Manufacturing in the North Country

PRESS-REPUBLICAN in partnership with

Wednesday, November 18, 2020 • Plattsburgh, NY 12901

A look into maNufacturing in the north Country

RAMP program guides grads to professional heights

By McKENZIE DELISLE Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — Area manufacturers have long cited trouble enlisting an A1 workforce and Coryer Staffing says it could be in the next generation.

“I really believe the answer is in these high school graduates,” Chief Operating Officer and Founder David Coryer said.

David first set foot in the staffing industry in the late 1990s and said the dilemma was a tale as old as time, saying he had heard, “these conversations for eons.”

It was those that inspired he and wife Elizabeth GoerlitzCoryer, Coryer Staffing CEO and co-founder, to launch the RAMP by Coryer Staffing program in 2018.

“It really has the capacity to improve just the overall pipeline of the workforce in our community,” she said.

THE STAFF OF IT The couple opened Coryer Staffing in 2016.

The staffing agency now sits on Margaret Street in the City of Plattsburgh and has about 25 staffers of its own, including Payroll and Benefits Manager Andee Buksa, Lead Recruiter Jared Murphy and Direct Hire Recruiter Hillary Engstrom.

“Everything we do here is really, in great part, due to our team,” Elizabeth said.

The company set out to match the employees with the employers.

“We help the people that we

Mckenzie delisle/staff photo Inside the Coryer Staffing work space on Margaret Street in the City of Plattsburgh. The staffing agency has about 25 employees. “We help the people that we meet with to find meaningful employment at these many companies that fit with their background, skills, experience and interests,” CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Goerlitz-Coryer said.

David said Coryer Staffing looked to offer an empathetic approach to those out on the FERTILE AREA job hunt.

“We wanted to meet candidates where they (were),” he said. “We wanted people to understand that they weren’t just numbers in our data base.

“We work really hard to customize our services so that we’re listening to that individual (and) we’re placing that individual within an opportunity in a company that is most appropriate for them.”

The same went on the flip side, he said, adding that Coryer Staffing worked with companies to find the right fit for their needs, too.

“The only way that we’re going to be able to grow and be more successful is if we help the community grow and be successful,” the founder said.

McKENZIE DELISLE/STAFF PHOTO “If we’re helping these comElizabeth Goerlitz-Coryer and David Coryer stand in the lobby of their staffing agency Coryer Staffing. It panies hire the people they sits on Margaret Street in the City of Plattsburgh. The couple co-founded the business in 2016 and have need to be successful, then, not only are other companies since launched the RAMP by Coryer Staffing program as a way to get high school seniors prepped for going to see that this is a very manufacturing in the North Country. meet with to find meaningful employment at these many companies,” she explained, “that fit with their back-

ground, skills, experience and interests.”

fertile ground to start their company, but they’re going to choose the North Country over another area to grow.”

or “assembler” position title.

“People don’t necessarily know what that means.”

RAMPING UP

While some might assume they wouldn’t qualify for such positions, others might have a skewed idea of what North Country manufacturing looked like, they thought.

“One of the things that we’re doing with these high school seniors is educating them,” Elizabeth said, noting that some students still used the term, “Factory,” even though local plants were much brighter, cleaner and more organized than that term could suggest.

“We want to help them have a better, clearer, more realistic understanding of what these jobs are, what these companies do and what it might look like for them.”

And, David added, “Gone are the days of the dark and dingy factory.”

The pair described their RAMP program as “post graduate work experience training,” where fresh grads take a “ramp year” and get paid to work with partnering manufacturers, learning about the industry and available opportunities around the North Country.

“Many of the client companies in our region have a difficult time attracting entrylevel employees to their ranks, mainly because, if you’re talking about the high school graduate cohort, a lot of these individuals — they don’t know what they don’t know,” David said.

“They don’t know what they like. They don’t know what they don’t like.”

And, he added, the young adults might not be initially drawn to a “material handler”

FIGHTING STIGMA

see ramp, page 3

Nova Bus and Prevost adjust to COVID reality, work NYC contracts

By BEN WATSON Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — After dealing with the challenges of adjusting to the new COVID-19 landscape, bus manufacturer Nova Bus/Prevost has been able to get back on track for its 2020 production.

“The biggest issue of course has been COVID-19 and just getting through all the stuff from March until now,” Nova Bus General Manager Greg Cody said.

