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WATERVILLE: 'This is real manufacturing'
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BY SCOTT MONROE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 08/14/2009

WATERVILLE -- After touring the aluminum-trailer manufacturing facility, Karen Mills said she felt "energized" to head back to Washington, D.C., and report on business growth.

Mills, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, said the success and forthcoming expansion of ALCOM Inc. is proof to her that "America is full of entrepreneurs who have strong businesses and have a market niche."

"This is real manufacturing; coming here makes me very happy," said Mills, of Brunswick, whose background is in metal manufacturing. "It's a difficult economy, but the solid base of small companies have the potential to grow ... and is actually quite robust."

Now, ALCOM has about 65 employees and is located in a 47,000-square-foot, rented facility in an industrial building off West River Road.

That will soon change. ALCOM's sales of custom-made, recreational trailers have grown to the point where the company is squeezed into its building too tightly, so in January it will move its operations across the Kennebec River, into a new location in Winslow. ALCOM's lease on its current facility expires in February.

The new 70,000-square-foot building, which is under construction, will be in the industrial park off Millennium Drive and Augusta Road, on 12.5 acres of land. ALCOM's moving and expansion project will cost about $2.85 million.

ALCOM aims to grow its $12 million in annual sales to between $30-$40 million in the next five years, requiring at least another 55 employees, according to Tom Sturtevant, vice president of the company. Eventually, the new facility could also be expanded to 100,000 square feet, Sturtevant said.

Financing for the company's expansion has come in the form of a $1.14 million loan from the Small Business Administration. The loaned money to ALCOM is among $55.7 million in Maine -- and $8 billion nationally -- provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Mills.

In addition, financial assistance has come with the help of the town of Winslow, which earlier this summer was awarded a $200,000 state community development block grant on behalf of the company. ALCOM used the grant money in its recent acquisition of the SNOPRO and CARGOPRO aluminum trailer brands, bringing more equipment, machines and tools.

Under requirements for the block grant money, ALCOM must create at least one job per $30,000 -- for ALCOM, that's at least nine jobs -- and 51 percent of those jobs need to be for workers who will earn at least $30,350 per year.

ALCOM officials have said that most employees are between the ages of 25 and 30 and they make $13 to $15 an hour, plus bonus pay and benefits.

During a tour of the facility, Trapper Clark, vice president of the company, told Mills that the company has expanded its reach in recent years across the country, to the West Coast, and into areas of Canada such as Alberta. ALCOM doesn't create stock and sell the trailers for retail; instead, the trailers are custom-made orders and sold through trailer dealers, Clark said.

"We make them for any kind of recreational use, anything really but horse trailers," he said.

With its track record and impressive employee pay and benefits, ALCOM "is the kind of business you want to have," Mills told Clark.

"This is really a hallmark," she said.

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com

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