Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | June 21, 2021 | wbjournal.com B R I E FS Continued from Page 5 We are worried about ransomware Are you worried about your business becoming the victim of a ransomware attack? After the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May resulted in a temporary gas shortage crisis in southern portions of the East Coast, the locally operated Steamship Authority, which provides the vast majority of ferry service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, soon suffered its own hack. In Colonial's case, the company ended up paying more than $4 million to hackers to free its data. As a result, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has cautioned business owners and government and community groups to immediately assess their own data security practices. When polled online, more than two-thirds of WBJ readers said they are concerned about a ransomware attack on their businesses. F L AS H P O L L Yes, and we constantly update our security systems in case of an attack. 50% COMMENTS "I am worried about my security systems every day and we are an eight-person firm. If this concern isn't in the top three of concerns for your business, it should be." Yes, because any protections we might have are very weak. 19% No, we are too small for a hacker to bother to attack us. 16% No, because our data security systems are strong. 15% "No one is too small. We all have something someone wants, and anyone who says they aren't worried should be!" hospitality and food service. "is is an exciting day for the future of QCC and for our entire community," said QCC President Luis Pedraja, in a statement. e center will also house the school's intercollegiate sports teams, as well as a full health and wellness center for both the school and the community, accord- ing to QCC. A timeline for the project was not immediately disclosed. AIS in Leominster picks new president from within Commercial officer furniture man- ufacturer AIS, of Leominster, has pro- moted Nick Haritos to president of the company, current president and CEO Bruce Platzman announced. Platzman will remain with the com- pany as CEO aer Haritos assumes his new role on July 1, and Arthur Maxwell will remain chairman of the board. Haritos cur- rently serves as executive vice president of sales and distribution at AIS. Previous- ly he worked for 16 years at Haworth furniture company, which is based in Michigan. "I'm excited about the path that AIS is on and the opportunities ahead of us," Haritos said in a statement. "It is a privilege to lead this incredibly talented team and an honor to work with our committed dealer partners across the country." Haritos holds a bachelor's degree from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and a master's degree from Saint Michael's College in Vermont. He also earned a certificate in mediation from Woodbury College in Vermont, according to the announcement. Edible oil maker building $14M Ayer manufacturing facility Catania-Spagna Corp., an edible oil maker in Ayer, plans to build a 51,500-square-foot manufacturing facility, using a 10-year tax-increment financing break valued at $783,673, according to a press release from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Hous- ing and Economic Development. e state's Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved the tax breaks for the project, which will come in the form of reduced property tax bills from the Town of Ayer, which already approved the 10-year agreement. Currently, Catania-Spagna occupies a 212,000 square-foot facility where it houses its corporate offices, distribution and manufacturing operations. e new project, which will be built on-site, is slated to create 30 new jobs and retain 100 existing jobs on a private investment of $14.4 million, per the EACC. e project is the largest real estate investment in Catania-Spagna's history, the company said. e Medway consulting firm Business Development Strategies helped Cata- nia-Spagna apply for the TIF agreement, as well as go through the approval process. Garden Remedies completes $1.5M extraction lab upgrade in Fitchburg Cannabis company Garden Rem- edies, which runs a dispensary in Marlborough and a cultivation and manufacturing facility in Fitchburg, announced last month it has completed a $1.5-million capital expansion, result- ing in a new extraction lab to ultimately increase the company's ability to pro- duce refined cannabinoid oil. Work on the Fitchburg project began in July 2019 and, following a lengthy permitting and safety upgrade process, was officially up and running as of March 8 of this year, said Vice President of Lab Operations Gene Ray during a May tour of the facility. e upgrade is a long time coming, said Ray, who originally hoped to be in the new extraction lab space by the end of 2019. But, when work on the project was delayed because of necessary safety modifications, combined with a temporary work stoppage due to the coronavirus pandemic, that goal was no longer a reality. Nevermind the lab's remaining older extraction machine went out of com- mission in November of the same year, resulting in more than 3,200 pounds of flower accumulating in the lab's staging area. "You can only imagine the frustra- tion," Ray said. "It was a tease to see all this shiny new equipment that you couldn't even touch, couldn't even use." But, now with the extraction lab is up and running, spirits are high and lab staff are making their way through the backlog of cannabis flower ready for processing. Ray said they were lucky to have enough refined oil to carryover during the temporary shut down. He explained the lab uses a multi- step process to extract crude cannabis oil, which is then transferred to a separate lab for refining. Once refined, that oil is used either in the Garden Remedies kitchen to make edibles, or within the lab to produce goods like tinctures or vape cartridges. During the extraction process, cannabis goes through a carbon diox- ide machine to separate and remove terpenes, the compound elements of cannabis that make each plant strain unique. From there, flowers are submitted to the lab's alcohol process, during which the plant's cannabinoids -- of which THC is one -- are extracted from the flower and into an alcoholic tincture. Finally, the alcohol is removed through an evaporation process leaving unrefined cannabinoid oil in its wake. at unrefined substance is then taken elsewhere in the facility for further processing and refining. A throughput analysis of the labo- ratory showed the Garden Remedies team was able to process more than 100 pounds of flower into refined oil in about seven days. Some 500 pounds of flower was processed in 20 business days, according to company figures. Because of the high throughput, Garden Remedies will now be able to process oil for outside growers as well, effectively expanding not only its own production capabilities, but it's business base, too. is is useful for others, Ray said, like for growers who don't have pro- cessing capabilities, or for those who have a damaged cannabis crop that can still be salvaged by turning the plants into oil. Now, it's a matter of moving forward -- completing the backlog and making use of the new refined oil capacities. Nick Haritos, president of AIS Garden Remedies new $1.5-million lab in Fitchburg

• Cover