward the offices in back.

“But we equip a lot of our associates with tablets,” he added. “So in addition to helping them back there, however we can help support them face to face, sitting down in the lobby area, we will do that with the resources and tools we have.”

Besides banking business, Chase also wants to connect with Greater Springfield in other ways, Zaidi said, through financial-literacy programs and other types of community outreach.

“The idea is to have our branches be community anchors. So when we think about financial-literacy conversations, be it with young professionals or small-business owners, we want to host workshops and assistance in that space as well,” he explained, noting that Chase is working on several community-development efforts around financial literacy, including a partnership with Western New England University. “So this would serve as an anchor for us where we could do before- or after-hours seminars and events. It makes sense.”

Harrison Place

Harrison Place has been home to several banks in the past, from Third National Bank to the Bank of Western Massachusetts and People’s United Bank.

Tobaran added that the bank’s employees also reflect its region, as the branch hired locally, including people who hail from the Latino and Vietnamese communities, among others.

“We want some familiar faces to be representing Chase, saying, ‘hey, these are the resources we have to help you accomplish your goal.’ It was important for us to get local talent, people who had ties to the community, people who are passionate about giving back and who genuinely want to see Springfield succeed.”

 

Only the Beginning

Zaidi and Tobaran know Chase is making an ambitious surge into a region some have called overbanked, and where community banks have long dominated. But they say Chase is committed to local residents and organizations in much the same way locally headquartered banks are, while also bringing vast financial resources to the table.

“When you think about Chase, we have the resources of a large global corporation,” Zaidi said. “And our vision is, how do we take those resources and localize the solutions for our customers? Our technology and data analysis help us strategize and take a more targeted approach, because all the branches are going to operate differently based on the community-specific needs.”

One example is a partnership with Habitat for Humanity, one of the organizations that will be on hand on March 15 for the branch’s official grand-opening festivities.

“That’s one way Oumkar and his team have been making an impact in the community already,” Zaidi said. “We feel that we can be a valued contributor in that space among all the other banks. The competitive edge that we have is not only through our resources, but with the community aspect that we are trying to drive here.”

Manufacturing Industry Anticipates Growth Despite Recent Turbulence

By Contributor
Manufacturing

Making Change

 

The manufacturing tech industry is building back fast, undeterred by significant labor and supply-chain challenges. To maintain this momentum, manufacturers should navigate elevated risks while advancing sustainability priorities. That’s the takeaway, at any rate, from a recent Deloitte report exploring five manufacturing industry trends that can help organizations turn risks into advantages and capture growth.

It’s unusual to see positive economic indicators paired with historic labor and supply-chain challenges. But this is the trajectory for the U.S. manufacturing industry in 2022 emerging from the pandemic. The recovery gained momentum in 2021 on the heels of vaccine rollout and rising demand. As industrial production and capacity utilization surpassed pre-pandemic levels this year, strong increases in new orders for all major subsectors signal growth continuing in 2022.

However, optimism around revenue growth is held in check by caution from ongoing risks. Workforce shortages and supply-chain instability are reducing operational efficiency and margins. Business agility can be critical for organizations seeking to operate through the turbulence from an unusually quick economic rebound — and to compete in the next growth period. As leaders look not only to defend against disruption but strengthen their offense, our 2022 manufacturing-industry outlook examines five important trends to consider for manufacturing playbooks in the year ahead.

 

1. Preparing for the future of work could be critical to resolving current talent scarcity. Record numbers of unfilled jobs are likely to limit higher productivity and growth in 2022, and last year we estimated a shortfall of 2.1 million skilled jobs by 2030. To attract and retain talent, manufacturers should pair strategies such as reskilling with a recasting of their employment brand.

Shrinking the industry’s public perception gap by making manufacturing jobs a more desirable entry point could be critical to meeting hiring needs in 2022. Engagement with a wider talent ecosystem of partners to reach diverse, skilled talent pools can help offset the recent wave of retirements and voluntary exits.

Manufacturing executives may also need to balance goals for retention, culture, and innovation. As flexible work is taking root in offices, manufacturers should explore ways to add flexibility across their organizations in order to attract and retain workers. Organizations that can manage through workforce shortages and a rapid pace of change today can come out ahead.

 

2. Manufacturers are remaking supply chains for advantage beyond the next disruption. Supply-chain challenges are acute and still unfolding. There’s no mistaking that manufacturers face near-continuous disruptions globally that add costs and test abilities to adapt. Purchasing manager reports continue to reveal systemwide complications from high demand, rising costs of raw materials and freight, and slow deliveries in the U.S.

Transportation challenges are likely to continue in 2022 as well, including driver shortages in trucking and congestion at U.S. container ports. As demand outpaces supply, higher costs are more likely to be passed on to customers.

Root causes for extended U.S. supply-chain instability may include overreliance on low inventories, rationalization of suppliers, and hollowing out of domestic capability. Supply-chain strategies in 2022 are expected to be multi-pronged. Digital supply networks and data analytics can be powerful enablers for more flexible, multi-tiered responses to disruptions.

 

3. Acceleration in digital technology adoption could bring operational efficiencies to scale. Manufacturers looking to capture growth and protect long-term profitability should embrace digital capabilities from corporate functions to the factory floor. Smart factories, including greenfield and brownfield investments for many manufacturers, are viewed as one of the keys to driving competitiveness.

More organizations are making progress and seeing results from more connected, reliable, efficient, and predictive processes at the plant. Emerging and evolving use cases can continue to scale up from isolated in-house technology projects to full production lines or factories, given the right mix of vision and execution.

U.S. manufacturers have room to run with advanced manufacturing compared to many competitors globally. Advanced global ‘lighthouse’ factories showcase the art of the possible in bringing smart manufacturing to scale. Investment in robots, cobots, and artificial intelligence can continue to transform operations. Foundational technologies such as cloud computing enable computational power, visibility, scale, and speed. Industrial 5G deployment may also expand in 2022 along with advances in technology and use cases.

 

4. Rising cybersecurity threats are leading the industry to new levels of preparedness. High-profile cyberattacks across industries and governments in the past year have elevated cybersecurity as a risk-management essential for most executives and boards. Surging threats during the pandemic added to business risk for manufacturers in the crosshairs for ransomware.

An expanding attack surface from the connection of operational technology (OT), information technology (IT), and external networks requires more controls. Legacy systems and technology weren’t purpose-fit for today’s sophisticated network challenges. Now, remote-work vulnerabilities leave manufacturers even more susceptible to breaches.

Manufacturers should look not only at their cyberdefenses, but also at the resiliency of their business in the event of a cyberattack. Cybercriminals can cause harm beyond intellectual-property theft and financial losses, using malware that now ties in AI and cryptocurrencies. They can also shut down operations and disrupt entire supplier networks, compromising safety as well as productivity. A patchwork of regulations for different industries could be consolidated under the current administration’s ‘whole-of-nation’ approach to protect critical infrastructure. The potential for additional oversight is likely to prompt more industrials to rethink preparedness for crisis response.

 

5. Manufacturers are likely to bring more resources and rigor to advancing sustainability. The fast rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is redefining and elevating sustainability in manufacturing as never before. Cost of capital can be tied to ratings on ESG, making it a priority for organizational financial health and competitiveness. Expectations for reporting on diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics in manufacturing will likely continue to rise. Board diversity, while progressing slowly, is also showing some momentum. To attract talent and appeal to workforce expectations, most manufacturers are making ESG efforts more visible.

Depending on a manufacturer’s end markets, environmental accountability is increasingly a focus. To develop and deliver against net-zero or carbon-neutral goals, more organizations are dedicating or redesigning sustainability roles and initiatives and quantifying efforts and results around energy consumption. And the fast-evolving ESG landscape may require close monitoring in 2022 for manufacturers.

Many organizations are complying voluntarily within a complex network of reporting regulations, ratings, and disclosure frameworks. But regulators globally are also moving toward requiring disclosure for more non-financial metrics. Proactive approaches may help manufacturers stay ahead of the change and create competitive advantage.

Enfield Stays on Track for Growth

By Contributor
Mayor Bob Cressotti
Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight

By Mark Morris

Mayor Bob Cressotti

Mayor Bob Cressotti says soaring real-estate activity may lead to the tough decision to re-evaluate Enfield homes and businesses.

There is no shortage of activity in development projects for Enfield.

The most significant project involves the town, with the support of state and federal officials, constructing a train-station platform in the Thompsonville section of town. The planned station will be a stop for Amtrak trains coming from Hartford and Springfield. Mayor Bob Cressotti called it a key to Enfield’s future growth.

“If we have rail access to Hartford, New York City, and points north, such as Springfield and Vermont, we can encourage more young people to live in Enfield,” Cressotti said, noting that funding for the station will come from the infrastructure bill recently signed by President Biden. In the final legislation, Connecticut is scheduled to receive $1.2 billion for roads and transit over the next five years.

When built, the station will be located just beyond Bigelow Commons, a 700-unit apartment complex that was once the Bigelow Carpet Mill. Nelson Tereso, the town’s deputy director of Economic & Community Development, said plans by the Connecticut Department of Transportation call for a covered 220-foot platform that would accommodate entrances to four train cars. As a high-level platform, passengers would be able to walk directly into the cars.

“If we have rail access to Hartford, New York City, and points north, such as Springfield and Vermont, we can encourage more young people to live in Enfield.”

Tereso is working on a number of details for the project, among them securing a right-of-way agreement with Bigelow Commons for parking at the station. Northland, the company that owns the Commons, has indicated it supports the train-station project in Enfield.

“They’ve been very good to work with,” he noted. “In fact, many of their apartment complexes around the country are located near transportation hubs.” 

In anticipation of the train station, Tereso said the town has identified several properties within walking distance that would be ideal candidates for redevelopment. With the success of Bigelow Commons, he sees more potential for housing in that area.

On North Main Street, the Strand Theater has been closed for nearly 30 years and is slated for demolition by next summer. Next door sits the Angelo Lamanga Community Center. Tereso said the town has appropriated money for its demolition, too, but he is talking with developers to see if it’s possible to find a new use for the 27,000-square-foot building.

“We want to sell the Lamanga Center to a developer who is forward-thinking and looking ahead at the train station our town will have in a few years,” he explained. “While not as large as Bigelow, these parcels represent an opportunity to build additional market-rate apartments, especially for young professionals who are working in Hartford and Springfield.”

 

On the Home Front

According to Cressotti, demand for housing is certainly up Enfield. Since the pandemic began, nearly 2,200 property transfers have been recorded in Enfield. The rising real-estate market is leading to what he called the tough decision of re-evaluating houses and businesses in town.

“Residential property values have increased by 25% to 30% on average,” he said. “We’re going to adjust the mill rate to prevent a huge spike in the tax bills.”

With such large increases in home prices, getting families to locate to Enfield can be a challenge. Tereso talked about a first-time homebuyer program the town offers to increase purchasing power for eligible buyers. The program provides a deferred loan up to $10,000 at a 0% interest rate for first-time buyers who purchase a home in Enfield. For those who choose a home in the Thompsonville or North Thompsonville section of town, the loan is forgivable.

“This program provides the gap funding that many folks need in order to afford a mortgage,” he said, noting that starter homes in Enfield typically cost between $150,000 and $250,000. “It has especially helped younger families to buy their first home.”

