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HVAC Contractors Find Plenty of Opportunity

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Scott Cernak says customers have long valued air quality, but the pandemic escalated that interest.
Home Improvement

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Scott Cernak says customers have long valued air quality, but the pandemic escalated that interest.

Scott Cernak says customers have long valued air quality, but the pandemic escalated that interest.

Scott Cernak recalls that, during the pandemic, the HVAC company he had just started was doing a lot of work with indoor air quality.

“But it certainly wasn’t a phase,” he said. “I’d say the pandemic probably escalated it a lot faster than it would naturally have. But people valued indoor air quality even before the pandemic — I just think we were paying more attention to it during the pandemic.”

It’s just one way the HVAC field continually morphs — for example, a recent shift toward heat pumps for people who value renewable energy — but essentially has always come down to keeping people as warm or cool as they’d like, and breathing easier, in more than one sense.

Cernak’s first interest in vocational school was plumbing, and he eventually got into HVAC as well. He started working for M.J. Moran Inc. as an intern at age 16 and turned his stay there into a career; he later spun his own company off that firm, opening Western Mass Heating, Cooling & Plumbing in 2020.

“The business has grown a lot — we were 24, 25 employees, and we’re up to 55 now,” he said. “And the revenue has more than tripled since the first year.”

He started the business in Haydenville but grew out of that location and opened a new building in Deerfield. “I always knew I wanted to grow the business. Maybe it was a little faster than expected because demand is high,” Cernak explained, noting that he’s made investments not only in new technology, but in training people who share his growth mindset in a field where there’s plenty of opportunity.

“The business has grown a lot — we were 24, 25 employees, and we’re up to 55 now. And the revenue has more than tripled since the first year.”

Sam Pomeroy, president of Climates by Pomeroy, with locations in Colrain and Deerfield, was also introduced to the HVAC industry in a vocational school setting.

“I was the youngest in a big family, and my brothers and sisters had gone to trade school also, and they were doing pretty well in life. At school, they send you through all the different disciplines, and HVAC was really interesting. Thirty-nine years later, it continues to be interesting.”

Pomeroy worked for a series of other companies before setting out on his own 12 years ago with a venture called Cornerstone Mechanical. He soon changed it to Climates by Pomeroy as a way to honor his father’s name, and said he takes pride in finding low-emission, high-efficiency solutions to customers’ comfort needs — and in sharing his passion for this work with others.

“The trade needs workers, and there are good jobs,” he said. “ Everyone that works here has got a good job, and they’re getting paid good money. And it’s a very specific job — robots won’t be doing our job anytime soon.”

As for still being enthusiastic about the work four decades in, “I guess I’m just wired that way, and I think a lot of us are wired this way,” he told BusinessWest. “And part of what keeps it so interesting is that it’s new all the time. It’s definitely not boring. I’ll work on a farm, on some refrigeration equipment for potatoes, and then go work at a bicycle shop; you see behind the scenes of lots of different businesses, so it’s forever fascinating.”

 

Heating Up

Pomeroy said his company’s work is typically split 60-40 between commercial and residential, though which comprises 60% can go back and forth. And he’s seen plenty of changes on the residential side, from the rise of mini-splits to much more efficient heating systems.

“When I was a kid, every house was a cookie-cutter, 100,000 BTUs. Now, the construction is so tight, we’re putting 25,000 BTUs in a house to heat it. It’s amazing to me,” he said. “When you change out a furnace in your house, it’s probably going to be smaller because, at some point, you’ve updated the windows, you’ve put a new roof on with another layer of insulation, and now you really have to think about what you’re doing. You can’t just compare apples to apples. If you are, you’re probably making a mistake.”

Sam Pomeroy

Sam Pomeroy says he enjoys fixing things for customers, and it feels good to be a “hero” in their time of need.

While the volume of work leans slightly to the commercial side these days, Pomeroy isn’t taking new residential customers right now because he wants to keep service response times quick. “There’s only a certain amount of us, and if I can’t get to your house tonight, that’s not so good for my business brand.”

Cernak’s business at Western Mass Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is currently about half direct-to-consumer residential service repairs, installations, and replacing existing heating, cooling, and plumbing systems; then about 30% residential new construction and renovations, and 20% small commercial customers.

He attributes his company’s growth and talent retention with finding the right people with a growth mindset, noting that skills can be trained, but the right mindset — one that buys in to the company’s ideals, learns from mistakes, and is hungry to grow — is particularly valuable.

“I also surround myself with a lot of the right people — not only employees, but also colleagues and peers throughout the construction and service industries, as well as the right partners: our bank, insurance company, accounting firm, financial advisor. When you surround yourself with enough of the right people, I think it becomes contagious.”

Tim Drost, CEO of Window World of Western Massachusetts (see story on page 23), is looking to add an HVAC service to his small group of ancillary companies, recognizing its importance as part of home design today, whether building or renovating.

“Ultimately they all go together” he said. “If you have a heating and cooling guy having one conversation, and the window and siding guy having a different conversation, and the framer having a different conversation, the customer might get good information, but if we’re all at the table in the morning, we can collaborate together.”

 

Cool Career

Cernak called recruiting and retention a challenge, but also an opportunity to grow the field.

“It’s not an unlimited pool to pull from, that’s for sure. But we’ve had success doing training programs. We’ve made a good investment in virtual learning and vendor training and then our own in-house trainings. I built a classroom in this new building, where we can do a lot of in-house training.

“It’s an investment we made three to four years ago in younger, talented apprentices,” he added. “They have now become leads, and we’re now hiring more apprentices and helpers, and we hope that they’ll eventually become leads as well. It’s really starting to pay off.”

That said, “anyone who’s patient will be successful in finding good people to work. You’ve got to pay well and provide good benefits, but it’s also about training and making people feel part of something bigger.”

“When somebody calls, they’re without heat, they’re desperate, and they’re grateful. When we go there and fix their heating system when it’s zero degrees, or they have no hot water and you replace the water heater — that’s very satisfying.”

But there’s another aspect of this career he feels is attractive to people who work in it.

“When somebody calls, they’re without heat, they’re desperate, and they’re grateful. When we go there and fix their heating system when it’s zero degrees, or they have no hot water and you replace the water heater — that’s very satisfying.

Pomeroy agreed. “I joke all the time that a lot of the people that are in this industry have hero syndrome. It feels so good to be like, ‘I fixed that,’ and the people are like, ‘yay!’

