[B]ELLOWS FALLS — When Paul Millman moved his company to a 28,000-square-foot facility in Bellows Falls about 15 years ago, he never imagined he would need more space.
Back then his company, Chroma Technology Corp., made optical filters primarily for biomedical technology, such as microscopes and clinical diagnostic devices. Now, it’s making components for self-driving cars, agricultural drones and cellphone displays.
“The world that we serve has gotten larger,” Millman said.
Chroma recently unveiled a $22 million expansion that doubles its square footage in a ribbon cutting ceremony with Gov. Phil Scott and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
“I was impressed,” said Leahy after the event. “They’ll create jobs — and good paying jobs.”
The expansion will allow Chroma to more than double its machinery and hire another 25 people to add to its team of about 120.
Chroma’s expansion features a new meeting room and more space for equipment. It was supported by grants and loans from town, state and federal resources.
Chroma received $7.7 million in new market tax credits, $600,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Development, and $500,000 from Entergy Corp. that was provided to the Windham County Economic Development Fund as part of a settlement with the state of Vermont designed to mitigate the impact of job losses due to the shutdown of Vermont Yankee. The town of Rockingham also gave Chroma a $100,000 loan through its revolving loan fund. The remaining costs will be funded through a $4 million equity investment from Chroma and $9 million in debt financing, including $1.5 million from Vermont Economic Development Authority.
“This was a significant investment,” said Select Board chair Susan Hammond. “We wanted to keep them here.”
The area has struggled since Vermont Yankee in nearby Vernon closed in 2013, taking with it about 600 jobs. Companies like Chroma have played a more significant role to the town and broader community.
“We have to ensure their growth continues here,” said Adam Grinold, the executive director of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp., which helped Chroma secure financing. “As an employee-owned business, they are so closely connected to the local economy.”
Salaries at Chroma start at $37,500 and reach as high as $225,000.
Millman said there are challenges to staying in Bellows Falls. He said finding talented employees in rural America isn’t easy. About 62 percent of Chroma’s business is overseas, and Millman had considered taking his company out of state and even out of the country.
The only option to expand at the current location was to build over a portion of the employee parking lot. Chroma created a new parking lot in what was about 10,000 square feet of wooded area. Operations Manager Rick Holloway expected parking would be sustainable for the next five years. After that, he said the company would likely experience growth challenges again.
Though the logistics are complicated and local talent is limited, “the community has supported us and embraced us and wants us to stay here,” said Holloway, who chairs the Rockingham School Board.
Millman said Vermont fits with his political views. Millman, 71, had a varied career before he started Chroma at Cotton Mill Hill in Brattleboro in 1991. He started out in the restaurant business, working as a busboy, bartender and restaurant manager in Oregon and New York City, and was let go for not following the rules. Millman says he was also fired from a sales position and laid of as a school teacher.
Millman moved to Vermont after visiting his cousin in Newfane in 1987. Millman was looking for a job in the restaurant business but couldn’t find one then reluctantly took a position as a salesperson for Omega Optical in Brattleboro after contacting the state employment office.
Millman knew nothing about the optical filters industry at the time, and was fired from Omega after three years for insubordination. Millman said he refused to train another employee the company hired to be his boss.
“This is my side of the story,” he said. Millman smiles as he looks back at his career one afternoon in his office.
“In retrospect, it was the best thing that ever happened,” he said.
Millman and six other former Omega employees started Chroma together. Millman sold the products, while his colleagues made the parts. Sales totaled $318,000 the first year.
“It was like heaven,” he said. “We could afford to pay salaries.”
The company moved to Bellows Falls in 2003. In 2017, Chroma reported about $31.6 million in sales.
Millman attributes part of his success to the restaurant business.
“The best training ground … is the restaurant,” said Millman, who said he learned about sales and customer service by being a bartender.
Chroma’s new space isn’t the company’s only recent expansion. Janette Bombadier joined the company this summer in the newly created chief technology officer position to help Chroma grow internationally and streamline manufacturing.
Bombadier was most recently the senior vice president of Green Mountain Power. Before that, she was an executive for IBM-GlobalFoundries.
“She knows about manufacturing — a lot more than we did,” Millman said.
Meanwhile, Millman is looking for talent to replace him. After nearly 30 years of living in Brattleboro area, Millman wants to retire. Millman said he wanted to stay in Vermont and live in Burlington.
“I’m a city kid,” he said.
Chroma owns the subsidiary, 89 North, in Willison. It also has offices in Asia and Europe.
Though Millman is hoping to retire soon, he wanted to stay in Vermont. He expected Chroma would stay in Vermont as well.
“It’s become increasingly the place that I want to be,” he said. “Vermont is a progressive state. Vermont is a state where people have access to government.”