“The short-term focus has been working our way through that, and getting all of the proper protocols in place so that we protect our employees.”

Nova Bus and Prevost are both part of Volvo Buses and both work out of a facility on Banker Road in the Town of Plattsburgh.

Prevost focuses on commuter coach style buses while Nova Bus focuses on city transit-style buses, according to Cody, with the shared facil-

ity making primarily Nova Buses over Prevost buses at an approximate three-to-one split.

Coming into 2020, the bus manufacturers were planning to increase capacity at the 120,000 square-foot plant, Cody said.

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused initial setbacks, Nova Bus/Prevost has been able to get back on track over the last few months.

Employees of the transportation manufacturer were considered essential from the beginning, with the transportation industry deemed so, but a full return of employees did not occur until June, after safety protocols had been put in place.

The company has added about 50 jobs in the last three or four months, Cody said, employing more than 350 people overall.

The company managed to double production in the Pre-

CCC, CV-TEC talk training as COVID-19 pandemic continues

See page 2

vost line by October, according to Cody, with the Nova Bus production capacity expected to increase about 50 percent by the end of the year.

Both increases are related to separate New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority contracts recently signed by Prevost and Nova Bus respectively.

The Nova Bus deal included 165, 40-foot hybrid buses, the largest hybrid contract that the Plattsburgh plant had ever had, Cody said, as well as diesel buses.

BORDER CLOSURE This increase in production was somewhat hampered by the U.S.-Canada border closure to non-essential travel that has been in place since March.

Nova Bus’ headquarters is in St. Eustache, Quebec while Prevost is headquartered in St. Claire, Quebec. see bus, page 3

KAYLA BREEN/P-R File PHOTO Nova Bus General Manager Greg Cody speaks in February about a new U.S. deal with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority during a press conference announcing the news at the Nova Bus facility located in the Town of Plattsburgh.

Monaghan Medical aims to use new facility to push company into future

See page 3

Georgia-Pacific rolls out toilet paper through the pandemic

See page 6

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North Country Manufacturing

Wednesday, november 18, 2020

Friedman: Pandemic proves CTE essential

CV-TEC: Sees higher-

than-anticipated firstyear enrollment for new engineering program.

By CARA CHAPMAN Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — One lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic? Career and technical education is essential, says Michele Friedman, director of CTE at CV-TEC. “All of the essential workers are basically programs that we train for and populations that we put back into our local economies,” she told The PressRepublican.

“Whether it’s health care, whether it’s transportation sector, manufacturing sector — all of those jobs were deemed essential and needed to keep running in order to allow our communities to move through the spring and then obviously the summer and now the fall.”

HIGHER ENROLLMENTS Enrollments for first-year high school students from Champlain Valley Educational Services BOCES’ 16 component school districts were higher than anticipated this semester, Friedman said.

CV-TEC offers several programs that provide skills transferable to manufacturing, such as digital design, transportation and construction. This year’s welding program filled up, so CV-TEC had to close enrollment.

On the flip side, adult postsecondary enrollment is slightly lower because CV-TEC has to give preference to high school students looking to fill seats, Friedman added.

She said adult evening classes are moving “with an abundance of caution,” and the only one currently being offered is welding, due to high demand.

COVID-19 REQUIREMENTS This year, CV-TEC adopted a schedule whereby juniors and seniors are separated into cohorts which, instead of coming in daily for half-day sessions, have two full days of program instruction each week.

All students are off-campus Wednesdays to allow for deep cleaning and professional development. The schedule aims to reduce traffic and opportunities for intermixing, Friedman said.

Like all schools, CV-TEC implemented personal protective equipment regulations, such as required mask-wearing, and social distancing.

“In addition to those protocols that were in place for schools, our CTE teachers have implemented the PPE requirements for the field that they train,” Friedman added.

“It’s our responsibility, if we’re going to train our students to be part of that employment vein, that they understand what the regulations are right now with PPE and COVID requirements.”

APPLIED ENGINEERING Despite pandemic challenges and the option to postpone, CVTEC moved forward as planned with the fall 2020 launch its latest competitive offering, New Visions: Applied Engineering Program, in partnership with North Country Community College and Clinton Community College.

PHOTO PROVIDED Students in CV-TEC’s competitive New Visions: Applied Engineering Program have the opportunity to explore practical applications within that field while earning college credit.