“I’ve left houses where it was five below zero, and I got the heat going. I was off this past weekend, and a little place I take care of, their walk-in freezer died, and I went down there and fixed it on my day off, and they were super psyched because everything important is in the walk-in freezer at the little store.

“So those kind of things really nourish me. You feel like you’re a hero, and it feels good,” he went on. “That’s one of the gifts of the job — a pat on the back for a job well done. So many jobs don’t have that; it’s just on to the next pile of papers. So it’s a rewarding career.”

New construction projects have their own type of gratification, Cernak said.

“It’s neat going into a new building, seeing it from the ground up, and you put the plumbing and the HVAC underground, and a few months later, when all the finishes are in, you know you put everything in the walls to make that house work and make the occupants comfortable and able to enjoy the modern amenities we have here in America. That’s pretty satisfying for people.”

And then there’s the bottom line view, which is another plus, Cernak added. “It’s actually a pretty high-paying industry with high demand and almost nobody with student debt because we pay for training, and so do many many companies in our industry. So you can make six figures and have no student debt.”

All that and being a hero too? For many HVAC technicians, that’s truly a breath of fresh air.

Area Contractors Report Steady Pipeline of Projects

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A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.
Construction Special Coverage

Looking Up

A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.

A finished project from Sexton Roofing & Siding.

 

The construction industry remains one marked by both challenge and opportunity — and that goes for businesses that have been around for just a few years, or many decades.

In the former group is Sasha Wilde, who bought Sexton Roofing & Siding two years ago and has continued to grow the Hatfield-based business with a mix of residential roofing projects — the company’s bread and butter — and other services, including siding, windows, and exterior doors.

“We’re still doing all of that, making sure we can provide clients with a seamless experience. There’s a huge amount of opportunity,” she told BusinessWest.

“Last year was pretty down across the industry,” Wilde noted. “There was a hangover from COVID. So many people had accelerated home improvement projects during COVID, and last year, it seemed like everyone took a breath. And with the political climate uncertain, they didn’t want to spend as much money. This year, we’ve definitely seen people’s willingness to pull the trigger on projects. That’s been really helpful for us.”

“So many people had accelerated home improvement projects during COVID, and last year, it seemed like everyone took a breath. And with the political climate uncertain, they didn’t want to spend as much money. This year, we’ve definitely seen people’s willingness to pull the trigger on projects.”

In the more venerable category is Mowry & Schmidt in Greenfield, which has been in business for the past 78 years and is also extremely busy.

“I don’t see anything slowing down in the near future, which is a good thing,” co-owner Bob Provost said. “We’re usually trying to finish up some of the big spring, summer, and fall projects before the winter, but we’re just rolling right through. I don’t see a slowdown.”

The firm takes on a robust mix of new construction and renovation work, typically about 60% to 70% on the commercial side, with the rest residential, he explained, a diversity that buffers the company against industry trends.

Mowry & Schmidt is building a new ice hockey arena at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

“The last couple years, we’ve seen a steady flow of new home construction and higher-end kitchens and bath renovations, but the commercial volume is still a little higher. If the economy seems to affect one type of building and not the other, we’ve been able to adapt and make that transformation back and forth. It’s definitely key to staying busy, no doubt.”

Two of Mowry & Schmidt’s more interesting current projects are the construction of an ice hockey arena at Northfield Mount Hermon School and the renovation of the historic Leavitt-Hovey House — the former home of Greenfield Public Library — into a location for Greenfield Savings Bank.

“That’s a historical building, so there are a lot of facets there,” Provost said. “You get ready to go in a direction, then hold up, wait a little bit to get clarifications from the historical society, wait for approval, continue on. But it’s going well. It’s a nice property to work on.”

Clearly, despite challenges ranging from supply costs to workforce needs, contractors in Western Mass. are finding plenty of opportunities to grow their business.

 

Growth Opportunities

One of those is Keiter, a 17-year-old firm based in West Springfield that recently announced it is expanding into Berkshire County with a physical presence in that region, specifically the Clock Tower Business Center at 75 Church St. in Pittsfield. This marks the company’s second expansion in two years.

The move made sense, CEO Scott Keiter said, with past clients in the Berkshires including Mass Audubon Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Bousquet Sport, Premium Waters, Berkshire Medical Center, the town of Lenox, Saint Patrick and Raphael Church, as well as several residential clients. 

“Since we started doing a more regimented and strategic interview process, we’ve been able to find better people. We’ve weeded out the folks that look good on paper but are maybe not so aligned with the way we think.”

“For several years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with incredible clients and professionals throughout the Berkshires, and it felt like the right time to officially set roots,” he noted. “We’re proud to continue to grow in a region where we’ve already begun to build strong partnerships.”

Wilde said trying to grow her company is complicated by a tight potential worker pool, a persistent problem across the construction field.

“The home improvement business has been great, but not without its challenges, since we are trying to grow and scale this business. Scaling sometimes comes with its own set of challenges, one of them being just finding great people to add to the team,” she said, adding that she’s dealt with some “hiccups” in that area, but still saw her staff expand to nine this year, in addition to the subcontracting teams.

“I tried hard to get referrals from people we know, and we listed on the major sites like ZipRecruiter and Indeed. But it really comes down to the interview process,” Wilde told BusinessWest, adding that the way she handles that process has changed in positive ways.

Sasha Wilde (right) has grown her team to nine at Sexton Roofing & Siding — and wants to grow it further.

“The first interview anyone does with the team, I wind up talking about our company’s mission and core values, and whether they’re a cultural fit with us,” she explained. “Since we started doing a more regimented and strategic interview process, we’ve been able to find better people. We’ve weeded out the folks that look good on paper but are maybe not so aligned with the way we think.”

And finding talent that will stick is important in an industry where retirements continue to outpace young, incoming talent, she noted. “When I think about fellow business owners in construction, their people are approaching retirement age, and from what I can tell, there’s a shortage of actual people to do the work.”

Provost said Mowry & Schmidt typically employs between 13 and 15 people in the field and three or four more in the office.

“We’re pretty fortunate. We’ve got our employees that have been with us for quite some time. But it does create some challenges looking down the road. When we have to bring in new people, the new hires just aren’t there. I still have to rely on subcontractors, and you want them to be a good extension of what you’re offering in-house; you want to make sure that the subcontractors you bring in are equally good as our employees. There’s a definite shortage of construction trade workers out there.”

To that end, Provost has been involved with Franklin County Technical School to cultivate young talent and interest them in construction careers.