With families in mind, the town is currently transforming Higgins Park from a softball field into a multi-faceted park. Plans call for expanding Higgins, as the town plans to purchase the gymnasium building that belonged to the former St. Adalbert parish that abuts the park. Cressotti said the final layout will feature walking trails, a new basketball court, a swimming pool, a splash pad, and a band shell for outdoor concerts.

“We are making five- and 10-year plans instead of just reacting to what’s happening now. Sure, there are challenges ahead of us, but we’ll take each one as they come and always try to do what’s right for the town of Enfield.”

“When it’s complete, the park will have appeal to all ages, and we will be able to hold sponsored events there on a consistent basis,” he noted.

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, officials tried to figure out how to keep town business operating. It so happened that a Santander Bank branch two doors down from Town Hall had recently closed and was on the market. The idea was floated to lease the former bank and use its drive-up window as a convenient and contact-free way to conduct town business during the pandemic.

“The drive-up window worked great for residents looking to apply for building permits, pick up a dog license, or pay their taxes,” Tereso said.

The town moved the entire Tax Department into the former bank and renamed it Enfield Express. The site also had enough room to locate a police substation in the rear of the building. Tereso said the town just finalized the purchase of the building, making it official that Enfield Express is here to stay.

“People love it,” he added. “We will absolutely continue the drive-up service after the pandemic is over.”

Purchasing the former bank branch also expands the amount of municipal parking and provides another entry point for the newly configured Higgins Park.

“When the Tax Department moved out of Town Hall, we turned their old space into a new conference room,” Tereso said, noting yet another benefit of creating Enfield Express.

Finding new uses for existing structures is all part of the plan in Enfield. For example, the Social Services Department recently moved from 110 High St. to the former Alcorn School, where the town’s IT Department is located, while 110 High St. is one of seven town properties Enfield has sold while it strives to efficiently use municipal space.

Enfield at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1683
Population: 44,626
Area: 34.2 square miles
County: Hartford
Residential Tax Rate: $34.23
Commercial Tax Rate: $34.23
Median Household Income: $67,402
Median Family Income: $77,554
Type of Government: Town Council, Town Manager
Largest Employers: Lego Systems Inc., MassMutual, Retail Brand Alliance, Enfield Distribution Center
* Latest information available

As Tereso explained, “110 High Street was once a day-care center. We sold it to a day-care provider who will now be able to expand their presence in Enfield.”

Enfield Square, purchased by Namdar Realty in 2018, could be another candidate for redevelopment. The new owners were granted a zone change to reconfigure the mall and subdivide the parcels.

While malls all over the country are being redeveloped, Tereso believes Enfield Square’s close proximity to two I-91 exits is a big selling point for future use. He plans to survey residents on possible redevelopment options to get a read on what people would like to see at the mall.

“Whether it’s entertainment, market-rate housing, or outlet shops, all those things could be a successful way to develop the mall for new use,” he said.

 

Life in the Fast Lane

For Cressotti, life these past months has been moving fast.

In October, he won the election to be Enfield’s new mayor. On Nov. 6, he took over the position, and on Nov. 15, longtime Town Manager Christopher Bromson abruptly resigned after a heated exchange with several Town Council members.

After serving in different positions with the town since 1989, Bromson decided to retire and was recently quoted saying he is grateful to see many of the projects started during his time are now going forward. Enfield Police Chief Alaric Fox has added interim Town Manager to his job title until a new manager is hired.

Even with all that happening, Cressotti likes the direction Enfield is headed.

“We are making five- and 10-year plans instead of just reacting to what’s happening now,” he said. “Sure, there are challenges ahead of us, but we’ll take each one as they come and always try to do what’s right for the town of Enfield.”

Palmer’s Town Manager Sees Growth Potential

By
Ryan McNutt
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

Ryan McNutt

Ryan McNutt says a burgeoning cannabis sector is just one of many positive developments in Palmer.

If there’s one thing capitalism doesn’t like, Ryan McNutt says, it’s uncertainty. And COVID-19 has certainly injected plenty of that into the regional and national economic picture.

But unlike more densely populated areas like Boston, where the death toll — and accompanying anxiety — are higher, leading to a slower return to acitity, Palmer has seen only seven coronavirus-related deaths. Even now, only nine people are under some sort of quarantine order, following a long stretch of no cases at all.

How much Palmer’s low case count has affected business activity is hard to tell, said McNutt, who became town manager last year. But there’s reason for cautious optimism.

“I’m encouraged that our busiest department right now is our Building Department; in fact, I’m going to add another building inspector,” he told BusinessWest. “And some other Western Mass. communities are seeing that as well.”

Local projects run the gamut from a bar on Main Street being converted to a pizza restaurant to Adaptas Solutions adding a building to its complex in the Palmer Industrial Park.

“It’s a growing business — even in this pandemic, people are still adding jobs, adding capacity, adding new product lines,” said McNutt, noting that Sanderson MacLeod, which specializes in manufacturing twisted wire brushes, has grown recently by shifting to new product lines, some of them medical, during the pandemic. “Capitalism is creative destruction. People are going to enter new markets, or enter existing markets where others couldn’t fill those markets, and Palmer will benefit from that.”

The cannabis sector certainly shows no signs of slowdown, with four businesses — Altitude Organic and Heka Health on the retail side and and MINT Cultivation Facilities and the WingWell Group on the cultivation side — getting ready to open in the coming months.

“I’m encouraged that our busiest department right now is our Building Department; in fact, I’m going to add another building inspector.”

“This will be an amazing amount of unrestricted local revenue,” McNutt said, though he was quick to add that most neighboring states still haven’t legalized cannabis. “Once those states or the federal government legalize, there will be diminishing returns. We’re seeing hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in from other states.”

That said, he expects the industry to be a net positive for Palmer’s tax base for a long time to come, even if it’s hard to predict the exact impact. “There’s obviously a floor of cannabis users, but what is the ceiling?”

It’s a question he can apply to many types of economic development, including a long-talked-about rail line that could eventually be a game changer for this community of just over 13,000 residents.

Focused Approach

When McNutt, the former city manager of Claremont, N.H., took over in Palmer last July, economic development was a key focus from the start.

“Economic development is important, making sure we grow the tax base and make it sustainable for the people who live here but also create opportunities to attract new people coming in,” he said. “We can do that to some degree ourselves, and then there are macro things happening, like the east-west rail line. Some days I’m more confident that will come in, some other days I’m less confident. I try to stay on the optimistic side of it.”

Palmer at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1775
Population: 13,050
Area: 32 square miles
County: Hampden
Tax Rate, residential and commercial: Palmer, $22.80; Three Rivers, $23.42; Bondsville, $23.89; Thorndike, $24.16
Median Household Income: $41,443
Median Family Income: $49,358
Type of government: Town Manager; Town Council
Largest Employers: Baystate Wing Hospital; Sanderson MacLeod Inc., Camp Ramah of New England; Big Y World Class Market
* Latest information available

That said, “if our folks at the federal level are really looking at this country, starting to talk more and more about having a national infrastructure package, then I think the east-west rail line is more promising, because it will take federal money; it will take being a component of a larger national infrastructure package to make it doable. But that east-west rail line would be so transformative for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

In recent years, the Palmer Town Council established a citizens’ advisory committee and contracted with the UMass Center for Economic Development to study the merits of an east-west passenger rail stop in Palmer. The town’s position, roughly central to Springfield and Worcester, and also at the center of a market that extends north to UMass Amherst and the Five Colleges and south to the University of Connecticut, makes it a point of connection in many directions that would benefit from expanded rail service.

In addition, McNutt noted, Palmer has a workforce of close to 8,000 people, and 85% of them work outside of Palmer, mostly in Worcester but more than 100 in Pittsfield. A rail line would ease the commute for many, while individuals who want to work in the Boston area, where housing prices can be exorbitant, could instead choose to live in towns along the rail line, like Palmer.

“There are a lot of good opportunities that make Palmer an attractive community, as long as we market ourselves correctly,” he told BusinessWest. “We’re making sure we’re doing everything we can so when a national infrastructure package gets introduced, we will be shovel-ready.

Speaking of infrastructure, Palmer boasts nine bridges that span four rivers, all built around 80 years ago with a life expectancy of about 50 years, he said. The cost to repair them is about $3 million per bridge, on average, and with the entire municipal budget, including schools, around $40 million, “it’s not like we have the internal capacity to just fix those bridges.”

The town submitted a $7.5 million grant application to the federal BUILD program last year to repair a couple of those bridges, competing with $10 billion worth of applications — across all 50 states — for about $900 million in funding. Despite those odds, Palmer made it to the final round of consideration before being dropped, and McNutt said the region’s federal lawmakers encouraged him to reapply this year. He’s cautiously optimistic the news will be better this time around.

“I think both Democrats and Republicans agree we’ve let huge swaths of this country fall apart since the end of World War II. Bridges, ports, airports … we’ve got to get on top of this. Everyone understands the deficiency across the country is bipartisan. The amount of jobs that could will be created would keep people working for the 20 years fixing the stuff we’ve let go for 70 years. And borrowing money has never been cheaper.”

Bang for the Buck

McNutt said he’s always thinking in terms of economic development, and its importance in communities with tax-rate increases constrained by Proposition 2½.

“I’m conservative when it comes to taxpayer resources,” he said. “I grew up in Massachusetts, and I know the strain Proposition 2½ places upon communities and municipalities, considering the rising fixed expenditures and costs we face, especially on the school side. And at the same time, I really believe that taxpayers pay a lot of money. I’m very keen on making sure people get value for that taxpayer dollar, so we’re always looking for grants and efficiencies in doing business, to be able to control those costs.”

For that reason, he went on, it’s important for towns of Palmer’s size and demographics to attract an influx of younger residents, and expanded rail could help boost that effort.

“Everybody who’s aging and on a fixed income, they really have a limited runway in what the property taxes can get to,” he noted. “That’s something that’s always my first focus — what is the tax base, what is the tax rate, and what is the economic capacity to pay it? How quickly do we need to find new revenue to support municipal operations without having everything fall on the backs of the retiree who’s lived in Palmer their whole life, and not necessarily getting new revenue themselves?”

Fortunately, even during a pandemic, growth is possible — and, in many cases, happening — and the promise of east-west rail service only boosts McNutt’s sense of what’s possible. While his confidence on that front may waver, depending on the day, his belief in Palmer’s potential — and its ability to weather the current storm — certainly does not.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Growth of Cannabis Industry Offers Promise of Revenue, Jobs

By
Economic Outlook

Higher Ground

Scott Foster says small cannabis businesses are being assailed with offers from large, out-of-state players.

The cannabis industry is in full swing in Massachusetts, with about three dozen dispensaries currently selling products for recreational and medicinal use — about a third of them in Western Mass. — not to mention cultivators, product developers, and a host of other related enterprises.

With 17% of cannabis sales going back to the state as taxes, and communities collecting at least 3% more — usually higher — it’s easy to recognize the financial impact.

But Scott Foster says said it’s important to remember the jobs being generated.

“You can get good employment in this field. A shop might have 20-plus employees working there,” said Foster, a partner at Bulkley Richardson, the Springfield-based law firm that launched a specialty cannabis practice last year to provide guidance for individuals, companies, and municipalities entering this very young industry. “These aren’t small businesses in the sense of 200 or 300 employees, but it’s not just four or five people working, either. It’s a pretty steady base of employment.”