The program received higher first-year high school enrollment than the school expected, Career and Technical Education Director Michele Friedman said.

“We had such talent in the applicant pool that we wanted to do right by our local students and provide this opportunity,” Friedman said.

The northern cohort runs out of the CV-TEC main campus in Plattsburgh on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the southern cohort is based on the Mineville campus Thursdays and Fridays, she continued.

“We’re doing a lot of work with our local engineering companies to provide that experience to our hopefully newly-minted engineers when they go through their program,” Friedman said.

16 STUDENTS Friedman said a total of 16 students who represent the AuSable Valley, Beekmantown, Boquet Valley, Crown Point, Keene, Northern Adirondack, Peru, Saranac and Willsboro school districts are participating, and are currently taking courses in physics and calculus through NCCC and CCC. She explained that the original plan was for the northern cohort of Applied Engineering students to “live” at CCC’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing.

“When we are allowed to expand into more site visit-type of activities, our intent is to have both the northern and the southern cohort participating in activities at the IAM as soon as we can in a healthy way, in a safe way.

“We partner with (the colleges) virtually and are doing the best we can in that respect, but we couldn’t do it without either North Country or Clinton, by no means.”

RECRUITMENT CV-TEC’s next round recruitment will look different this year, Friedman said.

For something like New

Visions: Applied Engineering, CV-TEC hopes that current students will be able to share their personal experiences with others from their districts.

More broadly, CV-TEC typically allows on-site tours. As an alternative, they plan to draw inspiration from the real estate industry with 360-degree virtual tours.

“We are embarking on a recruitment strategy that will allow you to take virtual tours of all of our CTE programs and kind of click on different components and learn about different facets of the program without having to physically come in the building,” Friedman said.

CV-TEC and its partners in AIME (Assembling Industry: Manufacturing and Education), a program that acquaints students with the basic principles of manufacturing, hope to have open enrollment for that program soon, she noted.

‘STRONGER TOGETHER’ CV-TEC sees itself as a proud community partner and resource, especially as the world has seen CTE through a different, essential lens, Friedman said.

“Our students who take on the challenge of participating and successfully completing one of our CTE programs here at CVTEC on any of our campuses in both counties are really going to have a viable career, but a career that is respected by the community.”

She believes the people of the North Country, no matter the crisis, lean on each other.

“It’s never a competitive mindset, it’s always a collaborative mindset.

“This is yet another example how we all just leaned into the challenge and we’re better and stronger together.”

photo provided Sixteen students who represent the AuSable Valley, Beekmantown, Boquet Valley, Crown Point, Keene, Northern Adirondack, Peru, Saranac and Willsboro school districts are participating in CV-TEC’s career and technical education programs this year.

IAM instructor: Now’s the time to train

Jobs: Manufacturers will

look to fill jobs quickly once pandemic subsides, Duane Bibeau says.

By CARA CHAPMAN Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — Now is the time to train for a skilled manufacturing job, says Duane Bibeau, program coordinator for mechanical technology at Clinton Community College’s Institute for Advanced Manufacturing.

As a society, he continued, we do not know when the COVID-19 pandemic will be over, he continued.

“But we do know that, when it does, we have to make up for all of the manufacturing that hasn’t occurred for the last six, nine months, a year, 16 months, however long it goes.”

At that point, there will be higher demand for skilled jobs in those fields, Bibeau argued.

“When COVID subsides, there’s going to be jobs out there and it’s going to be a high demand and they’re going to

be looking to fill it in a short amount of time.”

ADD-ON CREDENTIALS The IAM needs the support of area guidance counselors to educate students on the opportunities that can come with a two-year tech degree, including local jobs that start out at $24 to $30 per hour, Bibeau said.

While the IAM’s programs have stayed pretty consistent and not seen big growth in one area or another, students are gravitating toward continuing their education and add more skills to their resumes, he continued.

For example, a handful of students who are finishing up their mechanical technology degrees are looking to pursue an electrical certification through the IAM’s ICE (Industrial/Commercial Electrician) program, which was developed with the IBEW as the college’s first associate’s in occupational studies program, CCC Technology Department Chair Scott Buffett said.

In just one additional year, students can get a second associate’s degree while staying local

at an institution they are already familiar with, Bibeau explained.