“We’ve brought in some work co-op kids. It’s a way to start them at a young age and keep them going. But it’s rough. Kids come out of school, and they’re not sure what they want to do.”

The other major challenges of the past few years, supply costs and availability, have settled down to an extent, Provost added, although tariffs have thrown in a new wrinkle.

“Supply of materials has gotten better,” he said. “Windows and doors and cabinets have caught up, but it can be challenging depending on certain materials.”

One new challenge is private equity firms moving into roofing, Wilde said.

“In prior years, they were focused on other trades, but they are now honing on roofing. We’ve had a couple of new competitors this year backed by private equity, and we’re trying to stay relevant and outmaneuver them in this market. But they have an unlimited marketing spend — I can’t spend that kind of money.”

One key is focusing on the local angle — not just being based in Western Mass. and doing projects here, but being involved in the community, she said.

“That’s how I think we’ll maintain our competitive edge over those companies. Western Mass. wants to take care of Western Mass. and support people who are here. We are your neighbors.”

 

Spreading the Word

Another key to growth is improving internal processes and communication with clients, so everything turns out the way the client expects with no surprises, Wilde noted.

“We’ve had a lot of learning around what documents to create to make sure that the jobs are communicated very clearly, to translate what’s in the homeowner’s head to what they’re building, and making sure that happens. We’ve done a lot of improving in this area.”

The team also tries to communicate with customers’ neighbors about work on their street, which is another chance to make connections; meanwhile, Sexton gives a discount on projects when the client keeps its yard sign up for four months — another way to raise the company’s visibility in an increasingly competitive market.

Provost said he takes pride in having a good base of repeat customers, which is essential to landing opportunities and responding to demand.

“We’re fortunate to be going strong here. We’re facing some uncertainties, but there’s a lot of work out there,” he said. “People are being more selective in the process of who’s going to do the work for them. Customers are more savvy these days, and they’re looking to make sure that the people that are working for them are qualified.”

Firms Say New Talent Drawn by Mission, Culture, Opportunity

By
Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun.
Environment and Engineering Special Coverage

Engineering a Youth Movement

Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun.

Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun.

 

Ashley Sullivan can think of plenty of reasons why someone might want to go into engineering.

“It is a very rewarding field where you get to see your work benefit your family and your community,” the president and CEO of Springfield-based O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun said. “And you’re always going to need civil engineers, so there’s job protection there. There’s so much opportunity in the field, whether you want to go into construction or consulting or the regulatory side. There’s a lot of different options, and each individual can find what’s right for them.”

That said, the industry is facing the same headwinds seen in other fields these days, ranging from construction to manufacturing to insurance: retirements outpacing the number of young people coming on board.

“We’ve had a lot of retirements; as quick as I hire, we have people retire or leave the industry,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to grow, we’re trying to hire, and we make progress one year, and then a few months later, we might fall back. We’re trying to hire about five more by the end of the year, but, just like with everybody else, it’s been very challenging.

“Previously, being a smaller, local firm, we didn’t necessarily compete with the larger firms or state agencies because if somebody liked a small firm, they liked a small firm, versus a larger firm. Now we’re finding we’re going up against those agencies and larger firms,” she went on. “I’m not sure if that’s because of the hybrid or remote potential. We’ve really focused on the ones that want to work near where they live, but now it’s getting hard to do that. There are also a lot of competitive salaries out there, so we’ve had to adjust to that. It’s definitely a challenge.”

Westfield-based Tighe & Bond is at the other end of the hiring spectrum, boasting about 600 employees at 17 locations across the Northeast. The firm is growing significantly at a time when a surge of federal funding — from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 to the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act of 2022 — is creating plenty of opportunity for civil-engineering firms.

“They’re requiring technical talent throughout the country to do all the work that’s coming,” President and CEO Bob Belitz said, noting that the firm has more employees dedicated to recruiting and onboarding than in the past. “We’ve made an investment in that function because it’s such a big part of our business.”

He added that the firm’s broad footprint across the Northeast makes it easier to recruit and retain talent. “Before, if somebody was working for us and got married and moved to New Hampshire, Maine, or New York, they might have to leave us to go work for somebody else because we didn’t have offices there. Now we do. From a growth perspective, it helps to be able to transfer you among other offices.”

Bob Belitz

Bob Belitz says work opportunities for engineering firms are high right now, and so is the need to attract new talent.
Staff Photo

But with some turnover to be expected in a company this size, and with a goal of growing both organically and through acquisitions, Tighe & Bond needs to onboard more than 100 new employees each year, and doing so successfully requires it to stand out from its competitors in a number of ways, Belitz said, from its employee-ownership model to hybrid work schedules; from a strong benefits program to a broad mix of projects.

Sullivan said communicating the culture of a company to job seekers is also critical.

“When we’ve had conversations where we effectively communicate that, people are very interested in working here,” she said, adding that another factor is communicating a clear path to career advancement.

“One of the things I think is so great about engineering — particularly about civil engineering or the environmental engineering that we do — is that we make our community better.”

“I am looking for future business partners. You’re working with the people that are managing the business, you’re getting day-to-day experience in that, and there’s real, clear potential for somebody to be a stockholder, be on the board of directors, and guide the company sooner than they might at a larger company. We can give examples of that. So that’s something that we try to explain. We feel that, if we’re effective in communicating that, we’ll find the right people.”

 

Mission Driven

As a civil engineer teaching at a women’s liberal-arts college, Glenn Ellis, a professor of Engineering at Smith College, said his students often come to the field from a specific mindset — namely, social impact.

“The number-one thing I hear from students is they want to do some good for the world, to make the world a better place,” he told BusinessWest. “They’re very interested in sustainability. That’s the number-one draw for many students as an engineer. And you can really make an impact on all sorts of things.”

That line of thinking resonates with Sullivan. “One of the things I think is so great about engineering — particularly about civil engineering or the environmental engineering that we do — is that we make our community better,” she said. “We’re an important part of that, and you can see it.”

Ellis noted that the industry code of ethics now includes sustainability as a key tenet, which dovetails with what his students are demanding. But he also said young people are drawn to the sheer diversity of engineering and how broadly it impacts the world.

“The more young people know what an engineer is, the more they’re interested in it. Studies show that the reason why way fewer women than men are engineers is not because women leave these programs at a higher rate than men; they leave at the same rate. It’s that they don’t go into engineering programs to begin with.”

