Making it in Vermont is an ongoing series by VTDigger’s business reporter Anne Wallace Allen looking at companies and industries driving innovation in the state. If you have ideas about inspiring entrepreneurs or companies, send them to Anne at awallaceallen@vtdigger.org.
If you ask people outside Vermont to name the state’s largest export, nine out of 10 will say maple syrup, says Mike Schirling, the state’s secretary of commerce.
Others think it’s milk, ice cream, or cheese. But the reality is that Vermont sells more computer and electronic products outside of the state than anything else, by far. The other big export categories are processed food, machinery, miscellaneous manufactured products, and chemicals, according to the International Trade Administration.
That’s a problem, said Schirling, and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development is trying to solve it. If the public had a better grasp of how much manufacturing happens in Vermont, a state better known for its foliage, farms and skiing, more young people would look into working in the state, and perhaps assist in reversing the state’s population drain and workforce shortage.
“They don’t know the scope and depth of what is actually available to do here,” said Schirling.
Vermont’s largest manufacturers employ thousands of people. Among them are Mack Molding in Arlington, UTC Aerospace Systems in Vergennes, GlobalFoundries in Essex Junction, G.E. Aviation, Dynapower in South Burlington, New England Woodcraft in Brandon, Revision Military, Flex-a-Seal and Autumn Harp Inc. in Essex Junction, Appalachian Flooring in North Troy, Vermont Precision Tools in Swanton, Champlain Cable Corp. and Hazelett Corp. in Colchester, Twincraft Soap and Preci-Manufacturing Inc. in Winooski, Mylan Technologies Inc. in St. Albans, and Tivoly Inc. in Derby Line.
Together, Vermont’s manufacturers accounted for 8.7 percent of the state’s total output in 2017 and had a value of $2.81 billion in output last year, according to the state.
That’s a drop from 2016, when manufacturers accounted for 8.8 percent of the state’s output, according to the Vermont Department of Labor’s Economic Demographic Profile Series.
The Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce recently started a group for Vermont manufacturers. To promote Vermont’s manufacturing and high-tech sectors, the chamber is working to recast Vermont’s image, steering outsiders’ imagination away from historic buildings toward a place where industry cohabitates peacefully with farm fields.
Tom Torti, the president of the Lake Champlain Chamber, said Vermont didn’t have a robust economic development strategy that included promoting manufacturing until just a few years ago. That started to change under former Gov. Peter Shumlin, Torti said, and has continued under Gov. Phil Scott. The Agency of Commerce is working hard to present Vermont as a place where business can thrive.
“We have not had a very good focus,” Torti said. But “now everybody for the most part gets it.”
To help promote manufacturing to prospective workers, the chambers also need to burnish the image of manufacturing work, said Cathy Davis of the Lake Champlain Chamber.
“One of the things we work to overcome is, this isn’t standing at a forge,” Davis said. “The images that people have of manufacturing jobs are really outdated. If you’ve been on a manufacturing floor recently, they are spotless and the people are working with machines that might cost a million dollars.”
Image and outreach are vital because without them, opportunities do bypass the state.
Jon Burk, who attended a Stay to Stay get-together arranged in Brattleboro by state officials in October for people considering a move to Vermont, said he ultimately decided not to consider the state because he didn’t see the tech infrastructure he had been hoping to see.
“I was looking for more of a vibe when it came to a tech scene, a startup scene,” said Burk, who works for Al Roker Entertainment in Los Angeles and New York. He was considering Brattleboro because of its proximity to New York and to airports, and was thinking of working remotely.
“It’s not quite there yet,” Burk said.
Sean Larkin, the president of Logic Supply in South Burlington, wants to add 80 to 90 people by the end of 2020, but he has trouble finding workers. He thinks part of the problem is that the motherboard technicians he’s looking for don’t automatically think of searching for jobs in Vermont.
“At the rate we’re growing, we may need to pull from Oregon or California or Washington,” he said. Larkin, who is originally from Las Vegas, said he didn’t know about Vermont’s tech community until he moved to Vermont to work for Logic Supply. He can tell from interviews with prospective employees that they didn’t know either.
Logic Supply is also using a workforce training grant from the Vermont Department of Commerce to turn some of its technicians into motherboard designers.
“I would love to hire as many Vermonters as I can, but a motherboard designer doesn’t naturally grow here,” he said. “We can use those funds specifically to increase peoples’ competencies, which increases their pay and their value in the market.”
Manufacturing jobs are beloved by economic development officials because they tend to pay relatively well. Torti said the average salary of manufacturing jobs in Addison and Chittenden counties is $50,000 to $70,000.
The size of the manufacturing sector is one thing that keeps Vermont from relying heavily on any one area of the economy. That insulates the state from the ups and downs that happen around it.
“One of the things that creates stability in our economy is the diversity,” said Schirling. “While manufacturing is No. 1, there largely isn’t one thing that if a portion of the economy takes a turn for the worse, we’re subject to a downturn.”
Correction: The percentage of output by manufacturers for 2016 has been corrected. It is 8.8 percent, not 8.7 percent, according to the Vermont Department of Labor’s Economic Demographic Profile Series.