“Looking at it from a manufacturing company, you have somebody that has all the core benefits of a manufacturing technician, but you also have an electrician so it’s a double-win for them.”

CCC Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. John Kowal added that students could also engage in the IAM’s newer welding program and add that specialty.

“It’s these add-ons that we’re providing these students so that they get additional training for some key areas in the electrical field or in industry through their welding training.”

SPECIALIZATION One of the IAM’s functions is to be a site for local and regional workforce development training.

CCC President Ray DiPasquale said that, in the past, companies like Bombardier and NovaBus sent in large numbers of employees, but lately their training needs have not surfaced much.

Bibeau explained that ses-

sions of 200 to 300 people may return as companies ramp back up, but manufacturers are currently looking more at specialization training for employees they already have since it is more cost-effective to promote from within, then hire for a lower-level position.

For example, the IAM will be starting up mostly remote entrylevel robotics training with Camso that has an evaluation component. That will help employers detect who grasps the material and could be sent on for more training, Bibeau said.

Buffett said he has had inquiries from a group of mechanical engineers who took an electrical class with him last semester and are now interested in taking some pneumatics.

“It’s really like a specialized group,” he continued. “It’s not large groups, it’s groups that have a specific purpose that they’re trying to achieve that I’ve heard from.”

PARTNERSHIPS The IAM’s advisory board, composed of representatives from local companies and

chaired by DiPasquale and North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas, has laid out four strategic goals for the facility that center around marketing, enrollment, partnerships and revenue.

DiPasquale said the board was set to meet Tuesday to define those goals and how to deliver them.

Such partnerships are at the core of how the IAM operates.

For example, Kowal noted, high school seniors in CV-TEC’s New Visions: Applied Engineering Program are currently taking college courses through CCC. DiPasquale added that the college will soon partner with CFES Brilliant Pathways to virtually introduce students to IAM offerings and potential careers.

PANDEMIC SOPs In some ways, the pandemic has forced the college to reorient its priorities, Kowal said, such as how it had to postpone the launch of its essentials in advanced manufacturing microcredential.

But it has also resulted in more remote opportunities, Buf-

fett posited, since a number of courses had to be brought online in the spring.

The standard operating procedures, or SOPs, in place at the IAM reflect those students will see out in the field, including how companies are approaching pandemic response.

“We have sterilization, we have cleaning stations, they have to wear their masks, they try to maintain six foot distancing,” Bibeau said.

And students who run a fever or have any COVID-19 symptoms are not allowed on campus.

“They’re following those guidelines because that’s how we’re running today — just like a manufacturing facility,” Bibeau said.

Students who have to miss classes due to symptoms or a positive test can make up the lab time at a later date or utilize virtual lessons, he added.

Email Cara Chapman: cchapman@pressrepublican.com Twitter: @PPR_carachapman

North Country Manufacturing

Wednesday, november 18, 2020

3

SpencerARL plays support role for Nova Bus, Prevost

GM: Their success is our success.

By McKENZIE DELISLE Press-Republican

PHOTO PROVIDED Monaghan Medical’s new facility sits ready to go at its new site on Industrial Boulevard in the Town of Plattsburgh. Ground broke there in July 2019 and the medical manufacturer recently announced construction of the 65,000-square-foot building had finished. The plant doubled the size of Monaghan’s Latour Avenue location and had acreage enough to expand again in the future. “This new facility allows room for growth as we continue to expand our presence within this business community,” Manufacturing Manager Tim Howley said.

Monaghan Medical aims to use new facility to push into future

By BEN WATSON Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — In a 2020 that has already been hectic enough, Monaghan Medical was recently tasked with moving into a brand new 65,000-square-foot facility in the middle of a pandemic.

“It’s been going pretty well,” Manufacturing Manager Tim Howley said. “We were in our old facility for close to 40 years, so to try to move the entire facility and all the people has been a challenge.”

The company has been in its new home since Nov. 2, with some of the less complex production lines already ramping up.

As a medical device manufacturer, Monaghan is subject to more regulations than many industries, according to Howley, meaning that some of the more complicated production lines are still gearing up.

“It’s not as simple as moving it over here and starting it up,” Howley said. “There’s a lot of testing and validations that have to be done.”

As of Nov. 13, the plant was currently running at

bus...