And the time to start capturing their interest, he added — not just for engineering but for all STEM fields, where women have been historically underrepresented — is not college or even high school, but middle school.

“I say to a lot of young people, ‘you know, everything you can see has been designed by engineers. Engineers literally designed the entire world.’”

“I think that’s the time to develop a STEM identity. When you ask kids in middle school if they want to be engineers, they say, ‘I don’t know what that is,’ or ‘that’s really boring; you just work on pipes and buildings.’”

Ellis spoke with one young girl who said she wasn’t interested in engineering, but she wanted to work in the medical realm, helping to design artificial limbs that will help people.

“I said, ‘that’s engineering — that’s bioengineering.’ Young people don’t know what engineering is, so you need to introduce them at a young age, show them that it’s not just building bridges and wearing hardhats. This is a creative profession, a collaborative profession. If you want to change the world, this is the place to do it.”

And employers know talented young engineers have options in choosing where to make their mark, so recruitment, onboarding, and benefits are all critical.

“When we think about our benefit programs, we need to think about things that are important to the younger generations,” Belitz noted, and these run the gamut at Tighe & Bond from student-loan assistance to wellness programs to pet insurance, but also include a strong focus on mentorship, learning, and professional-development opportunities, including the addition of a female mentoring program last year.

“We’re also always giving back to our communities, and we try to talk about that as much as we can when we’re recruiting people,” he went on. “Hopefully that total package, along with the work that we have in the backlog, is attractive to the younger and mid-career people, who are the hardest ones to retain.”

O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun, while a much smaller firm, is also in a growth mode.

“There is a lot of work to be done, and the clients need us to get their work done,” Sullivan said, adding that the industry is facing a bit of an experience gap as veterans retire and young engineers replace them.

“We knew this was coming, so you have to invest in your people and make sure that you’re narrowing that gap continuously,” she told BusinessWest. “One of the things that we’ve done — and that I continue to do — is really invest back in people, try to give them the skills and get them the training.

“And not just the technical training, but also business development, project management, and entrepreneurial skills that get you even further,” she went on. “That’s something that I knew I had to do five years ago, and I’ve continued to do that. We just finished a big team training about presentation skills, whether in a small meeting or a large group, but it was also about team building, communication, and all that.”

 

Making a Difference

Ellis said Smith has been graduating a few dozen engineers each year, and they’re entering a market that’s tilted somewhat to job seekers.

Conversely, for employers, “it’s very challenging,” Sullivan said. “It’s just really hard to find people right now. We’ve had some people with a verbal acceptance, and then a few weeks later, they get a counteroffer and stay where they are.”

Meanwhile, Ellis hopes more young people — particularly young women — get the message early on that this is a meaningful, impactful career with plenty of opportunity.

“Women are definitely more attracted to engineering when they can be involved in messy, complex societal issues, which actually is what engineering is all about. It’s all about taking math and science and solving problems for society,” he said.

“I say to a lot of young people, ‘you know, everything you can see has been designed by engineers. Engineers literally designed the entire world. You can go into it and move up in the world and make a difference.’”

Cyber Center Brings Many Benefits

By Contributor
Opinion

Opinion

By Rick Sullivan

Over the past decade, the city of Springfield has made many advancements towards the goal of job formation and opportunity. We have continued the trend of job development, now with an added focus on technology. In an effort to bring the Pioneer Valley’s largest city into the forefront of the cyber realm, the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (EDC) has been facilitating the development of this industry over the years, which has successfully led to a new, on-the-ground investment project, now spearheaded by Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), with an emphasis on careers in technology.

Located at Union Station directly in downtown, this state-of-the-art technology center will offer education and hands-on job training to individuals looking to seek careers in the tech field. This initiative provides an opportunity to grow and develop a workforce that will ensure long-term job stability and meet the ever-growing cyber needs of community businesses.

Four components will drive this project and allow the community at large to not only benefit, but contribute to its success in meaningful ways:

• Educational offerings: Colleges and universities in the region such as STCC, Bay Path University, UMass Amherst, Western New England University, Elms College, and Springfield College will provide training opportunities to students, leading to jobs in the future.

• Municipality involvement: Technology experts are always in demand and rarely available within governmental sectors. This program will provide access to trained and skilled individuals, ready for hire.

• Military support: Westover and Barnes Air Force bases have already expressed interest in being able to train their workforce in the ever-growing field of technology. Both employers plan to support and hire from within the program.

• Small-business benefits: Manufacturing and other sectors are constantly seeking individuals with cyber certification. This new center will provide the much-needed resources to bring cutting-edge technologies to local businesses.

This project has significant state financial backing, having just received its first $1.5 million in grant funding. The design stage of the project has begun, and the center is slated to be open and accepting participants during the fall of 2023. This center is an essential economic-development strategy to modernize and innovate the business infrastructure. We expect to see substantial growth in the cyber-industry arena, benefiting the financial and economic vitality of the region.

For more information on this project and its progress, visit www.westernmassedc.com.

 

Rick Sullivan is president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.

 

The Clark Art Institute

By
Features

This Berkshires Staple Has Exhibited Patience and Flexibility

The Clark, which now features exhibits

The Clark, which now features exhibits indoors and outdoors at its Williamstown campus, will take it slow as the state enters the ‘new normal’ and gradually increase capacity. Photo by of Jeff Goldberg coutesy of Clark Art Institute

Victoria Tanner Salzman says it was a complete coincidence that the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute’s first-ever outdoor exhibition opened just a few months after COVID-19 arrived in Western Mass.

It takes years of planning to bring such an exhibit to fruition, she explained, and that was certainly the case with Ground/work, a collection of eight works created by six international artists that are found in varied locations across the Clark’s sprawling, 140-acre campus in Williamstown.

“These installations are embedded in a landscape that is ever-changing — both daily and seasonally,” according to a description on the institute’s website. “Ground/work highlights the balance between fragility and resilience that both nature and the passage of time reveal, while offering fresh experiences with every visit.”

Tanner Salzman, the Clark’s director of Communications, noted that “this exhibit has given our visitors the opportunity to see art outdoors, indoors, or both. And we’ve gotten tremendous response from our visitors about the experience; you can wander our trails and walk through our meadow and come upon these pieces and hopefully enjoy them.”

The phenomenal timing of Ground/work has been one of the many factors that has enabled the Clark to more than weather what has been a protracted and quite challenging storm, said Tanner Salzman, adding that others include a host of virtual initiatives and limited visitation marked by strict adherence to COVID policies and best practices to keep visitors and staff safe at all times.

