Worcester Business Journal

30 2 021 Economic Forecast • Worcester Business Journal • www.wbjournal.com M A N U F A C T U R I N G Dani Babineau President & CEO Redemption Rock Brewing Co., in Worcester e co-founder of the still rela- tively young and small brewery, Babineau has gone all-in on her company helping to serve society as a whole, becoming the second certified B Corp in Worcester and the first brewery. Among other efforts, this means Redemption Rock pays a living wage, donates tips to charitable causes, and uses a blind hiring process. is community-minded mantra has paid off well, as Redemption Rock's loyal follow- ing has helped the brewery survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Any business owners or executives looking to consider their company's impact on society would do well to sit down with Babineau. Ellen Rosenfeld Majority owner Commonwealth Cannabis Co., in Millis In her role at CommCan, a locally owned cannabis company which serves both the medical and recreational markets, Rosenfeld brings pragmatic business know- how to a field mired in emotion and gimmicks. She's also a talker. If you want to have a no-nonsense conversation about market trends, handling business in a crisis, or the state of cannabis product availability, Rosenfeld is your person. In her own words, she and her co-owner brothers are business people – and that's how they approach their cannabis company. No frills, just experience. Karen Ares Executive director Blackstone Valley Education Hub, in Northbridge Ares leads a two-year old nonprofit concerned with helping students and adults enter the advanced manufacturing workforce. A former high school science teacher and former assistant superinten- dent of teaching and learning and STEAM director at the Dudley Charlton Regional School District, she is tasked with overseeing a variety of programs aimed at connecting manufacturers with the employees they need. Any advanced manufacturer looking to bolster their hiring efforts, or else get a better sense of the future of technical training in Central Massachusetts looks like, would do well to connect with Ares. Three people in manufacturing to meet in 2021 T he cannabis boom dominated many man- ufacturing headlines in 2020, as the state's burgeoning adult-use marijuana industry finally started to meaningfully get off the ground – this in spite of being temporarily locked down when the industry was deemed non-es- sential in March. But while there's no denying cannabis news was a big ticket item, manufacturers, more broad- ly, faced a year of adjustments, which will impact how the industry goes forward into 2021. Turning to onshoring e coronavirus pandemic caught virtually the entire economy off-guard, including manufacturers, the economy's de-facto backbone. With shortages of all kinds, from personal protective equipment to basic medical and household supplies, American manufac- turing's long habit of offshoring to cut costs came to a head. ose who hadn't fled the country for greener financial pastures were able to step up and help aid pandemic response much more quickly than those who straddle either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Central Massachusetts companies who have taken note of this will increase their efforts in the coming years so they, like American consumers, aren't le to dry in the event of another national disaster. Manufacturing will change While manufacturing will continue to dominate headlines, the entire industry will reshape in 2021 BY MONICA BUSCH Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Marijuana price war Recreational marijuana prices in Massachusetts were quickly criticized as exorbitantly high relative to other legal states. But two years ago, when only two recre- ational dispensaries operated in the state, a miniature and temporary monopoly allowed shops to charge as much as they wanted. But now, new marijuana dispen- saries are verging on a dime a dozen. Shops are going to have to lure customers in somehow, and pricing seems ripe for the picking. is is going to force large, multi-state operators to duke it out with mom-and- pop shops, the next logical step in an already tense relationship. Eradicating host community agreements e state's Supreme Judicial Court has taken up a Salem-based marijuana lawsuit with the potential to upend, or even eradicate, the current host communi- ty agreement process in Massachusetts. e issue at hand asks in large part whether HCAs, which must be obtained before the Cannabis Control Commission awards a license, undermine the regulatory body, and by extension, the recreational cannabis law's dictum that equity be a priority when regulating and monitor- ing the nascent industry. In other words, who is keep- ing that first gate? In an industry dominated by deep – and white – pockets, there's going to be a reckoning between would-be small business owners and the local officials standing between them and the market. W W A production worker at Worcester dessert manufacturer Table Talk Pies adds fruit to the pies. PHOTO/MATT WRIGHT

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