Central Maine businesses among Governor’s Award winners

AUGUSTA — Businesses in Gray, Waterboro, Livermore Falls and Skowhegan were among the five presented with a 2018 Governor’s Award for Business Excellence by Gov. Paul LePage during a reception at the Blaine House Dec. 18.

The 28th annual awards, administered by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development and sponsored by Consolidated Communications, recognize Maine businesses that demonstrate a high level of commitment to their community, employees and excellence in manufacturing or service provision. Awards were presented to:

ENERCON TECHNOLOGIES, GRAY
Enercon rovides electro-mechanical product development and contract manufacturing services to the medical, industrial, and defense markets. Its integration of engineering and manufacturing services streamlines the product development cycle, improving quality while reducing time-to-market and total project costs for their customers. A privately held, veteran-owned company since 1980, Enercon employs nearly 200 people in its recently completed design and manufacturing center.

HOWE & HOWE TECHNOLOGIES, WATERBORO
Internationally recognized for extreme vehicle fabrication and design, Howe & Howe was founded with the vision of producing innovative vehicles to enable life saving strategies. Founders and twin brothers, Geoffrey and Michael Howe first gained notoriety in 2001 with the introduction of the world’s fastest tank, the Ripsaw; an unmanned ground vehicle designed for the U.S. military; and soon after turned their talents in a different direction creating extreme fire trucks, unmanned firefighting robots, and off-road tracked wheelchairs.

MAIN-LAND DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS INC., LIVERMORE FALLS
Main-Land Development Consultants has provided engineering, land surveying and environmental sciences to land owners and municipalities since 1974. Main-Land’s vision is that every landowner can use his or her land to achieve the American Dream. Main-Land’s mission is to help people add value to their land: to understand it, develop it and protect it, and the company’s strength is in its personable staff who aim for friendliness, and thus achieve great service and lasting relationships with their customers.

SAPPI NORTH AMERICA, SKOWHEGAN AND WESTBROOK
Sappi North America’s roots can be traced back as far as 1854 to the SD Warren Company, up until its acquisition by Sappi Limited in 1994. Headquartered in Boston, it has more than 2,000 employees and three mills in Maine and Minnesota and is a market leader in converting wood fiber into products that customers demand worldwide. Sappi is proud of its strong presence in Maine, and is here for the long haul. In addition to its mills in Westbrook and Skowhegan, the company has a dedicated Technology Center in Westbrook and a Shared Service Center in South Portland. In 2016, the Sappi Somerset Mill modernized its woodyard and completed a major investment to rebuild Paper Machine 1, expanding the mill’s capability to make high-quality consumer-based packaging as well as coated graphics, representing a significant shift in Sappi’s North American business. Together, Sappi invested more than $200 million in these two projects.

SEA BAGS, PORTLAND
Incorporated in 2006, Sea Bags started by making totes and accessories from recycled sails in Portland. Today, the company designs and manufactures a diverse line of totes, bags, and home goods, all made in Maine from recycled sails. CEO Don Oakes, President and COO Beth Shissler and CFO Bill McGonagle have all worked together to grow Sea Bags from just three employees to now more than 140 with 18 retail locations up and down the East Coast, and saving over 600 tons of recycled sail cloth from landfills.

In presenting the awards, LePage said, “It’s been an honor to annually recognize the best of the best here in Maine, businesses that clearly go above and beyond normal day to day operations. The businesses honored today are dedicated to quality workmanship, maintaining a loyal and dedicated workforce and giving back to the community. I thank each of them for doing business in our state and for setting the bar high.”
Since 1991, the Governor’s Award for Business Excellence has been presented to 157 Maine companies.