Making It In L-A
By Leslie Cote Kehoe and Jason Stone
Down East Magazine
1999 Annual
From Country Kitchen bread to Je Taime canine apparel, a greater variety of goods is manufactured in the twin cities than in any other part of Maine. Below are just a few of the local products.
Slipper Socks
Back in 1974, David K. Quinn, of Auburn, sewed leather soles to pairs of ragg-wool socks and gave them out as Christmas presents. They were such a hit, he built a business on them. Those original slipper socks are still Quinn’s best-known item, if only because, since 1982, they’ve been the preferred footwear for space shuttle astronauts. But his Acorn Products, Inc., with factories in Lewiston and Hampden employing some 350 people, now turns out more than fifty styles (and numerous colors) of slippers, sheepskin boots, socks, Polartec moccasins, and other footwear designed to make cold weather tolerable for tootsies. (2 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 1190, Lewiston, ME 04243-1190; 207-786-3527.)
Whoopie Pies
For those who believe Lewiston was built solely on the backs of millworkers and shoe stitchers, Labadie’s Bakery is here to say that since 1923 it has built its reputation by makin’ whoopie – whoopie pies, that is. Owned for the past 4½ years by Fabien Labadie, the third generation of Labadie bakers, the bakery retails its individually packaged pastries – whoopie pies, cream horns, cookies, doughnuts, and more – in vending machines, convenience stores, and small groceries throughout Maine. Locals in the know, however, frequent the discount shop at the bakery in Lewiston’s north end to purchase the sweet baked goods for mere pocket change. (11 Suzanne Street, Lewiston, ME 04240; 207-784-7042.)
Farmers’ Almanac
One product that thousands of people associate with Maine and New England is produced right in Lewiston – the Farmers’ Almanac is still chock-full of recipes, historical pieces, and, of course, its much talked-about annual weather forecasts. It’s published in Lewiston by Geiger Brothers, now in its fourth generation of leadership by Eugene, Peter, K.C., and Michael Geiger. Employing some 500 people to print 5 million almanacs annually, the printing company has expanded its operation to turn out numerous wall calendars and yearly planners. Currently, Geiger Brothers ranks among the top ten privately owned companies of promotional products in the U.S., distributing novelty items like caps and coffee mugs with company logos imprinted on them. (Mount Hope Avenue, Box 1609, Lewiston, ME 04241; 207-783-2001.)
Buckets and Barrels
Lewiston was Susan and Doug Boyd’s route out of the rat race back in 1986, when they left New Jersey to buy the then-tiny Maine Bucket Company. In the years since, they have built the company from four employees to an average of forty-five, and buckets and barrels are only a small part of the business these days. The company wholesales more than 250 different products, from white pine pails to cedar outdoor furniture to in-store display units, with customers ranging from L.L. Bean to the Bath & Body Shops chain. This year, they plan to open their first on-site retail shop – a move delayed by a disastrous fire in September 1997 that destroyed their original factory – and built up the mail order side of the company. For a small company, Maine Bucket seems to be barreling right along. (P.O. Box 1908, 21 Fireslate Place, Lewiston, ME 04241-1908; 207-784-6700.)
Pie Saver
Nancy Beaule found inspiration for her business, BetaBake Products, in a foil cupcake holder. Tired of seeing the edge of her pies burn before the centers were done, she devised an ingenious aluminum ring called the Pie Saver. With fluted sides modeled after that cupcake holder, the gadget covers the edge of the pie crust and keeps it from burning while the rest of the pastry cooks. In 1996 she started producing the patented rings commercially, and these days she’s shipping 6,000 a month during her peak season in the fall from her facility in the old Pepperell Mill in Lewiston. Customers include Maine’s two largest supermarket chains, as well as chains in southern New England and Virginia. Although so far the company employs just two people, Beaule is already working on her next pie-saving invention. “We’re just cooking,” she says cheerfully. (550 Lisbon Street, P.O. Box 915, Lewiston, ME 04240; 207-783-1729.)