And it adds up, said Jeff Hayden, vice president of Business and Community Services at Holyoke Community College (HCC), which recently launched a Cannabis Education Center to provide needed training and resources for people who want to enter this burgeoning industry.

“In Holyoke, 13 companies have applied for 21 different licenses,” Hayden told BusinessWest. “At present, 50 to 75 people are employed in cannabis-related businesses in Holyoke, but the anticipation is, within a year or two, that will be in the range of 400 to 500 people. It’s potentially a significant occupational opportunity for people. And if Holyoke is looking at 400 to 500, what is Springfield looking at? What about Northampton, Easthampton, Chicopee?”

This career potential is what inspired HCC to partner with the Worcester-based Cannabis Community Care and Research Network (C3RN) on the Cannabis Education Center.

“In Holyoke, 13 companies have applied for 21 different licenses. At present, 50 to 75 people are employed in cannabis-related businesses in Holyoke, but the anticipation is, within a year or two, that will be in the range of 400 to 500 people.”

“At HCC, we focus on what kinds of job skills people need in order to get jobs, whether entry-level or skills to do their job better. The fact that there is so much potential in this new industry in Massachusetts piqued my interest.”

No economic outlook is complete without touching on the early expansion of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts — and its immense promise for further growth, especially as dozens more shops plan to open their doors in 2020. Whether they’ll be able to maintain the sector’s early momentum remains to be seen — but most analysts agree the potential is certainly there.

On Fire

Foster recently came across an article that listed cannabis among the top four new legal practice areas, among heavyweights like cybersecurity.

“It’s interesting that cannabis has become a front-and-center legal issue across all the U.S., not just Massachusetts,” he said. “It’s becoming more recognized as a legitimate industry. Even though federal law hasn’t changed, it seems to be moving in that direction.”

Indeed, with Illinois joining the list this month, 11 states have now legalized recreational marijuana, and 19 others allow medicinal marijuana. With others set to follow this year, it’s not hard to imagine an eventual shift at the federal level, even if that doesn’t appear imminent.

As one step in that direction, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in 2019 allowing banks to handle marijuana accounts; currently, most cannabis businesses are all-cash enterprises since they can’t use banks.

“Will banks ever start lending to the industry?” Foster asked. “I think yes, but most people in the industry think it probably won’t be in 2020. Maybe, but probably not. They’re expecting it to stall in the Senate, and Washington is occupied at the moment with lots of other stuff.”

For now, communities that have embraced this new world — like Holyoke, which is starting to fill its former mills along the canals with a mix of cannabis-related businesses — appreciate the additional tax revenue and retail traffic in town, but also, as Hayden notes, those jobs.

“Will cannabis provide thousands of jobs, like the state has predicted? Who knows, but 300, 400, 500 new jobs is significant,” he said. “More than 90% of the businesses in the Valley are small businesses — not by the definition of the Small Business Association, with 500 employees or fewer, but with 50 or fewer.”

Collectively, that’s a lot of positions to fill, especially as more of those small businesses come online.

“This is like any other business in the sense that they need people ready to work and have some skills to do the jobs they want to hire for,” Hayden said. “The more we can work as a community college on skills training that gets people ready for work, the better.”

In many cases, shops are hiring people who may face skill barriers to other types of employment; it’s a relatively even playing field in that, because the industry is so new, almost everyone needs training. HCC’s Cannabis Education Center is doing its part, both through courses and one-day programs like an upcoming workshop series on planning and starting a cannabis business, as well as getting into medical marijuana.

“Our goal is to get people into jobs, but in the context of a career,” Hayden said. “A job is a great thing, but if it’s just a 15- or 20-hour job, that’s not going to support you or your family for long. We want to get people on a career pathway through skills training.”

For example, he went on, “in cultivation, someone might come in trimming plants, working with growers, learning what the process is, and might become a cultivation technician, an assistant grower, even a master grower. There are definitely steps along the way to get not just a job, but a career in cannabis.”

Maturing Industry

Foster said he doesn’t have a crystal ball when it comes to the cannabis industry, but he does have his eye on some intriguing trends.

“We’re already seeing consolidation. Many of our clients are receiving unsolicited offers to buy them out. They’re not actively soliciting offers; people are contacting them. It’s mostly out-of-state money — and it’s not small money. That will be interesting to see, if the industry changes from being completely locally owned to being owned by out-of-state players, creating national cannabis businesses.”

Another murky area right now is the effectiveness of the state’s social-equity piece, which aims to provide priority access, training, and technical assistance to individuals and communities negatively affected by the drug war — a key target audience for HCC’s training efforts. “That’s another big unknown which may get some clarity in 2020,” Foster said.

What is clear is that the market, as it stands now, is humming along — and creating those jobs.

“All the folks I’m seeing are still trying to keep up with customer demand. At least from what I’m hearing, competition hasn’t slowed business. Will that change if New York and Connecticut were to legalize? Possibly,” he noted, citing casinos as a case study; there’s no doubt Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have lost some business to their northern neighbor since the Bay State got into that business. “But for the moment, Massachusetts is the only game in town when it comes to cannabis.”

It’s a game with lofty goals and an uncertain — but undoubtedly promising — future.

“It’s a maturing industry,” Foster said. “So it’s going to have maturing-industry challenges.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Celebrating the Super 60

By
Super 60

Recognition Program Marks 30 Years with Oct. 25 Event

Now in its 30th year, the Springfield Regional Chamber’s Super 60 program celebrates the success of the fastest-growing privately-owned businesses in the region. Businesses on the Total Revenue and Revenue Growth categories for 2019 represent all sectors of the economy, including nonprofits, transportation, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, retail, and hospitality. Some have been named to the Super 60 once or many times before, and some are brand-new to the list.

This year’s Super 60 Celebration event will take place on Friday, Oct. 25 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Chez Josef in Agawam. Sheila Coon, founder of Hot Oven Cookies, will be the keynote speaker at the event, which is presented by Health New England and sponsored by People’s United Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, the Republican, MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, and Zasco Productions.

Hot Oven Cookies began in 2015, when Coon started baking cookies for her children while she was in culinary school. She started her business as a cookie-delivery service. With business education from Valley Venture Mentors and SPARK EforAll in Holyoke, the delivery business expanded to a food truck, from which Coon began selling cookies from her repertoire of more than 100 recipes, inspired by her children, at farmers’ markets and other events. When her food truck constantly sold out of cookies, Coon knew there was potential for more.

Coon is also a graduate of the first cohort of RiseUp Springfield, a seven-month, intensive, hands-on program for established and small business owners, powered by Interise’s StreetWise ‘MBA’ curriculum in collaboration with the city of Springfield, the Assoc. of Black Business & Professionals, and the Springfield Regional Chamber.

In just four short years, Coon has found sweet success with Hot Oven Cookies. In 2018, she and her husband, David, opened the brand’s first retail location at 1597 Main St. in Springfield. She has plans to open a production facility in Agawam to accommodate her current business as well as plans for a wholesale business and an online store with national shipping of Hot Oven’s uncooked frozen cookie dough.

“Hot Oven Cookies is an example of a true entrepreneurial story about how an idea, a passion, or a hobby can become a thriving business with dedication and taking advantage of the small-business resources available in Western Massachusetts,” said Nancy Creed, president of the Springfield Regional Chamber. “We are thrilled to have a graduate of the first cohort of RiseUp Springfield take the stage at Super 60 to share her success story.”

The event costs $60 for chamber members and $75 for general admission. Reservations may be made for tables of eight or 10. The deadline for reservations is Wednesday, Oct. 16. No cancellations are accepted after that date, and no walk-ins will be allowed. Reservations must be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com or by e-mailing [email protected].

Total Revenue:

1. Whalley Computer Associates Inc.*
2. Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
3. Tighe & Bond*
Arrow Security Co. Inc.
Baltazar Contractors
Bob Pion Buick GMC Inc.
Center Square Grill (Fun Dining Inc.)
Charter Oak Financial
Commercial Distributing Co. Inc.
Con-Test Analytical Laboratory (Filli, LLC)
Court Square Group Inc.
David R. Northup Electrical Contractors Inc.
The Dowd Agencies, LLC
E.F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.*
Freedom Credit Union
Governors America Corp. / GAC Management Co.*
Haluch Water Contracting Inc.
Holyoke Pediatrics Associates, LLP
JET Industries Inc.
Kittredge Equipment Co. Inc.
Lancer Transportation / Sulco Warehousing & Logistics
Louis and Clark Drug Inc.
Maybury Associates Inc.*
Paragus Strategic IT
Rediker Software Inc.
Rock Valley Tool, LLC
Skip’s Outdoor Accents Inc.
Tiger Press (Shafii’s Inc.)
Troy Industries Inc.
United Personnel Services Inc.

Revenue Growth:

1. The Nunes Companies Inc.
2. Brewmasters Brewing Services, LLC
3. Christopher Heights of Northampton
A.G. Miller Co. Inc.
Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding Inc.*
American Pest Solutions Inc.
Baystate Crushing and Recycling Inc.
Burgess, Schultz & Robb, P.C.
City Enterprise Inc.*
Courier Express Inc.
EOS Approach, LLC / Proshred Security International
Gallagher Real Estate
GMH Fence Company Inc.
Goss & McLain Insurance Agency Inc.
Greenough Packaging & Maintenance Supplies Inc.
Kenney Masonry, LLC
Knight Machine Tool Company Inc.
L & L Property Service, LLC
Ludlow Heating and Cooling Inc.
Michael’s Party Rentals Inc.
Oasis Shower Doors (EG Partners, LLC)*
Pioneer Valley Financial Group, LLC
R.R. Leduc Corp.*
Sanderson MacLeod Inc.
Springfield Thunderbirds (Springfield Hockey, LLC)
Summit Careers Inc.
United Industrial Textile Products Inc.
Villa Rose Restaurant (Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc.)
Webber & Grinnell Insurance Agency Inc.*
Westside Finishing Co. Inc.*

*Qualified in both categories

Total Revenue​

1. Whalley Computer Associates Inc.*
One Whalley Way, Southwick
(413) 569-4200
www.wca.com
John Whalley, President
WCA is a locally owned family business that has evolved from a hardware resale and service group in the ’70s and ’80s into a company that now focuses on lowering the total cost of technology and productivity enhancement for its customers.

2. Marcotte Ford Sales Inc.
1025 Main St., Holyoke
(413) 536-1900
www.marcotteford.com
Bryan Marcotte, President
The dealership sells new Ford vehicles as well as pre-owned cars, trucks, and SUVs, and features a full service department. Marcotte has achieved Ford’s President’s Award multiple occasions over the past decade. It also operates the Marcotte Commercial Truck Center.

3. Tighe & Bond*
53 Southampton Road, Westfield
(413) 562-1600
www.tighebond.com
Robert Belitz, President and CEO
Tighe & Bond is a full-service engineering and environmental consulting firm offering myriad services, including building engineering, coastal and waterfront solutions, environmental consulting, GIS and asset management, site planning and design, transportation engineering, and water and wastewater engineering.

Arrow Security Co. Inc
124 Progress Ave., Springfield
(413) 732-6787
www.arrowsecurity.com
John Debarge Jr., President
This company provides security for all types of clients and issues, including industrial plant security, patrol services with security checks for homeowners, free security surveys, and more provided by a management team that consists of a diverse group of professionals with law enforcement, private-sector security, and military backgrounds.

