Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1506076
V O L . X X I X N O. X I X 72 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D ainebiz: Tell us about Howell Laboratories. Joseph McDonnell: Howell Laboratories Inc. is a 50-person ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) located in Bridgton on Route 117. We have been around since the early 1960s, and we have been sup- plying equipment to the U.S. Navy since the beginning. We became an ESOP in 1995 and we became 100% owned in 2013. Our facility is about 35,000 square feet containing both manu- facturing and administrative offices (it is our only location). Howell Labs is primarily a defense contractor; we are part of the Shipbuilding Industrial Base [a component of the national defense program that produces and sustains the U.S. Navy's strategic submarine fleet], and we provide air dehydra- tion and water equipment systems to shipyards like Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss., for installation aboard U.S. Navy Surface Ships and U.S. Coast Guard vessels. Our Navy and U.S. Coast Guard business has been steady over the last 10-plus years, but we are actively inves- tigating new opportunities in the com- mercial world, particularly ones that leverage our knowledge and experience in the water treatment field. MB: And tell us about GDL. JM: GDL Paint was owned by Kristine Lang, and she had two employees; all Howell Laboratories Inc., a Bridgton defense contractor, earlier this year completed a deal to buy one of its vendors, GDL Paint Inc. in Standish, from GDL's owner, Kristine Lang. GDL became a division of Howell Labs, which provides air dehydration and water equipment systems to shipyards like Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss., for installation aboard U.S. Navy Surface Ships and U.S. Coast Guard vessels. GDL has been a key vendor, so it's a natural fit. Mainebiz asked Howell Lab's president and CEO, Joseph McDonnell, how the acquisition came about and the advantages for each. M For a small Standish vendor, acquisition by a large customer is a ticket to thrive B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F H OW E L L L A BO R AT O R I E S I N C . Howell Labs employees pose in front of the company's building in Bridgton, several weeks before the transaction with GDL closed.