Wooden Rulers
For the folks at Falcon Rule, measurement jokes and bad puns are all in a day’s work. The Auburn company turns out nearly 950 miles’ worth of basswood foot rulers every year – that’s about five million feet – plus all manner of yardsticks, protractors, and wooden chalkboard accessories. Its thirty-six employees also produce a variety of wooden promotional items, such as imprinted wooden nickels and wooden postcards. The firm, which was founded in New York in 1807 and moved to Auburn around 1950, went metric years ago to serve its growing international market, and these days the meter stick is inching up on the yardstick. (Falcon Valley, Auburn, ME 04210; 207-783-5000.)
Feminine Hygiene
There’s hardly a woman in the country who isn’t intimately familiar with Auburn, although she may not know it. The Tambrands factory there, the largest in the world, turns out billions and billions of tampons and other items in the popular Tampax line of feminine hygiene products. Tambrands, Inc., a subsidiary of consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, recently completed a consolidation that made the Auburn plant one of its two global manufacturing hubs. A company spokesman says Auburn was chosen due to the strong work ethic of its 525 workers. (P.O. Box 1778, Auburn, ME 04211-1778; 888-283-7684.)
Shoe Lasts and Floormats
When the 120 employees at Jones and Vining, Inc., say they’re a step ahead of their competition, they aren’t exaggerating. The Lewiston company, established in 1965, manufactures polyurethane shoe soles, also known as lasts, for local and national footwear companies like Eastland, Rockport, and New Balance. In recent years, moreover, Jones and Vining, housed in a 90,000-square-foot factory covering five acres, has expanded its production capabilities and now turns out everything from recycled polyurethane floormats to equipment for child car seats. (765 Webster Street, Lewiston, ME 04240; 207-784-3547.)
Sewing Machine Components
Look around you – look on you – and it’s obvious that much of the world is held together with stitches, from shoes to tents to baseballs. Cote Brothers, of Auburn, has been keeping manufacturers in stitches since 1959, when four brothers (named Cote, natch) started a business servicing the sewing machines used by Lewiston-Auburn’s then booming shoe and textile companies. Nowadays, the company is owned and operated by Ron and Lisa (Cote) Blake, and it just had its best year ever as a producer of specialized components for industrial sewing machines in a market that now stretches across the nation instead of only across the Androscoggin. The firm, with fourteen employees, also sells and services nine brands of sewing machines and manufactures its own ergonomically designed line of industrial work stations. Sounds like things are holding together quite nicely for Cote Brothers. (81 Manley Road, P.O. Box 1225, Auburn, ME 04210; 207-782-5922.)
Footwear
It’s tough to make a buck in the American shoe business these days – high costs and foreign competition have sent many shoe manufacturers offshore – but Falcon Shoe in Lewiston has found security in a specialized niche. The thirty-five year old company, which recently acquired Lewiston’s well-known Knapp Shoes, concentrates on the industrial and outdoor shoe and boot business. Falcon’s 250 employees turn out 450,000 pairs of shoes and boots a year. Those Knapp safety shoes FedEx employees wear, for example, have special plastic toes rather than the more conventional steel so they can walk through airport metal detectors without creating a fuss. And the upscale hiking boots offered by many outdoor outfitters may well have come from the company’s Cedar Street factory. It’s a tough business, but Falcon is flying high. (2 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 1286, Lewiston, ME 04243; 207-784-9186.)
Baseboard Heating Units
Paul Roy likes it when his customers put the heat on, because that means they’re using the baseboard electric or hot-water heating units manufactured by his company, Design Architectural Heating, of Lewiston. Roy’s fledgling company, just 3½ years old, has found its nook producing upscale heating units for the residential and commercial markets. More than half of the company’s orders require heating units in custom colors, and the demand is keeping six people busy and generating some half a million dollars in business annually. It’s enough to make Roy feel warm all over. (141 Howe Street, P.O. Box 7110, Lewiston, ME 04243-7110; 207-784-0309.)