Baltazar Contractors
83 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow
(413) 583-6160
www.baltazarcontractors.com
Frank Baltazar, President
Baltazar Contractors is a family-owned construction firm specializing in roadway construction and reconstruction; all aspects of site-development work; sewer, water, storm, and utilities; and streetscape improvements in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Bob Pion Buick GMC Inc.
333 Memorial Dr., Chicopee
(413) 206-9251
www.bobpionbuickgmc.com
Rob Pion, General Manager
Bob Pion Buick GMC carries a wide selection of new and pre-owned cars, crossovers, and SUVs, and also offers competitive lease specials and a full service department.

Center Square Grill (Fun Dining Inc.)
84 Center Square, East Longmeadow
(413) 525-0055
www.centersquaregrill.com
Michael Sakey, Bill Collins, Proprietors
Center Square Grill serves traditional American food, with hints of classically prepared French sauces, Latin-inspired fish dishes, and standard Italian repertoire. The facility also has a catering service and hosts events of all kinds.

Charter Oak Financial
330 Whitney Ave., Holyoke
(413) 539-2000
www.charteroakfinancial.com
brendan naughton, general agent
Charter Oak’s services include risk management (including life insurance, disability income insurance, and long-term-care insurance), business planning and protection, retirement planning and investments, and fee-based financial planning.

Commercial Distributing Co. Inc.
46 South Broad St., Westfield
(413) 562-9691
www.commercialdist.com
Richard Placek, Chairman
Commercial Distributing Co. is a family-owned business servicing more than 1,000 bars, restaurants, and clubs, as well as more than 400 package and liquor stores. Now in its third generation, the company continues to grow by building brands and offering new products as the market changes.

Con-Test Analytical Laboratory (Filli, LLC)
39 Spruce St., East Longmeadow
(413) 525-2332
www.contestlabs.com
Tom Veratti, Founder and Consultant
Con-Test Inc. provides industrial-hygiene and analytical services to a broad range of clients. Originally focused on industrial-hygiene analysis, the laboratory-testing division has expanded its capabilities to include numerous techniques in air analysis, classical (wet) chemistry, metals, and organics.

Court Square Group Inc.
1350 Main St., Springfield
(413) 746-0054
www.courtsquaregroup.com
Keith Parent, President
Court Square is a leading managed-services company that provides an audit-ready, compliant cloud (ARCC) infrastructure for its clients and partners in the life-sciences industry.

David R. Northup Electrical Contractors Inc.
73 Bowles Road, Agawam
(413) 786-8930
www.northupelectric.com
David Northup, President
This is a family-owned, full-service electrical, HVAC, and plumbing contractor that specializes in everything from installation and replacement to preventive maintenance, indoor air-quality work, and sheet-metal fabrication.

The Dowd Agencies, LLC
14 Bobola Road, Holyoke
(413) 538-7444
www.dowd.com
John Dowd, President and CEO
The Dowd Agencies is the oldest insurance agency under continuous family ownership, and one of the most long-standing, experienced insurance agencies in Massachusetts.

E.F. Corcoran Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc.*
5 Rose Place, Springfield
(413) 732-1462
www.efcorcoran.com
Charles Edwards and Brian Toomey, Co-owners
E.F. Corcoran is a full-service plumbing and HVAC contractor. Services include 24-hour plumbing service, HVAC system installs, design-build services, energy retrofits, system replacements and modifications, gas piping, boilers, and more.
Freedom Credit Union
1976 Main St., Springfield
(800) 831-0160
www.freedom.coop
Glenn Welch, President and CEO
Freedom is a full-service credit union serving a wide range of business and consumer clients. Freedom has its main office on Main Street in Springfield, with other offices in Sixteen Acres, Feeding Hills, Ludlow, Chicopee, Easthampton, Northampton, Turners Falls, Greenfield, and Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy.

Governors America Corp. / GAC Management Co.*
720 Silver St., Agawam
(413) 786-5600
www.governors-america.com
Sean Collins, President
GAC is a leading provider of engine-governing and system controls to a worldwide list of equipment manufacturers and power providers. The engine-control products are used in a wide range of industries, including generator set, material handling, marine propulsion, mining, locomotive, and off-highway applications.

Haluch Water Contracting Inc.
399 Fuller St., Ludlow
(413) 589-1254
Thomas Haluch, President
Haluch Water Contracting’s main lines of business include sewer contracting, underground utilities, and water-main construction.

Holyoke Pediatrics Associates, LLP
150 Lower Westfield Road, Holyoke
(413) 536-2393
www.holyokepediatrics.com
Kathy Tremble, Adair Medina, Care Coordinators
HPA is the largest pediatric practice in Western Mass., providing primary-care services as well as lactation counseling, behavioral-health services, and patient education. HPA has a medical laboratory drawing site and also provides in-hospital support for new mothers.

JET Industries Inc.
307 Silver St., Agawam
(413) 786-2010
Michael Turrini, President
Jet Industries manufactures aircraft engines, parts, and equipment, as well as turbines and turbine generator sets and parts, aircraft power systems, flight instrumentation, and aircraft landing and braking systems.

Kittredge Equipment Co. Inc.
100 Bowles Road, Agawam
(413) 304-4100
www.kittredgeequipment.com
Wendy Webber, President
Kittridge Equipment is a $57 million equipment and supply giant. It boasts 70,000 square feet of inventory and warehouse, handles design services, and has designed everything from small restaurants to country clubs to in-plant cafeterias.

Lancer Transportation & Logistics / Sulco Warehousing & Logistics
311 Industry Ave., Springfield
(413) 739-4880
www.sulco-lancer.com
Todd Goodrich, President
Sulco Warehousing & Logistics operates a network of distribution centers. Lancer Transportation & Logistics is a DOT-registered contract motor carrier providing regional, national, and international truckload and LTL delivery services.

Louis and Clark Drug Inc.
309 East St. Springfield
(413) 737-2996
www.lcdrug.com
Skip Matthews, President
Louis & Clark provides prescriptions for individuals and institutions and helps those who need home medical equipment and supplies. The company also provides professional pharmacy and compounding services, medical equipment, independent-living services, and healthcare programs.
Maybury Associates Inc.*
90 Denslow Road, East Longmeadow
(888) 629-2879
www.maybury.com
John Maybury, President
Maybury Associates has more than 80 employees and is a distributor for about 1,300 manufacturers. The company designs, supplies, and services a wide variety of handling equipment throughout New England, and provides customers in a wide range of industries with solutions to move, lift, and store their parts and products.
Paragus Strategic IT*
112 Russell St., Hadley
(413) 587-2666
www.paragusit.com
Delcie Bean IV, President
Paragus has grown dramatically as an outsourced IT solution, providing business computer service, computer consulting, information-technology support, and other services to businesses of all sizes.

Rediker Software Inc.
2 Wilbraham Road, Hampden
(800) 213-9860
www.rediker.com
Andrew Anderlonis, President
Rediker Software has been providing school administrative software solutions for more than 35 years. Rediker Software is used by school administrators across the U.S. and in more than 100 countries, and is designed to meet the student-information-management needs of all types of schools and districts.

Rock Valley Tool, LLC
54 O’Neil St., Easthampton
(413) 527-2350
www.rockvalleytool.com
Elizabeth Paquette, President
Rock Valley Tool is a precision-machining facility housing both CNC and conventional machining equipment, along with a state-of-the-art inspection lab. With more than 40 years of experience, the company provides manufactured parts to customers in the aerospace, commercial/industrial, and plastic blow-molding industries.

Skip’s Outdoor Accents Inc.
1265 Suffield St., Agawam
(413) 786-0990
www.skipsonline.com
John and Scott Ansart, Owners
Skip’s Outdoor Accents specializes in a wide range of outdoor products, including storage sheds, gazebos, swingsets, and outdoor furniture, offering installation and delivery to sites with limited or no access. Skip’s shed and gazebo delivery is free to most of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

Tiger Press (Shafii’s Inc.)
50 Industrial Ave., East Longmeadow
(413) 224-2100
www.tigerpress.com
Reza Shafii, Jennifer Shafii, Owners
TigerPress is a sustainable, eco-friendly printer, using green technology and operating in a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing plant. The company offers digital printing, commercial printing, and custom package printing all under one roof.

Troy Industries Inc.
151 Capital Dr., West Springfield
(866) 788-6412
www.troyind.com
Steve Troy, CEO
Troy Industries is an industry leader that designs and manufactures innovative, top-quality small arms components and accessories and complete weapon upgrades. All products are American-made and designed to perform flawlessly under intense battle conditions.

United Personnel Services Inc.
289 Bridge St., Springfield
(413) 736-0800
www.unitedpersonnel.com
Tricia Canavan, President
United provides a full range of staffing services, including temporary staffing and full-time placement, on-site project management, and strategic recruitment in the Springfield, Hartford, and Northampton areas, specializing in administrative, professional, medical, and light-industrial staff.

Revenue Growth

1. The Nunes Companies Inc.
658 Center St., Ludlow
(413) 308-4940
www.nunescompanies.com
Armando Nunes, President
The Nunes Companies offers services such as sitework, road construction, and roll-off dumpster rentals, relying on leadership, quality, and cutting-edge technology to get the job done.

2. Brewmasters
Brewing Services, LLC
4 Main St., Williamsburg
(413) 268-2199
Dennis Bates, Michael Charpentier, Owners
Brewmasters Brewing Services is a small craft brewery offering a wide variety of services, including contract brewing and distilling.

3. Christopher Heights
of Northampton
50 Village Hill Road, Northampton
(413) 584-0701
www.christopherheights.com
michael taylor, executive director
Christopher Heights is a mixed-use community located in a natural setting that features scenic mountain views and walking paths. Residents and staff each bring their own experiences and talents, which are recognized and often incorporated into social activities and programs.

A.G. Miller Co. Inc.
53 Batavia St., Springfield
(413) 732-9297
www.agmiller.com
Rick Miller, President
A leader in the metal-fabricating industry, the company’s services include precision metal fabrication; design and engineering; assembly; forming, rolling, and bending; laser cutting; punching; precision saw cutting; welding; powder coating; and liquid painting.

Adam Quenneville Roofing & Siding Inc.*
160 Old Lyman Road, South Hadley
(413) 536-5955
www.1800newroof.net
Adam Quenneville, CEO
Adam Quenneville offers a wide range of residential and commercial services, including new roofs, retrofitting, roof repair, roof cleaning, vinyl siding, replacement windows, and the no-clog Gutter Shutter system. The company has earned the BBB Torch Award for trust, performance, and integrity.

American Pest Solutions Inc.
169 William St., Springfield
(413) 781-0044
www.413pestfree.com
Bob Russell, President
American Pest Solutions is a full-service pest-solutions company founded in 1913. With two locations, the company serves residential and commercial customers, offering inspection, treatment, and ongoing protection.

Baystate Crushing and Recycling Inc.
36 Carmelinas Circle, Ludlow
(413) 583-4440
www.baystateblasting.com
Paul Baltazar, President
Baystate Blasting Inc. is a family-owned drilling and blasting firm that provides a full range of rock-blasting and rock-crushing services, including sitework, heavy highway construction, residential work, quarry, and portable crushing and recycling. An ATF-licensed dealer of explosives, it offers rental of individual magazines.