“We’re taking this as opportunity to put our toes in the water and begin to feel more acclimated to going back to the new normal, if you will.”

“At certain points over the past year, the governor’s orders increased capacity, but we chose, at those points, to remain at a lower capacity just out of concern for the comfort of our visitors and the safety of everyone,” she explained. “We’ve either been at the capacity level prescribed by the state or below it.”

And as the state moves up its timetable for fully reopening the economy and removing restrictions on businesses of all kinds, the Clark will continue to be diligent and err, if that’s even the right word, on the side of caution, she told BusinessWest.

“We are taking it slowly, but we will increase our capacity; our current operating capacity is permitted to be 50%, but we’ve chosen to operate at a lower capacity,” she explained, adding that the facility planned to increase to that 50% level on May 29. And moving forward, it plans to increase the numbers as the conditions permit. “We will adjust upwards as we feel it’s best for everyone to do so.

“We’re taking this as opportunity to put our toes in the water and begin to feel more acclimated to going back to the new normal, if you will,” she went on. “We’ll take a look at it on a weekly basis, and certainly our hope is to be in a position in the summer where we’ll hopefully bump it back up. But we have not made that decision yet.”

While watching and adjusting as the conditions permit, the Clark will apply some of the lessons it learned during the pandemic, said Tanner Salzman, echoing the sentiments of business owners and managers across virtually every sector of the economy.

And many of these lessons involve using technology to broaden the Clark’s audience and bring its collections and programs to people who might not otherwise make it to Williamstown.

“We were learning lessons every day throughout this, and I’m sure that some of the practices that we adopted during this period will find a carry-over life as we move forward,” she explained. “We are certainly looking very hard at virtual events and continuing them; we found great success in doing such events, and we recognize that it allows us to open our doors to people who cannot necessarily be here to walk through them for an event. Instead of just having people at a live event at the Clark, we’ve had people tuning in from all around the world, people regularly coming onto live Zoom calls from California, Florida, all over, so we will want to continue that.

“I think there’s a hybrid model out there that we settle into as we move forward,” she went on, adding that there was a very limited amount of virtual programming before COVID. “We’ve done all sorts of things over the past year-plus, from gallery tours to lectures; Q&A conversations with curators to podcasts. We’re enthusiastic about finding ways to adapt these virtual programs into the menu we offer on a regular basis.”

Looking back on 2020, Tanner Salzman said the opening of Ground/work was certainly slowed by COVID. Pieces were arriving from the around the world, she explained, and as borders were closing and studios were closing as well, the process of bringing those works to Williamstown became more complicated and time-consuming, with the exhibit taking shape over time.

“We had to be more flexible and a little more patient,” she said, adding that these qualities have served the Clark well in very aspect of coping with the pandemic and effectively serving art lovers from across the country and around the world.

And flexibility and patience will continue to be the watchwords as this institution continues through that phase known as the ‘new normal.’

 

—George O’Brien

An Opportunity for the Region

By
Opinion

Editorial

As 2020 prepares to come to what we hope will be a merciful end (only if our collective luck changes), it is time to look ahead.

It certainly beats looking back.

And as we look ahead, we need to consider what the world might look like when and if something approaching normal returns, and what it means for us. At both the micro and macro level, it doesn’t mean going back to the way things were before.

The world will have changed, in all kinds of ways, and a good many of these changes will be permanent, as in, there’s no going back to the way we were. This goes for the services we offer to customers, how we do business, and where we do business.

Yes, everyone hates Zoom — or really hates Zoom, as the case may be. But even the most ardent of haters will admit that a Zoom session beats investing the time and energy in a drive to Worcester, Boston, or wherever. A Zoom session beats getting up early — and getting dressed (don’t forget that part) — to go to a morning board meeting or perhaps even a session with a client.

And that’s just one example. The same goes for the modern office. As much as we all hear that businesses will return to the office, that workers need the camaraderie, that teams need to be in the same room to be effective, it’s clear that things simply will not be as they were.

“We’re encouraged by a more aggressive attitude toward taking advantage of what appears to be an opportunity for the region.”

Companies have learned they can make do with less office space — or without any office space. Individuals have learned they can do their jobs from home, and that ‘home’ doesn’t necessarily have to be close to the office. Which means it doesn’t have to be a densely populated — and very expensive — area. Businesses owners may gradually ditch the current mindset that they need to be in Seattle, Boston, Cambridge, or the Research Triangle, “because that’s where the workers are.” The workers, at least for some jobs, can be anywhere.

If you’re an optimist, this bodes well for the region, and we like to be optimistic. Which is why we’re encouraged by a more aggressive attitude toward taking advantage of what appears to be an opportunity for the region. Groups like the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council and the Springfield Regional Chamber appear to moving from ‘we might want to think about this’ to the ‘let’s do something about it’ stage.

By that, we mean they’re moving more assertively when it comes to trying to tell this region’s story and putting information in people’s hands — with the goal of motivating people, small businesses, and maybe major corporations to consider the 413 as a place to put down roots or expand.

It has always been that way — and we have always sold it as such — but we haven’t done well in pitching people on the concept, even as Boston has become more expensive and its roads have become more congested.

Maybe the pandemic and the lessons learned while navigating our way through it will change this equation. Maybe. After all, there will be considerable competition from other cities, states, and regions who have learned the same lessons. Meanwhile, this region has never been able to muster the kind of marketing muscle it takes to get a message across to a broad audience.

But it doesn’t hurt to try, and as we thankfully turn the calendar to 2021, it is time to look back a little, reflect on what we’ve learned, and do what we’ve all been trying to do since March — be in a better position after the pandemic than we were before.

New Publication Becomes Part of Efforts to Expand the Manufacturing Workforce

By
Features

Exciting STUFF

John Cook, president of Springfield Technical Community College

John Cook, president of Springfield Technical Community College, proudly displays the cribbage board given to him by students at Pathfinder Regional Technical High School in Palmer

John Cook, president of Springfield Technical Community College, says he doesn’t play the card game cribbage.

But that doesn’t mean the cribbage board given to him recently gathers dust sitting in a drawer or closet unused. In fact, it now occupies a prominent place on a desk already crowded with items that speak to his personal life and career in higher education.

That’s because the elaborate board was crafted by students at Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School in Palmer. It’s fashioned from metal — Cook isn’t sure exactly what the material is, although he suspects it’s aluminum — and it’s truly a one-off, complete with his name and title printed on it.