Handmade Chocolates
For true chocoholics, Mary’s Candies is a vision of heaven. With well over 100 hand-dipped candies, plus twenty flavors of cremes, the shop in downtown Lewiston has been on a permanent sugar surge since it was founded in 1933. The store’s reputation has only grown under owner Roger Allen, who bought the company in 1995. So have its sales – up 50 percent in three years, with a seasonal outlet in Wiscasset and an expanding mail order branch. For candy fans everywhere, it’s one sweet business. (238 Main Street, Lewiston, ME 04240; 207-783-9824.)
Trunk Liners
Taken a good, hard look inside your car lately? Chances are, if you happen to drive a Toyota or a General Motors vehicle, it is carpeted with a polyester fabric manufactured at Gates Formed-Fibre Products, Inc., of Auburn. A subsidiary of Gates Rubber Company out of Denver, Gates Formed-Fibre Products, Inc., was established in 1984 to produce needle-punch felt fabrics commonly used in automobile carpets, trunk trim and other molded products used in the auto industry. Employing 400 people at its Auburn factory, and another 75 in Eastport, Gates specializes in producing heavy-duty fabrics from recycled soda bottle flakes. Next time you get inside your car, you might just be stepping on a carpet made in Auburn. (Washington Street, Auburn, ME 04211; 207-784-1118.)
Woodworking Equipment
Currently employing some twenty people, Auburn Machinery, Inc., established and operated by Tom Labrie, has been fabricating numerous types of equipment for the woodworking industry since 1976. The company has built its reputation over the years by producing high-quality planers, ripsaws, grinders, and molders for use in mills and specialty woodworking shops worldwide. In recent years, Auburn Machinery has received approving nods from conservationists – and won several awards, including the 1998 Maine State Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence – for Yield Pro, its latest invention in recovery machinery. Yield Pro utilizes scrap wood to create stakes and kiln sticks out of edging strips and also turns randomly sized short blocks into uniform finger joint blanks. (150 Summer Street, Lewiston, ME 04240; 207-784-4244.)
Insurance
Family roots run deep in Lewiston-Auburn – this isn’t one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else. Maybe that’s one of the reasons the Dunlap Corporation has made its home in Auburn since 1930, after being founded in Portland in 1869. Stephen Dunlap is the fifth generation to lead what has become the largest insurance agency in northern New England and one of the fifty largest agencies and brokerage firms in North America, specializing in business and professional policies. With offices from Maine to Connecticut, more than 220 employees, and a headquarters building that dominates downtown Auburn, the company insures that L-A looms large in the insurance landscape. (31 Court Street, Auburn, ME 04210; 207-783-2211.)
Clothing and Product Labels
Bell Manufacturing lives to label people – people like Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Eddie Bauer. One of Lewiston’s largest surviving textile mills, Bell has, since 1947, made its name by putting the names on clothing, bed linens, knapsacks, and even tents, anything that needs an identifying tag. Using a new high-tech “Air Jet” looming process, the company’s 100-plus employees turn out half a billion labels a year for customers all over the globe, and the outfit bills itself as the fastest label looming company in the world. Who’s gonna argue? (P.O. Box 196, 777 Main Street, Lewiston, ME 04243; 207-784-2961.)
Fine Wooden Furniture
Thomas Moser Cabinetmakers in Auburn has come a long way from its beginnings in an old Grange Hall in New Gloucester in 1973. The company manufactures some of the best high-end furniture in Maine, to the tune of some $9 million a year in sales through furniture stores, its own showroom in Freeport, and special orders. And its 100 employees aren’t resting in their signature continuous-arm chairs, either. Among the firm’s recent introductions is the Bates Chair, modeled after a special order from Bates College, and a laptop computer desk for home offices that is styled after a Jeffersonian writing desk – quill pens optional, of course. (72 Wright’s Landing, P.O. Box 1237, Auburn, ME 04211-1237; 207-784-3332.)