Burgess, Schultz & Robb, P.C.
200 North Main St., South Building,
Suite 1, East Longmeadow
(413) 525-0025
www.bsrcpa.com
Andrew Robb, Managing Partner
Burgess, Schultz & Robb, P.C. is a professional certified public accounting firm providing audit, tax, business-advisory, and business-management services to private businesses, trusts, tax-exempt organizations, and individuals.
City Enterprise Inc.*
52-60 Berkshire Ave., Springfield
(413) 726-9549
www.cityenterpriseinc.com
Wonderlyn Murphy, President
City Enterprises Inc. is a general contractor with a diverse portfolio of clients, including the Groton Naval submarine base, Westover Air Reserve Base, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, and many others.

Courier Express Inc.
111 Carando Dr., Springfield
(413) 730-6620
www.courierexp.com
Eric Devine, President
Courier Express is committed to providing custom, same-day delivery solutions for any shipment and a courteous, prompt, and professional delivery agent. The company ships everything from a single envelope to multiple pallets.

EOS Approach, LLC / Proshred Security International
75 Post Office Park, Wilbraham
(413) 596-5479
www.proshred.com
Joe Kelly, Owner
Proshred specializes in the secure, on-site information destruction of confidential and sensitive documents, computer hard drives, and electronic media. It is an ISO 9001:2008 certified and NAID AAA certified mobile shredding company.
Gallagher Real Estate
1763 Northampton St., Holyoke
(413) 536-7232
www.gogallagher.com
Paul Gallagher, Owner
Gallagher Real Estate is an independent brokerage that operates in Hampshire and Hampden counties in Massachusetts and Hartford County in Connecticut. The company specializes in both residential and commercial properties and has offices in Holyoke, South Hadley, East Longmeadow, and Springfield.

GMH Fence Co. Inc.
15 Benton Dr., East Longmeadow
(413) 525-3361
www.gmhfence.com
Glenn Hastie, Owner
GMH Fence Co. is one of the largest fence companies in the region, offering fence installations from a selection of wood, aluminum, steel, and vinyl fencing for residential and commercial customers.

Goss & McLain Insurance Agency Inc.
1767 Northampton St., Holyoke
(413) 534-7355
www.gossmclain.com
Deborah Buckley, President
Goss & McLain is an independent insurance agency offering a diverse portfolio of personal and business property and liability insurance, as well as life and health insurance. It also insures homes, cars, and businesses and protects against personal and business liabilities.
Greenough Packaging & Maintenance Supplies Inc.
54 Heywood Ave., West Springfield
(800) 273-2308
www.greenosupply.com
Craig Cassanelli, President
Greenough is a distributor of shipping, packaging, safety, breakroom, janitorial, cleaning, and facility-maintenance supplies. It also offers custom solutions to customers, such as printed bags, cups, and napkins, as well as custom packaging, including printed tape, boxes, stretch wrap, and strapping.

Kenney Masonry, LLC
P.O. Box 2506, Amherst
(413) 256-0400
www.kenneymasonry.com
Sarahbeth Kenney, Owner
Kenney Masonry is a family-owned company with more than 150 years of combined construction experience working with brick, block, stone, and concrete on commercial, institutional, public, and residential projects.

Knight Machine Tool Company Inc.
11 Industrial Dr., South Hadley
(413) 532-2507
Gary O’Brien, Owner
Knight Machine & Tool Co. is a metalworking and welding company that offers blacksmithing, metal roofing, and other services from its 11,000-square-foot facility.

L & L Property Service, LLC
582 Amostown Road, West Springfield
(413) 732-2739
Richard Lapinski, Owner
L & L Property Services is a locally owned company providing an array of property services, including lawn care, snow removal, sanding, excavations, patios and stone walls, hydroseeding, and more.

Ludlow Heating and Cooling Inc.
1056 Center St., Ludlow
(413) 583-6923
www.ludlowheatingandcooling.com
Karen Sheehan, President
Ludlow Heating & Cooling is a full-service energy company dedicated to providing quality heating and cooling product services including new system installation, oil heat delivery, and maintenance to an existing system.

Michael’s Party Rentals Inc.
1221 South Main St., Palmer
(413) 589-7368
www.michaelspartyrentals.com
Michael Linton, Owner
Michael’s Party Rentals operates year-round, seven days a week. Its 9,000-square-foot warehouse holds more than 100 tents of all sizes, tables, chairs, dance flooring, staging, lighting, and an extensive array of rental equipment for any type of party.

Oasis Shower Doors
(EG Partners, LLC)*
646 Springfield St., Feeding Hills
(800) 876-8420
www.oasisshowerdoors.com
Thomas Daly, Owner
Oasis is New England’s largest designer, fabricator, and installer of custom frameless glass shower enclosures and specialty glass, offering a wide array of interior glass entry systems and storefronts, sliding and fixed glass partition walls, back-painted glass, and switchable privacy glass for bedrooms, offices, and conference rooms.

Pioneer Valley
Financial Group, LLC
1252 Elm St., Suite 28, West Springfield
(413) 363-9265
www.pvfinancial.com
Joseph Leonczyk, Charles Myers, Senior Partners
PV Financial helps clients pursue their goals through careful financial planning and sound investment strategy. Services include retirement planning, asset growth, business planning, college funding, estate planning, and risk management.

R.R. Leduc Corp.*
100 Bobala Road, Holyoke
(413) 536-4329
www.rrleduc.com
Robert LeDuc, President
Since its inception in 1967, the R.R. Leduc Corp. has been a family-owned business that specializes in precision sheet metal and custom powder coatings. The company produces a variety of products for the communication, military, medical, electronics, and commercial industries.

Sanderson MacLeod Inc.
1199 South Main St., Palmer
(413) 283-3481
www.sandersonmacleod.com
Mark Borsari, President
From breakthrough brush innovation projects to supply-chain integration, Sanderson MacLeod leverages its experience and know-how in ways that produce high-quality twisted-wire brushes for its customers.

Springfield Thunderbirds (Springfield Hockey, LLC)
45 Bruce Landon Way, Springfield
(413) 739-4625
www.springfieldthunderbirds.com
Nathan Costa, President
The Springfield Thunderbirds are a professional ice hockey team and the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. Since the team began to play in the area in 2016, it has formed the T-Birds Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity that benefits causes in Springfield and surrounding Pioneer Valley communities.
Summit Careers Inc.
85 Mill St., Suite B, Springfield
(413) 733-9506
www.summitcareers.inc
Bryan Picard, Owner
Summit Careers is a full-service staffing and recruiting firm that provides temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire services for clients in a variety of sectors, including light industrial, warehouse, professional trades, administrative, accounting, and executive.

United Industrial Textile Products Inc.
321 Main St., West Springfield
(413) 737-0095
www.uitprod.com
Wayne Perry, President
UIT is a family-owned manufacturer that has been making high-quality covers for commercial, military, and industrial applications for more than 60 years. Craftsmen at the company specialize in the creation of custom covers that are manufactured to each client’s unique specifications.

Villa Rose Restaurant (Tavares and Branco Enterprises Inc.)
1428 Center St., Ludlow
(413) 547-6667
www.villaroserestaurant.com
Tony Tavares, Owner
Nestled across from the Ludlow reservoir, the Villa Rose offers fine dining in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere. The restaurant offers a private room with availability for weddings, receptions, showers, anniversaries, and any other banquet function from 30 to 175 people.

Webber & Grinnell
Insurance Agency Inc.*
8 North King St., Northampton
(413) 586-0111
www.webberandgrinnell.com
Bill Grinnell, President
Webber and Grinnell has provided insurance protection for thousands of individuals and businesses throughout the Pioneer Valley for more than 150 years. The agency is balanced between business insurance, personal insurance, and employee benefits.

Westside Finishing Co. Inc.*
15 Samosett St., Holyoke
(413) 533-4909
www.wsfinish.com
Brian Bell, President
Westside Finishing is a family-owned business specializing in a wide array of services, including pre-treatment/cleaning, conveyorized powder coating, batch powder coating, silk screening, pad printing, masking, packaging, and trucking.

Fighting For A Slice Of The Pie: Business Workshop Series

By

How does mindset affect how we see opportunity?

9 to Thrive provides group and individual training to help organizations increase happiness through innovative tools and frameworks.

Do you need to attract investors, clients, or other engagement to your business? Is there just not enough—money, interest, people? Right now you’re wasting time and missing opportunities you don’t even know were there, and it’s not your fault. Our brains have hidden biases that work against us. And worse, our negativity is contagious.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. We can learn to recognize how we’re undermining ourselves and our organizations. There are tools, frameworks, and resources we can use to spot red flags, and respond to them, making our businesses stronger and more attractive. This workshop will include hacks, skills, and resources to start improving immediately.

The state of the workforce is dire. The most recent Gallup poll on working life found that 77% of workers are unengaged and 16% are completely miserable. More than half are actively looking for another job, and it’s the truth that employees quit because of management, not because of the work. Most managers have no leadership training. Retaining and attracting talented employees is a competitive edge. Creating a high-quality company culture from the top-down is the secret to a sustainable, purposeful workforce.

Janet McKenna Lowry has been an adult educator for twenty years. She has worked with several hundred schools, circuses, and theaters, and has a masters degree from Trinity College Dublin, concentrating on business leadership. Her company, 9 to Thrive, is dedicated to creating a world where the workplace doesn’t suck.

Greenfield Cooperative Bank Maintains a Solid Pace of Growth

By
President and CEO Michael Tucker
Banking and Financial Services

Steady Course

President and CEO Michael Tucker

President and CEO Michael Tucker

Like most all bank presidents in the 413, Michael Tucker would concede that a great many of the region’s communities are heavily populated with financial institutions, or “overbanked,” to use the term most would put into play.

He’s inclined to include Greenfield on that list, and gestures out the window of his office to make his point. “They used to call the other end of the street Bank Row,” he said, referring to a stretch of Federal Street now occupied by what once were stately bank offices, many of them redeveloped for other uses. “They really should call this Bank Row now.”

Tucker, president and CEO of Greenfield Cooperative Bank (GCB) and Northampton Cooperative Bank (the two institutions merged in 2015, and the former name was kept) was referencing the number of competitors who call a different stretch of Federal Street home, and it’s a large number.

But, unlike most of the other bank leaders who bemoan the overbanked nature of this region, Tucker sees the landscape through a slightly different lens.

“Some bankers would say we’re overbanked; I would say we have choices,” he explained. “It forces you to be more competitive, and it gives people choices. It doesn’t hurt to have competition — otherwise, you get complacent.”

So perhaps all that competition should get some of the credit for what has been a consistent pattern of growth for the bank, especially since Tucker took the helm at GCB in 2003. Since then, the bank has seen assets rise from roughly $175 million to more than $630 million, its branch count soar from three to 10, and its commercial-lending portfolio take a quantum leap.

Overall, the bank’s strategy has been to gradually expand its footprint in Franklin and Hampshire counties, growing mostly via the organic route (although the merger with Northampton Coop certainly accelerated that process), and achieve more of the size that is needed to thrive in today’s banking landscape.

The plan also calls for seizing opportunities when and where they arise, which brings us to the institution’s latest expansion effort — a branch in South Hadley at the Woodlawn Shopping Plaza that will bear a Northampton Cooperative sign over the door and open next January.

