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February 20, 2017

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V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 F E B R UA R Y 2 0 , 2 0 1 7 For a daily digest of Maine's top business news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is some of the best from our online-only offerings: Featured @ Mainebiz.biz From the Editor T here's a line somewhere between manufacturers and makers. I'm not sure where it is but it seems to reside somewhere in Maine. Our cover story on Custom Composite Technologies illustrates how even a small technol- ogy manufacturer can have a big impact. e com- pany is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a prototype for a solar car. It has created components used in Oracle Team USA's super high-tech, lightning fast America's Cup yacht, which has advanced sailing well beyond anything I could have conceived of as a kid, racing Lightning- class sailboats. Senior Writer | Content Specialist Lori Valigra pays the company a visit. She also stopped by L&K Manufacturing, a Bangor com- pany that is taking 3-D printing to a new level. It is creating a 3-D printer for shoe manufacturers that could greatly cut factory space, not to mention pro- duction time and money. ese companies are blurring the lines between R&D and manufacturing. Recently, I've been reading two books by Nick Offerman, a woodworker who moonlighted as Ron Swanson on NBC's "Parks & Recreation." He is based in Los Angeles, but judging from "Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers" (2015), and his recent "Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Workshop," Offerman has spent a lot of time on Maine's backroads, tracking down furni- ture makers, boat builders and tool manufacturers. For him, the line between "makers" and "manufac- turers" appears to be a blurred line, at best. "When you get involved with makers, you invariably rub elbows with the kind of women and men who show up with an unsolicited jar of jam or some leftover meatloaf. Bartering reenters your daily economy, which also strengthens a neighbor- hood," he writes in "Good Clean Fun." Offerman devotes a chapter of "Good Clean Fun" to Christian Becksvoort, a New Gloucester furniture maker who has been credited with reviv- ing Shaker-style furniture. (Becksvoort also had a cameo on "Parks & Rec," an episode in which Ron Swanson receives an award from the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association.) Offerman and Becksvoort, in turn, took a road trip from New Gloucester to visit Lie- Nielsen Toolworks, the Warren manufacturer that produces what Offerman calls "the Cadillac of American hand tools." omas Lie-Nielsen is another of Offerman's heroes; he devotes a chapter to him in "Gumption." Along the way, Offerman cites the influence of WoodenBoat magazine in Brooklin and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport. e parallel between a "maker" and a "manu- facturer" may be that of an entrepreneur to a corporation, but most manufacturers started with something small, often a better way of producing a familiar product. omas Lie-Nielsen took over the making of a specialized woodworking tool, an edge-trimming block plan, buying tooling, plans and components from Ken Wisner, a Freeport machinist who was ready to retire, Offerman writes. Lie-Nielsen started small, in a shed in Warren, but today has more than 100 employees at a manufacturing site in Warren. e Lie-Nielsen site offers tours, and I took part in one a couple years back. Several of the people on the tour were likely in the "maker" category, producing furniture for friends and family. But, who knows, one or two might become manufacturers at some point. ey have to start somewhere. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Low tech, high tech Health insurer ends 2016 with a loss, but sees improving trends in 2017 Community Health Options, the Lewiston-based nonprofit health insurer created under the Affordable Care Act, ended 2016 with preliminary total net losses of $58.3 million. But Maine's Bureau of Insurance, in issuing its latest monthly report on CHO's financial performance, reported that the insurer was in a good position "to oper- ate successfully in 2017." For more about this consumer-operated and oriented health insurance company, or CO-OP, go to www.mainebiz.biz/CHO Nonprofits play significant role in Maine's economy A study released by the Maine Association of Nonprofits found that nonprofits contribute about $11 billion a year to Maine's economy through wages paid, retail and wholesale purchases and pro- fessional services contracts. To find out more about the study and this important sector of Maine's economy, go to www.mainebiz.biz/nonprofits Finally, some good news for Maine's struggling paper industry The Feb. 8 announcement by South African company Sappi Ltd. that it will invest $165 million in Paper Machine No. 1 at its Somerset Mill in Skowhegan is a huge boost for Maine's struggling paper industry, which has seen six mills close in the last four years. To find out more about what's driving Sappi's strate- gic investment go to www.mainebiz.biz/sappi Be smart. BE SHUR. bernsteinshur.com When you want a law firm t hat puts your interests before [h]ours.

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