As noted, Cook’s never used the gift for its intended purpose, but he’s found an even higher calling for it.

“I take this around, and I tell people that, if they can create one of these at one of those labs like the one at Pathfinder, there’s a $50,000-a-year job waiting for you,” he said as he started to explain, making it clear that his cribbage board has become yet another strategic initiative in a multi-faceted effort to educate people about careers in manufacturing and inspire them to get on the path needed to acquire one.

Other steps include everything from taking young people on tours of area plants — and their parking lots (more on that later) — to working with the parents of those people to convince them that today’s manufacturing jobs are certainly not like those of a generation, or two, or three, ago.

“I take this around, and I tell people that, if they can create one of these at one of those labs like the one at Pathfinder, there’s a $50,000-a-year job waiting for you.”

And there’s good reason for all the time and hard work put toward this cause. It’s all spelled out in the latest Workforce Development and Technology Report prepared as part of the Precision Manufacturing Regional Alliance Project, or PMRAP for short.

Indeed, the numbers on pages 7 and 8 practically jump off the page. The chart titled ‘Workforce Indicators’ reveals that the 41 companies surveyed for this report project that, between new production hires and replacement of retiring employees, they’ll need 512 new workers this year. Extrapolate those figures out over the entire precision-manufacturing sector, and the need is 1,400 to 1,500, said Dave Cruise, president and CEO of the MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board, formerly the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County. Meanwhile, the number of people graduating annually from programs at the region’s vocational high schools and STCC is closer to 300, he said, noting quickly, and with great emphasis, that not all of those graduates, especially at the high-school level, will go right into the workforce.

Those numbers translate into a huge gap and a formidable challenge for this region and its precision-manufacturing industry, said Cruise, Cook, and others we spoke with, adding that additional capacity, and a lot of it, in the form of trained machinists, must somehow be created to keep these plants humming. But before finding the capacity (the expensive manufacturing programs) required to train would-be machinists, the region must create demand for those programs. Right now, there certainly isn’t enough, hence strategic initiatives involving everything from plant tours to Cook’s traveling cribbage board.

BusinessWest has now become an active player in this initiative with an aptly named special publication called Cool STUFF Made in Western Mass. It’s called that to not only confirm that there are a lot of intriguing products made in this region — from parts for the latest fighter jets to industry-leading hand dryers to specialty papers — but to grab the attention of area young people; Cool STUFF will be distributed at middle schools and high schools with tech programs, regional workforce development offices, state college career counseling offices, non-manufacturing employers, top manufacturing firms, BusinessWest subscribers, guidance counselors, community colleges, and employment offices.

Sponsored by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and MassDevelopment, Cool STUFF will include a number of profiles of area companies. These profiles will list the products made, the customers served, and the markets these companies supply. But the most important details are the job opportunities, the benefits paid, and the thoughts of those working for these companies.

As BusinessWest continues work on Cool STUFF, to be distributed later this fall (companies interested in purchasing profiles can still do so), it will use this edition of the magazine to set the table, if you will, by detailing the size and scope of the challenge facing this region when it comes to its manufacturing sector, and also highlighting many of the initiatives to address it.

Making Some Progress

Kristen Carlson is working on the front lines of the manufacturing sector’s workforce challenge — in a number of capacities, first as president of the local NTMA chapter, which has about 60 members, but also as owner and president of Peerless Precision in Westfield, a maker of parts for the aerospace and defense industries.

Kristin Carlson, owner of president of Peerless Precision

Kristin Carlson, owner of president of Peerless Precision, says area precision shops are very busy; the only thing holding them back is finding enough good help.

She told BusinessWest that business is booming for Peerless and most other precision manufacturers in this region, and it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future — a fact lost on many not familiar with the high quality of work carried out at area shops and this region’s reputation across the country and around the world as a precision hub.

“In the precision-machining side of the manufacturing sector, companies are not leaving this area,” she explained while debunking one myth about this industry. “There is a skilled workforce here that other states simply cannot compete with. So while it might cost a company less to do business in Tennessee or South Carolina, for example, they’re not going to see the same skill that we need in order to produce the parts our customers need.

“Right now, every industry is booming — aerospace, defense, oil and gas, even the commercial sectors,” she went on. “A lot of us are seeing really large growth percentages over the past 12 months; the only thing that’s holding us back is having the workforce to fill the jobs that we have.”

Peerless has seen 30% growth over the past year, and added six new people over the first six months, she continued, adding that, several years ago, the pace would have been closer to one new person a year.

“I could double in size if I had the workers,” she told BusinessWest, adding that there are many in this sector who could likely say the same thing.

The challenge of inspiring more individuals to become interested in manufacturing is not exactly a recent phenomenon in this region; it’s been ongoing for some time. However, the problem has become more acute as shops continue to add work and also as the Baby Boom generation moves into retirement.

The problem becomes one of supply and demand. There is considerable demand, but simply not enough supply. In most matters involving this equation, supply usually catches up with demand, but this situation is different in many respects.

Indeed, there are many impediments to creating supply, starting with perceptions (or misperceptions, as the case may be) about this sector and lingering fears that jobs that might be there today won’t be there tomorrow. These sentiments are fueled by memories of those with the Boomer generation, who saw large employers such as the Springfield Armory, American Bosch, Uniroyal, Diamond Match, Digital Equipment Corp., Westinghouse, and others disappear from the landscape.

Dave Cruise

Dave Cruise says surveys of area precision manufacturers reveal a huge gap between expected need for workers and the region’s ability to supply them.

Meanwhile, another challenge is creating capacity. Manufacturing programs are expensive, said Rick Sullivan, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council (EDC) of Western Mass., adding that it’s also difficult to find faculty for such facilities because potential educators can make more money working in the field than they can in the classroom.

Regarding those perceptions, the obvious goal is to change the discussion, or the narrative, surrounding manufacturing, said Sullivan, by driving home the relative security of most jobs today and the fact that “these are not your grandfather’s manufacturing jobs.”

“Manufacturing today … is not, for the most part, standing at a machine doing some kind of manual labor,” he told BusinessWest. “The high-end precision manufacturers today are very technology-driven; there’s lot of computer science, lots of IT. It’s a clean environment, and the jobs in manufacturing, especially precision manufacturing, are very-good-paying jobs, and you can have a very good middle or upper-middle lifestyle, particularly in Western Massachusetts.”