Formerly a Bank of America branch — that institution has been closing a good number of facilities in recent years — the new location gives Greenfield Coop presence in another Hampshire County community, but one that enables it to serve residents of several nearby Hampden County cities, especially Chicopee and Holyoke.

The plan for the foreseeable future is summed up neatly in the bank’s annual report, issued just a few weeks ago.

“Our primary strategy remains to look for prudent and measured organic growth right here in Western Massachusetts,” Tucker wrote in the report, noting that many of those aforementioned competitors have ventured into Central Mass., Connecticut, or both. “We need to remain a lean organization, especially in light of the growth of mobile and electronic banking in today’s world. Our branch strategy recognizes the new world order with the continued growth of the internet.”

Michael Tucker says the GCB branch is just one of many banks located on Federal Street

Michael Tucker says the GCB branch is just one of many banks located on Federal Street, a proliferation that provides competition, which he believes makes his bank better.

For this issue and its focus on banking and financial services, BusinessWest asked Tucker to elaborate on all those points and essentially draft a quick blueprint of the bank’s plans for the future. In a nutshell, it simply calls for more of what of what the bank has been achieving under his leadership — smart growth.

Points of Interest

Tucker said he ventured into banking, if that’s the word for it, while he was in law school at Western New England University.

He took a teller’s job at the institution known then as Springfield Institution for Savings (SIS), while attending night classes, not knowing this would be his employer for some time to come.

He remembers his first boss, John Collins, telling him that his law degree could be put to good use in the banking industry.

“He said, ‘I have a lot MBAs who could use some help, because we have this new thing called compliance,’” he recalled, referring specifically to the Truth in Lending Simplification Act of 1981. “That was my first foray into banking law.”

He took the title ‘counsel and compliance officer,’ and later worked his way up to senior vice president and general counsel. When Peoples Heritage acquired SIS, Tucker, like many others, was soon out of work, but he eventually landed at what is now bankESB for several years before being recruited to lead GCB.

When he arrived in Greenfield, he took over one of the smallest banks in the region with a simple goal — “I told the board I was going to keep this place mutual and hopefully leave it a better bank than I found it” — and set about a course of steady if unspectacular growth, which was by design, as he explained with a little humor.

“Our growth is roughly 4% to 6% a year,” he noted. “If we were a stock bank, they would have thrown me out the door. Because we’re a mutual bank, we can take our time. Where I see banks get in trouble is when they try to grow too fast and lose sight of their basic principles.”

GCB hasn’t done that, and its strategic goal — and operating philosophy — are summed up by its web domain name, www.bestlocalbank.com, and a comment from the annual report. “As I’ve often said before, we’ll probably never be the biggest bank,” Tucker wrote. “But we always strive to be the best bank in Western Massachusetts.”

During Tucker’s tenure, the bank has, as noted, expanded to 10 branches. There are two in Amherst (although they will soon be consolidated; more on that later), one in Florence, another in Northampton, two in Greenfield, as well as a commercial and residential and loan-services facility, and single locations in Northfield, Shelburne Falls, Sunderland, and Turners Falls.

Meanwhile, it has also greatly expanded its commercial-lending team and its commercial portfolio, which, like that at many banks in the region, is dominated by commercial real-estate loans, but also reflects the diversity of the local economy, especially in the bank’s hometown.

Indeed, this is an intriguing time for Greenfield, said Tucker, noting that the community once dominated economically by manufacturing has varied its economy, making great strides in technology and hospitality.

“Our growth is roughly 4% to 6% a year. If we were a stock bank, they would have thrown me out the door. Because we’re a mutual bank, we can take our time. Where I see banks get in trouble is when they try to grow too fast and lose sight of their basic principles.”

“There is a lot of energy in the town,” he said. “We have the new courthouse and the new parking garage; they opened the Olver [Transit Center], and there have been many other new developments.”

Still, this region, and especially Franklin County, where many communities are struggling to maintain population and especially young people, would be considered a low- or no-growth area, he acknowledged, meaning growth is a challenge for any financial institution.

This is why many area banks, as he noted in his annual-report comments, have ventured into Connecticut, Central Mass., or both, and why others have grown through acquisition or merger.

GCB has done some of that with its merger with Northampton Coop, a move that Tucker described as “logical” for both institutions because of that overbanked nature of this sector, and the lack of population growth in Franklin County.

“That’s why we looked at Hampshire County and why I talked to Northampton [Coop],” he explained. “It would have been silly for us to build another branch down in Hampshire County and fight 10 other banks for the money when we can partner with another bank.

“That worked out well for everyone because we didn’t have to lay anyone off,” he went on, adding that he spends one day a week in Northampton at that division of the institution. “It was a smooth transition. We were both very small — and we’re still one of the smaller banks — but we now have more size, and that helps. It was a good merger.”

By All Accounts

As he talked about his bank’s branch strategy, Tucker reached for his cell phone and held it aloft.

“This is our fastest-growing branch,” he said, noting that internet banking is becoming an ever-stronger force in this sector.

But brick-and-mortar branches are obviously still needed, he went on, adding that they probably don’t need to be as large as they once were, and they are far less transaction-oriented than they once were.

But they serve an important purpose in that they give a bank a presence and enable it to better serve customers in a particular region or community.

Which brings us to the new South Hadley branch.

The most logical expansion point for the bank moving forward is probably Hampden County, said Tucker, adding that the South Hadley branch provides an opportunity to make some strides in that direction.

Tucker found the branch while on one of his many drives around the area looking for opportunities.

“We keep our eyes open, and I drive around the area a lot and take a look at the communities,” he explained. “South Hadley was a community that I thought had some upside, and I was surprised when I read that Bank of America was closing that branch because they had a fair amount of deposits in that office.

“With this branch, we can serve some customers that we have already in Springfield and Chicopee,” he went on. “But it also gets us to reach a base in South Hadley that BOA is telling, ‘if you want to bank with us, you have to drive over here.’”

BOA’s departure will ultimately lead to GCB’s arrival, specifically its Northampton Coop division, said Tucker, adding that, while moving into South Hadley, the bank will continue to look for other growth opportunities as well as ways to become the ‘leaner organization’ he mentioned in the annual report.

Toward that end, the bank will consolidate its two branches in Amherst into one, a nod to the fact that specific branches are simply handling fewer transactions these days.

“When I was a teller in Forest Park [for SIS], we had seven or eight tellers plus a manager and an assistant manager,” he noted, turning the clock back four decades or so. “People were lined up out the door — we didn’t have deposit — and everyone came in to cash their Social Security checks on the first of the month.”

Elaborating, he said the branches in Amherst that saw 10,000 transactions a month several years ago were down to 5,000 maybe five years ago, and are now seeing roughly 3,000 a month, thanks to ever-advancing technology.

This phenomenon will eventually lead to fewer branches, and, more immediately, smaller facilities.

“The industry is moving in that direction,” he said while again holding his phone aloft and explaining it is now a branch itself in most all respects. “But I don’t think branches will be obsolete; they will be smaller and leaner.”

As for future expansion geographically, Tucker said GCB will continue to look for potential landing spots. “We’ll continue to look south and possibly east to Worcester County,” he told BusinessWest. “A lot depends on what happens; with some of the branches we’ve opened, I didn’t anticipate doing it at that time, as in Turners Falls, but the opportunity arose.”

Bottom Line

In his annual-report statement, Tucker noted that, over the past 114 years, GCB has had three basic operating slogans.

It’s gone from ‘Traditional, Progressive, Locally Focused,’ to ‘In the Community, for the Community,’ to the current ‘Come on Over to the Coop.’

The words are different, but they say the same thing, essentially — that this isn’t the biggest bank on a block crowded with other banks, but it strives to be best, and it’s generally successful in that mission.

This is the strategy that has worked since Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House, and there isn’t any sentiment to change it, said Tucker, because it works, not only for the community, but for the institution as well.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]m

ValleyBike Sees Plenty of Growth Potential as It Gets Up to Speed

By
Catherine Ratté, principal planner and Land Use & Environment section manager at the PVPC
Cover Story

Pedal Power

 

Catherine Ratté, principal planner and Land Use & Environment section manager at the PVPC

Catherine Ratté, principal planner and Land Use & Environment section manager at the PVPC

ValleyBike had, by most accounts, an up-and-down first year, and we’re not talking about the hills its bikes make a little easier through electric pedal assist. But on the whole, 2018 was an encouraging success, with gradually increasing ridership across the network’s six municipalities, despite a slow and incomplete roll-out of the 50 stations and 500 bikes. With further expansion possible, hopes are high that more people will ditch their cars for a bike ride in 2019 — and then turn that ride into a habit.

A regional bike-share program may have seemed like a novel idea for many Pioneer Valley denizens last year, but for those who helped bring it about, it’s far from a new concept.

“We’ve been talking about it in the Pioneer Valley for 15 years,” said Catherine Ratté, principal planner and Land Use & Environment section manager at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. In fact, the PVPC produced a report in 2008 documenting previous bike-share programs around the world — including the Yellow Bike program that once existed at Hampshire College as well as the Bixi Bikeshare program in Montreal — and encouraging Pioneer Valley municipalities to look into establishing a regional program.

A lot has happened since then, but the main development was the emergence of electric pedal-assist bikes that help riders navigate hills and long distances they might not have wanted to attempt before. It was a game changer, Ratté said.

“Part of it was being a broad region — how can people get from Amherst to Northampton to Springfield? Then electric pedal assist came along, and we said, ‘oh, this could be a regional program,’” she told BusinessWest.

That program, known as ValleyBike, currently encompasses six communities — Northampton, Amherst, Springfield, Holyoke, South Hadley, and Easthampton — with others possibly on the horizon. A rider is free to pick up a bike at any of the 50 stations and drop it off at any other.

“The idea is to replace car trips with bike trips, and pedal assist makes it easier for all ages and abilities to use,” said Ratté. “It’s a big piece of acting on the climate crisis, but we also have a public-health crisis, and people don’t always have the opportunity to be physically active. ValleyBike makes it easier for people to bike to work. Maybe they aren’t physically fit enough to bike without pedal assist, and they don’t want to arrive at work sweaty — but they’re still exercising.”

A recent PVPC report detailed use of ValleyBike during 2018, its inaugural year. Even with limited availability and a slow ramp-up of stations (more on that later), the service logged 26,353 trips last year, an average of 170 per day, generating 83,735 miles — the equivalent of 3.3 times around the earth.

With the numbers expected to increase in 2019, that represents a significant front in the battle against traffic and air pollution, said Wayne Feiden, Northampton’s director of Planning & Sustainability.

“Our biggest commitment this year is to get more people to say, ‘yes, I really want to use this,’” said Feiden, who has long been one of the region’s strongest proponents of a bike-share network. “Nationwide, about a third of the people using bike shares are coming out of their car — making what would have been a car trip otherwise. If we can get you out of your car, that’s great from an environmental standpoint and a congestion standpoint. And that’s the part we need to grow most in the system.”

According to the year-end rider survey that helped the PVPC generate its report, the vast majority of users — 77.9% — rode ValleyBike less than five times per month, and 2.8% used it daily, with another 2.8% riding five or more times per week. These figures suggest that many users rode the bikes for leisure rather than to commute, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Feiden said.

Wayne Feiden says ValleyBike organizers have several goals

Wayne Feiden says ValleyBike organizers have several goals, from reducing traffic and air pollution to getting people more physically active.

