The Super 60 event honors local companies in two categories: total revenues and growth in revenues. Jeffrey S. Ciuffreda, president chambers, said the companies honored all show that the region is recovering from the recession.
Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki addresses the audience at the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield's Super 60 Luncheon at Chez Josef in Agawam on Oct. 26, 2012.
AGAWAM – The state plans to partner with local business groups to pitch the region’s virtues as a place to establish or expand operations to 50 large companies, in person, and in the next year.
Gregory P. Bialecki, the state secretary of housing and economic development, announced the plan, part of the state’s “Choosing to Compete in the 21st Century” program, at the annual Super 60 lunch sponsored by the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.
The focus, Bialecki said, will be on technology , e-commerce and financial services companies who might be looking for back-office operations like computer centers and call centers. “Companies tend to put those in other parts of the country,” Bialecki said. “We think they might be overlooking an opportunity right in their back yard.”
Western Massachusetts has an educated work force, he said. It also has relatively lower costs for real estate compared with major metropolitan areas. The $156 million Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center is an example, he said. The state has invested in the project, but it didn’t tell the universities and private investors building it where it should go. They chose Holyoke because space and Internet connectivity was available and Holyoke has cheap hydroelectric power.
“They looked at communities all over New England,” he said.
Bialecki said he’s seeing signs that companies are starting to plan expansions, or at least consolidations. He wants to make sure that those expansions and consolidations happen here.
“The governor and I believe this region has the resources to make it happen,” Bialecki said.
Also on Friday, MassBenchmarks said growth in Massachusetts real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012.
MassBenchmarks is the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
In contrast, the growth in U.S. real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 2 percent in the third quarter, according to the Advance Estimate.
But the MassBenchmarks editors said they see growth in high technology sectors.
The Super 60 event honors local companies for both total revenues and growth in revenues. Jeffrey S. Ciuffreda, president of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield said the companies honored Friday all show that the region is recovering from the recession.
Albert Kasper, left, president and COO of Savage Arms in Westfield, talks with keynote speaker Stanley Kowalski III, chairman of FloDesign in Wilbraham, at the Super 60 luncheon on Oct. 26, 2012.The keynote speaker was Stanley Kowalski III, chairman of FloDesign in Wilbraham. The company, which has units developing filtration and wind turbines and other technologies, has grown to 130 employees all over the world.
“I see this economy as an opportunity,” he said.
Especially to hire the talent he needs.
“I’ve been able to offer jobs to people who had no business being unemployed,” Kowalski said.
Albert F. Kasper is president and chief operating officer of Savage Arms in Westfield, one of the 60 companies honored Friday. Savage has 403 employees at its plant and headquarters here. That number has doubled in the last 18 months.
Sales have grown on the strength of new products, Kasper said - and on new people taking up hunting and target shooting.
“People are transitioning from personal protection - we don’t make products for that market - into hunting and target shooting,” Kasper said. “That’s our market and it is growing.”