Archive - Sep 2009

We are pleased to announce this years 5x5x5 Growth Awards recipients. Vermont Business Magazine, along with KeyBank, welcome you to join us in recognizing these companies, learning from their business experience and networking with your peers and colleagues.

Several years ago, Vermont Business Magazine fought tooth and nail, metaphorically of course, to keep Vermont from increasing its sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent. We lost. In fact, many of the sales-tax rich towns from Burlington to Rutland have since instituted a local options tax that adds another 1 percent. Those towns, including Williston and South Burlington, love the option. They get to export their municipal tax burden to non-residents who drive there for mall shopping and big boxes.

John Dunbar, 36, is the sales manager for Jancewicz and Son, a roofing, siding and windows company established in Bellows Falls in 1933 and bought by John’s father Brad Dunbar and his wife in 1973. His brother Jayson, 41, now owns the company, and John’s twin brother Jeff is also on the sales team.

With the exception of the Northeast Kingdom and Rutland County, both of which have suffered heavy job losses, Vermont’s economy has not been badly damaged by the national recession, says state Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn. But commercial development is at a standstill almost everywhere in Vermont, Dorn adds. “There aren’t a lot of big projects going on now other than at Jay Peak,” he notes. (See accompanying story).

The owner of the Jay Peak Resort is using a little-known federal visa program to finance an ambitious expansion project that's expected to generate hundreds of jobs in the Northeast Kingdom.

Vermont's dozen community banks have fared better in the recession than many far larger financial institutions, but regulatory and market responses to the economic crisis are presenting the locally based banks with challenges that could dent their earnings in the coming months and might even lead to consolidations.

Even if the national economy really is recovering from the worst recession in recent memory, it may still be many months before Chittenden County experiences any quickening in the pace of commercial development.

Leo Tolstoy once said that "all happy families resemble one another," but most of them don't work together. Or package and distribute their tomato sauce in 40 states. That's what the Bove family of Burlington does.

When it comes to constructing or converting a home for “green living,” the common perception is that it’s expensive, inconvenient, and only for those who can afford the luxury of being eco-friendly. A local architect and a national marketing firm are intending to debunk the green stereotype.

Indicators that gauge current economic conditions around the globe show that the economies of industrial countries stabilized in the second quarter of this year. In its August 19th report, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – a Paris-based economic research think-tank of the 30 richest countries – announced that the combined income of its members did not fall in the second quarter of 2009, after six consecutive quarters of steep declines.