“We have a lot of goals, and each one serves different purposes,” he noted. “One is just to get people to exercise more. So that’s been great, and it’s also been a diverse set of users.”

Indeed, 28.8% of survey respondents were between 18 and 30, 52.1% were between the ages of 30 and 60, and 6.9% were over 60 years old, while the gender split was close to even.

“People who use bikes tend to be younger, but these bikes are reaching a broader range of users, which is great,” he said. “Getting people healthier is wonderful, as is giving people transportation options, whether they can’t afford a car or don’t want to drive a car for environmental reasons.”

“The idea is to replace car trips with bike trips, and pedal assist makes it easier for all ages and abilities to use. It’s a big piece of acting on the climate crisis, but we also have a public-health crisis, and people don’t always have the opportunity to be physically active.”

One goal moving forward, he said, will be to increase usage of memberships. Annual passes ($80) accounted for just 13% of all rides in 2018, and monthly passes ($20) represented another 28%.

Those riders, Feiden said, are the ones more likely to use ValleyBike Share for commuting to work or other daily commitments, and to turn biking from a leisure activity into a habit and a lifestyle. “Once you sign up for a year, you tend to build your commitment.”

For this issue, BusinessWest looks at the ways ValleyBike is building on its own commitment — and its momentum, both electric-assisted and figuratively.

Winding Path

To its proponents at the PVPC, ValleyBike is a key component of the region’s path to a sustainable future by promoting healthy habits and reducing greenhouse gases emitted by vehicle trips. If managed effectively, the year-end report notes, the program could also reduce the need for road repairs and expansion, and has the potential to improve the effectiveness of the region’s transit system.

Following the 2008 report exploring the concept, UMass Amherst launched a free bike-sharing program in 2012 funded by student government fees. The same year, Northampton’s Planning and Sustainability Department began researching a program for that city.

Mayor David Narkewicz approved a single bike-share station downtown, but by early 2013, officials determined that a larger system, either city-wide or, better yet, region-wide, was preferable. At the same time, Amherst officials were meeting with representatives from Amherst College, Hampshire College, and UMass to explore a town-wide bike-sharing program.

Soon after, the PVPC secured a Massachusetts Clean Energy Center grant to work with several area communities to advance clean-energy strategies, selecting advancement of a regional bike-share initiative as a priority for funding.

The ValleyBike station at Court Square

The ValleyBike station at Court Square, one of 11 in Springfield, saw the sixth-most ride starts across the entire network in 2018.

Between 2014 and 2016, the PVPC worked with a group of member municipalities — Amherst, Holyoke, Northampton, and Springfield — to research and advance regional bike-sharing. In 2016, Northampton, with PVPC and regional support, applied for and obtained federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds for a regional bike-share network for four communities, later adding South Hadley as a fifth member.

A year later, Northampton, with PVPC and regional support, released a bike-share RFP and awarded a contract to Bewegen Technology for a 500-bike, 50-station system in the five communities. Toward the end of 2018, Easthampton obtained a Massachusetts Housing Choice grant for ValleyBike and joined the regional consortium, growing it to six municipalities.

The year-end report notes that ValleyBike had a rocky start due to issues with station installation, bike availability, and kiosk usability. Only 26 stations were open when the system went online on June 28, and another 17 were added in July and August. The remaining seven opened at the start of the 2019 season, bringing the total to 50.

After a slow start, the popularity of ValleyBike saw large increases in the first few weeks of August, reaching its peak ridership between Aug. 21 and Sept. 3, dipping slightly as temperatures dropped and students went back to school in early September.

“This is the first regional, multi-community, all-electric-pedal-assist bike-share program in the world. It was a really ambitious idea,” Ratté told BusinessWest. “It could have been smoother, but we had fantastic numbers of riders from all communities. And we definitely are eager to expand the coalition.”

She noted that possible expansion communities include Hadley, Chicopee, and West Springfield, should the PVPC secure the necessary additional funding. “We hope to keep it growing and expanding as well as adding some stations in the existing communities.”

“Nationwide, about a third of the people using bike shares are coming out of their car — making what would have been a car trip otherwise.”

With a longer season this year and more bikes — the network typically had about 167 available last year, but will offer 500 at the 50 stations in 2019 — she expects an uptick in ridership and increasing interest from the communities not yet on board.

“Hadley and Chicopee are the two holes in the system we’re trying to fill. We’re also trying to expand to West Springfield, but that’s more expanding out rather than filling in holes,” Feiden added. “Obviously we have to get more funding for new stations; there are many more locations that would make sense than we have money for.”

He added that more corporate sponsors are needed to make the system more sustainable. “But businesses are seeing the value for it — a third of the stations in Northampton are on private property. People gave us easements or licenses, whatever they needed to do, because they saw the value. One is at Cooper’s Corner in Florence, a small grocery store, and I hope people shop there because they gave us some really valuable real estate.”

Sustainable Future

Between climate concerns, public-health awareness, and simply enjoying the outdoors, bicycling — especially when pedal-assisted on those tricky hills — holds appeal to many demographic groups, Ratté said.

“If you ask people what they want in their region, a bike share is a popular thing. People expect their cities to fund options for getting around. And the cool thing is, you don’t have to stay inside your municipality; the same bike can go from place to place. It’s very convenient.”

That said, the program would benefit by coordinating more closely with public transit systems, she noted. According to the year-end survey, 27.5% of riders used ValleyBike in conjunction with other types of public transportation (such as rail or bus services). Organizers had hoped that bike stations could be located close to public transportation so public-transit riders could utilize the bikes to reach their final destinations. However, due to complications regarding the need for electrical outlets in close proximity to stations, this goal was not always met. That’s something planners are looking to remedy with future bike-station placements.

“People rely on the bus,” she said, “and to be able to use ValleyBike to get to and from the bus stop would be great.”

On a related note, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts worked with the Pioneer Valley Regional Ventures Center, the not-for-profit arm of the PVPC, to allocate $12,000 per year over three years to provide subsidized memberships for economically disadvantaged residents of the region, particularly those who live in transit-rich urban cores. Bewegen was not able to launch this aspect of the ValleyBike initiative in 2018, and more people are expected to use ValleyBike when the access passes become available this year.

So far, however, people seem to be using the bikes mostly for enjoyment. Of the year-end survey respondents, 52% said they used ValleyBike mostly for leisure, while 21.2% used them to commute, 5.5% wanted to reduce pollution and traffic congestion, and 5.2% were focused on the health benefits. Notably, 36% reported an increase in riding bikes of all kinds since using the system.

“In some ways, the biggest criticism is people asking, ‘why didn’t you come to my neighborhood?’” Feiden said, noting that Northampton added one stop this year and has applied for a grant to establish four more. “And that’s great. It’s nice to get beat up for not doing it.”

The hope is that the coming years will see fewer of those complaints as ValleyBike continues to expand, giving more people an excuse to leave their cars behind, get their legs moving, and maybe leave the air a little cleaner.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Machine Metrics Continues Torrid Pace of Growth

By
CEO Bill Bither
Manufacturing

Scaling Up

CEO Bill Bither

CEO Bill Bither

Over the past five years, Machine Metrics, a company that specializes in predictive analytics for manufacturers, has been scaling up its operation. But with an infusion of $11.3 million in venture capital last fall, this process enters a new and dynamic phase. The company has nearly doubled its workforce, expanded with a new office in Boston, and become much more aggressive in efforts to educate potential clients about its game-changing software.

Bill Bither was asked where he wanted to take Machine Metrics, the five-year-old startup he co-founded that specializes in predictive analytics for manufacturers.

He paused for a second or two, and then, in a voice that brimmed with confidence and conveyed the sentiment that he’d been asked this question — and given this answer — before, said simply and almost matter-of-factly, “we’re really looking to build a billion-dollar company.”

That’s not a phrase you hear often from entrepreneurs based in the 413, but Bither, who launched this venture with Eric Fogg and Jacob Lazier and serves as its CEO, believes that stated goal is certainly attainable. And those who have watched this company grow quickly and profoundly since it first gained attention as a member of one of Valley Venture Mentors’ first accelerator classes would certainly agree.

The company develops software systems that measure manufacturing productivity. To be more specific, these systems analyze performance in real time and send out alerts to clients when production falls behind.

Clients generally see a 20% improvement in efficiency, and the phrase most often used in relation to the software and its overall impact within a given shop is ‘game changer.’

There are now more than 100 manufacturers around the world using the company’s products, and Bither expects that number to climb steadily as awareness of the software, its capabilities, and the results it has generated for customers grows.

Bill Bither, left, seen here with co-founder and CTO Jacob Lazier

Bill Bither, left, seen here with co-founder and CTO Jacob Lazier, says Machine Metrics is adding clients across the country and overseas.

“What we’ve discovered since 2015 is that the market that we’re in is really large, and that industrial technologies are moving very quickly,” he told BusinessWest. “There’s a really high demand for companies to digitize their factories, and the key missing component to doing that is getting data from the factory floor; that’s the first step in digitizing a factory, and that’s what we do very well.”

To continue to do this well on a much larger scale, the company needed to move quickly on a number of fronts — from expanding its customer base beyond this region and this country to greatly expanding its team of engineers, salespeople, and marketers, to being far more aggressive when it comes to getting the word out.

And it has moved forward on all those fronts thanks in large part to an an infusion of $11.3 million in capital late last year.

The company has put that money to work to expand its data-science and product-development teams while accelerating global sales, said Bither, adding that, while the company has been scaling up on an ongoing basis over the past five years, that process has essentially entered a new, more dynamic phase.

“Last year, we grew about 200%, and this year we’ll probably be around that same number,” he explained, adding that this is now a truly global company that continues to expand geographically and in all other ways.

Now headquartered on Pleasant Street in Northampton — a move necessitated by the growth of its workforce — Machine Metrics has also opened an office in Cambridge, and now employs roughly 50 people, a number that has almost doubled since the company announced that infusion of capital.

“What we’re doing now is going even faster, looking at international expansion; having more engineers on the team helps us fulfill our vision quicker. We’ve shown that we’re leading the space that we’re in, and we need to keep leading the industry toward digitizing their factories.”

“We’ve doubled the size of our executive team, we’ve almost doubled the size of the workforce, and our customer count is now over 100,” said Bither. “What we’re doing now is going even faster, looking at international expansion; having more engineers on the team helps us fulfill our vision quicker. We’ve shown that we’re leading the space that we’re in, and we need to keep leading the industry toward digitizing their factories.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Bither about the process of scaling up one of the most-watched startups in this region — and about the roadmap to becoming a billion-dollar company.

The Light Is Green

When he talked with BusinessWest earlier this month, Bither was in Toronto on vacation visiting family. Well, sort of.

“I have back-to-back meetings with clients today, which is what usually happens,” he explained. “A vacation trip turns into a work trip.”

There have been a number of work trips and vacations doubling as work trips for Bither and his partners over the past years, as they continue to bring awareness to a product that represents pioneering on a number of levels.

Indeed, while there have been production-monitoring software products on the market for some time, the software systems the company is now offering represent a huge step forward in what’s known as industrial IoT (Internet of Things) technology.

For clients, it has meant adding the phrase ‘being in the green’ to their lexicon. That’s the color that shows up on the dashboards, or large display boards, when machines are operating at or above the desired performance levels. An orange color means they are operating slightly below that level, and red means there’s trouble.

