14 Worcester Business Journal | Fact Book 2017 | wbjournal.com
N o r t h C o u n t y
R E G I O N S
BY GRANT WELKER
Worcester Business Journal News Editor
North County has built around its historic industry
to create tourism and innovation hubs
The bastion of traditional manufacturing
T
he flight of manufacturing jobs
has hurt the state's so-called
Gateway Cities for decades, but
there's still a place where man-
ufacturing is helping to drive the econo-
my: North Central Massachusetts.
The region, anchored by the cities of
Fitchburg and Leominster, as well as
Devens, has the largest concentration
of manufacturers in the state, with
more than 400, said Roy Nascimento,
the president and CEO of the North
Central Massachusetts Chamber of
Commerce.
One in four jobs in the region are in
manufacturing, and "we think that's a
good thing," Nascimento said, men-
(Above) Roy Nascimento, president and
CEO, North Central Massachusetts
Chamber of Commerce. (Right) F&M Tool
& Die in Leominster is an anchor of the
region's manufacturing backbone.
Brian Lemerise, president of shipping
company Quiet Logistics, which is
located in the North County
enterprise zone of Devens.
P H O T O / G R A N T W E L K E R