Cook, whose school has several manufacturing programs and is the region’s clear leader in supplying workers for the industry, said that, despite the costs and challenges, additional capacity can and will be created — if (and this is a big if) demand for such programs grows and becomes steady.

That’s why Carlson and others say that manufacturers must sell this sector and its employment opportunities to not only the region’s young people, but also their parents.

“And their parents are often the harder sell,” said Carlson. “If I have a class of 20 kids come in and three or four or five of them show a real interest in manufacturing, I consider that a good day. But then, those kids go home, and selling it to their parents is the difficult part, because many of them still believe this is your grandfather’s machine shop — it’s a dark, dingy place, and only people who can’t go to college do that work, which is not the case.”

Meanwhile, young people are not the only targets. Indeed, other constituencies include those who are unemployed and underemployed, those looking for new careers, and the region’s large and still-growing African-American and Latino populations.

Across all those subgroups, women have become a focal point, in part because they — and, again, their parents — have not looked upon manufacturing as a viable career option when, in fact, it is just that.

“We know there are really well-paying jobs out there, but there’s a lot of work to be done to invite new individuals into this career path,” said Cook. “And I talk about two groups in particular — women and students of color — and there’s work to be done there. We have to engage families, and at much younger ages.”

Still Some Work to Do

It’s called the Twisters Café.

That’s the name given to a ’50s-style diner at Sanderson MacLeod in Palmer, a maker of twisted wire brushes for the cosmetic, healthcare, handgun, and other markets.

It was created a year or so ago, not long after the company also added an appropriately named ‘appreciation garden,’ an outdoor break area complete with picnic tables, chairs, umbrellas, and more.

The additions are part of ongoing efforts to make the workplace more, well, livable and attractive to employees and potential employees.

“They’re little things, but they make this a better environment,” said Mark Borsari, the company’s president. “People are here more than they’re at home, and we hope these steps make this a more enjoyable place to be.”

Those sentiments are yet another indication of how manufacturing has changed in recent years. And making people aware of not just perks like the Twisters Café, but also, and more importantly, the jobs and careers available in manufacturing today, is the broad, multi-faceted mission of a growing group of individuals, agencies, and companies.

This constituency includes the EDC, the various MassHire agencies, the vocational high schools and STCC, the NTMA, and individual manufacturers.

Shop owners will go into the schools themselves to talk about what they do and how, said Sullivan, and the shops will host tours of students, taking them onto the floor, and later into the parking lot.

“That’s a big part of these tours,” he said. “They show the students what they can do, what they can have, with the money they can earn from one of these jobs.”

And such initiatives are starting to generate results on some levels, said Sullivan, noting that many of the vocational schools now have waiting lists, especially for their manufacturing programs — something that didn’t exist a decade ago or even five years ago, when such schools were largely viewed as the best option for students not suited for a typical college-bound curriculum.

But those numbers on pages 7 and 8 of the PMRAP report show there is still a huge gap between demand and the current supply, and therefore there is still considerable work to be done, said Cruise, noting that the goal moving forward is to reach more people overall, more young people, and young people at an earlier age.

Cook agreed, and to get his point across, he brought out another item he’s collected — a fidget spinner made by a young student during a summer STEM program staged at the STCC campus.

“We have to do more of that,” he explained. “We have to do more work with younger students; we have to engage their families over the summer, and we have to let the young people get their hands on the equipment and build things like this. And we have to do things like this at scale — we have to start inviting far larger groups of students to our campus to see these programs.”

Cook does a lot of promotional work for the manufacturing sector — and STCC’s programs — himself, and his cribbage board is very often part of the presentation.

“I bring it to meetings every once in a while,” he explained. “It’s that teacher in me that still likes to use something physical for people to see, to touch, and to hold. They can realize that there’s still a very important place for this in our economy, and there’s nothing better than to put this into people’s hands and make them realize that that’s something significant about the ability to generate something like this.”

Cool STUFF will hopefully act like that cribbage board in that young people can see the products many area companies are making, and, in the snapshot profiles of these company’s employees, they can maybe see themselves in a few years.

“Manufacturing has a rich history in this region, but too many people think ‘history’ means ‘in the past,’” said BusinessWest Associate Publisher Kate Campiti. “There’s still history being written in this sector, and the future looks exceedingly bright. Cool STUFF will hopefully drive this point home and encourage young people to include manufacturing in their list of career options.”

Parts of the Whole

Carlson was talking about the salaries and benefits offered by her company — most workers are paid $1,000 a week or more — when she paused for a moment.

“When you add up wages, overtime, and everything else, there are a few guys here making more money than I do,” she said, adding that this is not an exaggeration, but it is a fact lost on many young people, their parents, and other constituencies.

Bringing such facts, and numbers, to life is an ongoing priority for the region, and Cool STUFF will become part of the answer moving forward, as will John Cook’s cribbage board, plant parking-lot tours, and much more.

The stakes are high, but so is the number of opportunities — for potential job holders, the companies that will employ them, and the region as a whole.

People need to be made aware of these opportunities, said all those we spoke with, and, more importantly, inspired to reach for them.

(For more information on Cool STUFF Made in Western Mass., on how to have your company profiled, for advertising opportunities, and to receive copies, call (413) 781-8600.)

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

An Employment Lawyer Diversifies into Manufacturing

By
Manufacturing Sections

Doors to Opportunity

Amy Royal

When she started her law career with a firm in Springfield, Amy Royal didn’t consider herself an entrepreneur. But that quality emerged quickly, and she would go on to start her own firm. She soon realized, though, that she was a actually a serial entrepreneur with an appetite for developing and growing companies, the latest of which is a door manufacturer in Ludlow.

Amy Royal says she was given the small ‘Lenox’ sign, complete with that recognizable wolf logo, by officials at that East Longmeadow-based manufacturer soon after it became the first official client of the law firm that bore her last name.

And for years, it was prominently displayed on a wall in her office in Northampton, much like that ceremonial ‘first dollar’ you see under glass or in a frame at small businesses across the region.

Today, it has a new home, and that’s because Royal has one as well, professionally speaking, anyway. That would be 190 Moody St. in Ludlow, the address for West Side Metal Door Corp., a 60-year-old enterprise Royal acquired several months ago, because…

Well, there are many elements that go into that answer, and one of them is that Lenox sign. Sort of. That iconic Western Mass. company is just one of many manufacturers that have become clients of Royal, P.C., an employment-law firm. And over time, while representing many of them, Royal developed more than insight into that sector and much more than a passing interest in someday working within it.