But beyond letting companies know how machines — or shifts of employees — are performing, the software can also predict when errors will occur and machines will fail, thus enabling manufacturers to avoid costly breakdowns that greatly impact overall productivity.

And as productivity improves, companies are better able to navigate what has long been the manufacturing sector’s most pressing — and perplexing — problem: a deep talent shortage that shows no signs of letting up any time soon.

All this explains why that phrase ‘game changer’ is being used so often by those who now have these systems operating in their plants. And it’s being heard both in this region — VSS CNC Inc. in Greenfield, Marox Corp. in Holyoke, and others are on the client list — and well outside it.

“We’re spread out across North America — I think we’re in roughly 40 states now,” he said. “And we’re starting to see some growth in Europe and South America. There’s still so much opportunity in this country, though, and that’s where we’re focusing most of our efforts.”

Bither, when pushed to guesstimate just how big the market is for industrial IoT technology, put the number at $85 billion, and said the mission moving forward, obviously, is to garner as large a share of that market as possible.

To do that, the company knew it had to expand its workforce, adding people in a number in a number of areas, but especially engineers in the field working with customers to digitize their factory floors.

As he talked with BusinessWest, Bither admitted he’d actually lost track of just how big the workforce was at that moment, a clear indication of how fast things are changing and how many people have joined the team.

“We’ve hired software developers, and we’ve added to our marketing team, our sales team, and our customer-success team,” he said, adding that the company has also brought on a chief financial officer, a vice president of Product, a vice president of Business Development, and a vice president of Sales, taking Machine Metrics and its leadership team to a much higher plane.

Meanwhile, the company has also opened an office in Boston, a step taken to not only better serve customers in that area, but also take advantage of the extremely deep pool of IT talent inside the 128 corridor.

“At the rate that we’re growing, it’s difficult to hire enough really skilled people in Western Mass. quickly enough,” he explained. “We’re combining the best manufacturing talent with the best software talent, and Boston really has a heavy concentration of software executives.”

Bither, who has been through the scaling-up process before — he grew the software company Atalasoft to 25 people before he sold it — said this experience at Machine Metrics is different in many ways, primarily because the company is a venture capital (VC)-backed enterprise.

“Therefore, the focus is on growing fast, not about being profitable — that’s the life of a VC-backed technology company,” he explained. “You’re really measured in growth and cash, more so than profits, and that’s different from what I’m used to.”

Moving forward, he said one key to continued growth and effective scaling of this venture is effective website content marketing, an approach designed to help educate and hopefully inspire movement within a sector, manufacturing, that has traditionally been slow to embrace new technologies and different ways of doing things.

Profound growth of its workforce forced Machine Metrics to seek larger quarters

Profound growth of its workforce forced Machine Metrics to seek larger quarters, and it found them in the old Post Office building on Pleasant Street in Northampton.

“We’ve been able to build quite a presence in this space without spending too much money because we’ve been able to build out content on our website and write a number of articles and blogs,” he explained. “And because of that, we’ve been able to bring in a lot of interested buyers that come through our website; our sales team will then talk to them, and a certain percentage of them will actually close.”

Another important marketing vehicle has been industry trade shows, such as the EASTEC show slated for next month at the Big E, but also the recent event in Hanover, Germany (the company’s first international show), where Machine Metrics had a large presence and was able to introduce itself and its software to new audiences.

“It was interesting because we were able to see what the landscape looks like in Europe,” he explained, adding that the company partnered with Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud-computing platforms to individuals, companies, and governments, and thus gained considerable attention at the show.

The company also takes part in the International Manufacturing Technology Show, staged every other year in Chicago, and will be in Las Vegas in a few weeks for another large industry event, said Bither, adding that this exposure is critical to those scaling-up efforts.

Getting Things in Gear

Bither did not want to disclose current revenue figures for Machine Metrics, but he hinted strongly, not that he had to, that this venture is a long way from being a billion-dollar company.

But it seems to be on a path that would make that number more than a fantasy or pipe dream. This is a fast track greased by obvious need among manufacturers large and small to be able to track their performance in real-time analytics, and not rely on guesswork.

Whether the company can get to that magical milestone — or when, obviously — remains to be seen, but the scaling-up process continues, and like those clients it serves, this intriguing startup is certainly operating in the green — figuratively, if not literally.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

At bankESB, Growth Continues on a Number of Fronts

By
The new Holyoke branch
Banking and Financial Services

Taking Account

Matt Sosik says branches serve a different role than they used to

Matt Sosik says branches serve a different role than they used to, providing more value but less volume in the age of online and mobile banking.

In this era of rampant mobile banking, opening a physical branch is a different proposition than it used to be, Matt Sosik said. But it’s still an important one.

“At this point in the cycle of our industry, branching has fallen by the wayside a little bit,” said Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB, which recently opened its 11th branch on Sargeant Street in Holyoke — a move that, despite the declining emphasis on bricks and mortar, made a lot of sense.

“We feel we’ve been banking with the people of Holyoke for years and years, so Holyoke is a natural extension of our footprint,” he said, noting that today’s branches are smaller and more efficient than those built in the past, but still must emphasize customer service — something that Tiffany Raines, Holyoke’s branch manager, has said she will emphasize there.

Indeed, online channels do change the dynamics of a branch as a delivery channel, Sosik told BusinessWest, if only because branches simply serve fewer people in person than they used to.

“Customers, as they should, love that technology can improve their banking experience, and we really encourage our customers to use those online and mobile banking products; they’re so robust and provide so much to customers,” he noted. “That said, we’ll never lose our ability to interact with them face to face. We covet that, and when we get our customers in front of us, we certainly take advantage of that and provide guidance to them.”

“Actual in-person branch transaction volume is well off over the past 20 years, so it’s really about building the initial relationships with the customer; that’s what a branch does best in 2019.”

With that in mind, he said, the new Holyoke branch, like any new branch at most banks, is designed to provide value, not volume — a more personalized experience, in other words, for fewer customers each day.

“Actual in-person branch transaction volume is well off over the past 20 years, so it’s really about building the initial relationships with the customer; that’s what a branch does best in 2019,” he went on. “It’s more a source for originating the customer relationship than it is a delivery channel — more for acute problem resolution and consultative conversations.”

Yet, new branches also reflect growth, and bankESB is certainly growing, with $1.3 billion in assets across its 11-branch network in Hampden and Hampshire counties. Meanwhile, its holding company, Hometown Financial Group, also based in Easthampton, boasts $2.1 billion in assets and 24 branches across Western and Central Mass. and Connecticut, with further expansion to come (more on that later).

Banking today, Sosik said, is less about products and “more about how we deliver those products we’ve all become very familiar with.”

Take residential lending, for example. “The mortgage world has lent itself well to the online world, where we can efficiently process a transaction for somebody to buy what is arguably the biggest asset of their life, and we can do that almost entirely online for them — and very efficiently. That’s what technology has done — improved on products we’ve all come to know and love. That’s the difference between 2019 and, say, the 1990s.”

Dena Hall, the bank’s executive vice president and chief Marketing officer, noted that bankESB has the second-highest market share in Hampshire County at almost 22%, and the expansion into Holyoke follows growing name recognition in Hampden County, where it also maintains branches in Agawam and Westfield.

“We’ve seen an increasing level of awareness across the Pioneer Valley, up and down the 91 corridor, which is important to serve customer needs in this region,” she added. “Really, we’re all about meeting customers where they want to meet us. We want them to know we’re a viable option for them.”

Lending Thoughts

To understand the importance of face-to-face relationships in banking, Hall said, look no further than commercial lending, an increasingly important part of bankESB’s business and strategic direction. The institution added three new lenders to its commercial team in 2018, all from larger local banks, in an effort to add more resources to the division and demonstrate the capability to meet the commercial financing needs of businesses in the region. The team now has seven lenders under the direction of Executive Vice President Ryan Leap.

“When you think about how the customer has gotten physically away from us, that’s less so with the commercial business,” Sosik said. “Commercial lending has a lot to do with what we do best — customer service, face-to-face interactions, and building long-term, value-added relationships. For us, it’s a very natural customer-service direction in which to grow.”

The new Holyoke branch

The new Holyoke branch is a physical extension of business that bankESB had been doing in that city for many years.

That growth comes at a time when businesses continue to invest in capital projects, he added.

“We see a lot of things going on in the economy. The economy has such a long and slow build that it’s hard to see it in motion, but take a look back at the past year and years prior, and we’ve definitely seen continuous, slow, steady growth. Thankfully for Western and Central Massachusetts, we see that growth in small and medium-sized businesses coming in and taking advantage of the economy and improvements in commercial real estate.”

At the same time, Hall said, bankESB is building its consumer divisions. “Last year, we hired a new leader for the residential mortgage and consumer loan division with several years of experience in mortgage operations and origination, most recently with Peoples United Bank,” she noted.

In addition, after a year of developing its back-office processing and underwriting area, the bank recently added two new mortgage loan originators and upgraded its online mortgage application so that customers can apply how and when they want, either in person with a loan originator or online.

“With some banks in our market pulling back on their mortgage efforts, we’re excited to make more products and sales people available to the region,” she said.

Sosik agreed. “We continue to build the depth and breadth of the team to handle our growth. That’s generally been our strategic direction when it comes to community lending.”

That’s why developing both sides of the customer-service equation — a more robust online presence and also branches focused on customer service — are equally important, Hall said.

“A lot of customers are doing research online but close the deal in the branch, and we have people ready to serve them,” she told BusinessWest. “Clients want that face-to-face interaction, and we’ve hit a nice balance of being technologically savvy with mobile offerings and very customer-service-oriented, very customer-facing. That’s a perfect fit in this market.”

Mutual Successes

Hall noted that bankESB has received some key accolades of late. In June, it was named one of America’s best-in-state banks by Forbes in a nationwide survey; of the five banks selected in Massachusetts, bankESB ranked second, and was the only bank on that list headquartered in Western Mass.

Understanding the importance of building a bank’s name, its holding company, Hometown Financial Group, continues to grow its franchise and build a separate brand presence in each region. That means three separate banks will operate under the holding-company profile: bankESB, bankHometown, and Pilgrim Bank. The latter acquisition, based in Cohasset, closes this month and adds three branches and $263 million in assets to the Hometown family.

“We have a commitment to mutuality and building those local brands, building market share in each region, then we consolidate and make efficient the back-office and operation side. We think that’s a compelling business structure going forward,” Sosik said.

“Commercial lending has a lot to do with what we do best — customer service, face-to-face interactions, and building long-term, value-added relationships.”

“We’re big believers in our mutual structure,” he continued. “First and foremost, as a mutual company, we’re not owned by stockholders. We choose to be very entrepreneurial, and we run very much like a stock company would from the business side of it. But that mutuality gives us the ability to service customers and the community in ways that stock banks cannot.”

With so many community banks operating in Western Mass., he explained, that mutual structure helps set bankESB apart. “I think that’s a real difference maker for us, showing how much we are committed to mutuality and community banking.”

At the same time, Hall said, the company’s commitment to mutuality and its holding-company structure makes it an attractive partner for other like-minded mutual banks in its current market and beyond.

“We have some exciting transactions in the works, and we hope to be able to announce those transactions within the next 30 to 45 days,” Sosik added. “I think they’re compelling; there will be market interest there. We’re really moving our company forward in a number of ways. We’re excited about that. There’s a lot going on.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]