Indeed, when she began a search for a small company to buy a few years ago, manufacturing morphed from one of several sectors being considered to the preferred sector.

“Because of the relationships I’ve had with manufacturers through my law firm, I felt that I had at least a basic understanding of workflow, operations … what it takes to run a manufacturing company,” she explained. “While I certainly explored a number of options, I really wanted to be in manufacturing.”

As she carried out her search, Royal told BusinessWest, the focus was on acquiring an established company, but one with considerable upside potential. And WSMD, as it’s called, certainly fits that description.

Launched in Holyoke in 1958, it has a diverse portfolio of products for commercial customers — diverse enough for Royal to make rebranding a top priority because the ‘MD’ in WSMD doesn’t really work anymore and hasn’t for a while now — and a lengthy list of clients as well.

Indeed, recent deliveries have been made to the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office — the county correctional facility is only a few blocks away — as well as Holyoke Medical Center, the Ludlow Police Department, a casino in Las Vegas, and Wrigley Field in Chicago, among many others.

“We make a lot more than metal doors,” said Royal, also listing custom wooden doors, door frames, distribution of door hardware, and other products, especially tin-clad doors, typically seen in warehouses but now gaining traction in a variety of locations as a retro look.

As evidence, Royal gathered up her phone and scrolled to pictures of tin-clad doors the company recently supplied to an art studio in Hollywood and a condominium tower in Boston. “They look really cool and have a lot of ‘wow’ to them,” she pointed out.

Getting back to that upside potential she saw, Royal said that, unlike her predecessor, an owner who did a little bit of everything for this company, she will focus her efforts on business development, relationship building, and, overall, positioning WSMD (for however long that acronym’s still in use) for continued growth and that proverbial next level.

Amy Royal, seen here with many of the team members at WSMD, says she was drawn by the company’s rich history and strong growth potential.

Amy Royal, seen here with many of the team members at WSMD, says she was drawn by the company’s rich history and strong growth potential.

Borrowing that increasingly popular phrase, she said she’s focused on working on the company, not in it.

“I saw a lot of areas we could build upon, including business development, marketing, and sales,” she explained. “There is brand awareness with this company, but I think we can take that to a higher level.”

As she goes about that assignment, she will borrow at least few pages from the script she wrote with Royal, P.C., which she is still a big part of, even if she and her Lenox sign now consider Ludlow home.

One page in particular involves becoming a certified woman-owned company, a designation that has opened a number of doors (no pun intended) for the law firm, and one she believes can do the same for WSMD.

Elaborating, she said Royal, P.C. is a member of the National Society of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, an organization that forges relationships with large corporations that want to do business with such firms. Corporations like the Macy’s department-store chain, which became a client of the Royal firm just last month.

Institutional clients of that ilk also need metal doors — and wooden doors and tin-clad doors — and Royal’s goal moving forward is to forge such relationships and take the WSMD brand to new heights.

For this issue and its focus on manufacturing, BusinessWest talked with Royal about her new venture and how and why she walked through that particular door.

Open to Suggestions

Getting back to that question of why Royal acquired WSMD, as noted there are many components to that answer.

Perhaps the main one is Royal’s realization that she is not merely an entrepreneur — something she really didn’t believe she was when she started practicing law with the Springfield-based firm Skoler, Abbott & Presser in the 1990s — but a serial entrepreneur.

“I sort of caught the bug of developing and building businesses after starting the law firm,” she told BusinessWest. “I knew that, even though I’ve had a lot of different business ideas over the years, I was looking for a company that had an existing structure and wouldn’t have to be built entirely from the ground up, like I did with the law firm.

“I wanted to branch out, diversify, and own another business,” she went on, “and really focus my energies and efforts on strategic planning and growing a company.”

Royal said she started her search for a company to buy probably two years ago, and approached that exercise with patience, an open mind, and a determination to find the proper fit.

She looked at everything from a spice-making outfit in Western Mass. (she didn’t identify which one) to a small cruise-ship line operating out of Boston (again, no specifics). But mostly, she looked at manufacturers, again because she liked that environment and understood a good deal about how such ventures operate.

WSMD came onto her radar screen because it was listed for sale. She was working with an area broker on her search, but essentially found WSMD on her own.

And what she found was a solid enterprise and brand with its owner looking to retire — a scenario being played out all across the region within companies in every sector as business-owning Baby Boomers become sexagenarians and septuagenarians.

She started looking at WSMD in late 2015, and kept on looking, undertaking that proverbial deep dive to determine if the company had the growth potential she desired.

And she goes about taking WSMD to a higher level, Royal said she will borrow lessons from her first experience with developing a growing a company, something she did without any formal training (like most all entrepreneurs) and in a fashion that could be described as ‘learning while doing.’

“When I decided I wanted to grow the law firm, I really didn’t know what I was doing,” she conceded. “I went out on my own and built the firm, and figured out how to network, market, develop, and grow the brand. And that’s when I realized that that’s really my passion — growing a business, creating jobs, creating opportunities.”

There will be many aspects to doing all that at WSMD, including that aforementioned rebranding effort.

“We have a really established presence within our customer base, and they know that we do more than metal doors,” she explained. “But the name doesn’t really capture what we do, so we need to change it.”

Also on her to-do list is obtaining status as a woman-owned manufacturing business, a process already underway.

“That will be a huge lift for us,” she said, adding that the company’s application is currently being reviewed, and certification may come in the next few months. “There is a lot of competition in this field, so I do think the certification will help.

“One of the things that made me interested in this company is that it’s been very successful,” she went on. “But I think, I hope, I can take it to the next level.”

And by ‘next level,’ she meant more partnerships and opportunities with institutional clients, again similar to what’s she done at the law firm — opportunities that will hopefully enable her to grow sales and the workforce, currently at nine.

Closing the Deal

Royal told BusinessWest that she’s still involved with her law firm, obviously, and on a number of levels.

But when she leaves her home in Deerfield now, she keeps going past that exit off I-91 that spills onto downtown Northampton and goes another 20 miles down the interstate.

Like her Lenox sign, she’s taken up residence in a new office, this one just off a manufacturing floor, not a conference room filled lined with law books.

But as disparate as those settings may be, they have many things in common, said Royal, adding that, instead of building a strong case for her clients, she’ll now be building one for her doors.

And to borrow a phrase sometimes used in law, this will be — wait for it — an open-and-shut case.

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