Continued from Page 1 Some workers have adjusted to working remotely in Canada, Cody said, but, due to the transportation being deemed essential, the bus makers have been able to get some employees across the border.

And it’s the complete team of workers that have been able to keep the manu-

about 30 percent production capacity, according to Howley.

And while many of their existing production lines were moved to the new facility from the former 35,000-square-foot Latour Avenue facility, other new state-of-the-art lines have been built in the new home on Industrial Boulevard.

“It wasn’t only a facility move, but also an upgrade in our manufacturing processes to make them much more efficient and cost effective,” Howley said.

More or less all of the company’s workforce has been involved in the move in some way, according to Howley, a process that has buoyed morale.

“Moving from an old facility to a brand-spanking-new one with fresh paint, and the whole nine yards, it’s pretty exciting for everybody,” Howley said.

An increased production level over the summer, including running a second shift for four months for only the second time in the company’s history, raised inventory levels to a spot that would allow for cus-

facturing line going through a pandemic with so many unprecedented challenges.

“As an organization, we would not be successful were it not for all of the employees that work here at Nova Bus and Prevost,” Cody said.

“It’s them who make us successful, and they’ve been having to work through all the difficulties.”

Email Ben Watson: bwatson@pressrepublican.com

tomer orders to continue while moving.

There was only two or three days without distribution during the moving process, Howley said.

COVID-19 That ramping up of production also coincided with an extreme demand for respiratory-related products at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Howley, with one of the company’s specialties being nebulizer-related products, items involved in getting aerosolized medicines into patients’ lungs.

Knowing that they have played their part in helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a rewarding part of the company’s work over the last few months.

“These are medical devices that are going to help with peoples’ lives and help them breathe better, so people have been very proud to be able to work in this sort of industry right now, because they understand exactly what their hard work and efforts are doing,” Howley said.

Following the initial jump

ramp...

Continued from Page 1

HEADED FOR GROWTH Pre-COVID-19, Coryer Staffing had nearly 250 high school seniors interested in RAMP from the area’s 2020 graduates.

Though the virus had taken a toll on those numbers, David said the group, now led by RAMP Coordinator Rachel Danis, was reaching out to those students once again.

“Statistics say 30 percent of seniors graduate without

in demand at the beginning of the pandemic, though, there was actually a bit of a dip in demand for many of the company’s products as hospitals postponed many of their elective surgeries and procedures, according to Howley, with many of the company’s products being post-operation related.

As the summer continued and those procedures started taking place again, demand started to pick up again, he added.

THE FUTURE The new facility was designed to be expanded upon, Howley said, and that’s just what the company is hoping for.

Monaghan currently employs 85 people, according to Howley, and plans to add up to 10 percent per year to their workforce over the next few years.

“We’re looking at growth; we’re looking at the future,” Howley said. “We’re hoping to have a really successful next generation of Monaghan here in Plattsburgh.”

Email Ben Watson: bwatson@pressrepublican.com a plan,” David said. “If there are 1,500, plus or minus, graduating seniors in our area, there’s a good 300 to 400 people every year who graduate without a plan and who could benefit from a program like RAMP.” The RAMP program already has a presence in St. Lawrence County and officials said it was headed for further expansions.

‘EVERYBODY COULD BENEFIT’ In an area like the North Country, where manufacturing was so prominent, David said about 90 percent

P L AT T S B U RG H — Nova Bus and Prevost have become household names in the North Country, but right on Area Development Drive in the Town of Plattsburgh is a supporting manufacturer that does much of the “behind the scenes” for Volvo Bus North America.

Its name is SpencerARL New York.

General Manager Mitch Vermette said the plant opened up locally in January 2009, around the same time as Nova and Prevost.

“This location is dependent on them,” he said.

“Our main focus is supporting those two companies to ensure that they’re successful so that, subsequently, we are successful.”

READY TO GO Vermette described the work as sub-assembly and logistics, which, meant workers assembled bus parts to get them ready for installation.

“So that they can bolt it right onto the vehicle itself, right onto the bus at Nova,” Vermette explained. “That could be an engine, an axel, a radiator, or it might be a valve assembly, break lines, airlines, hosing, piping — we do a little bit of everything.”

For an average bus, Vermette said SpencerARL in Plattsburgh produces about 400 to 500 subassemblies.

“Our production hours to a vehicle are anywhere between 65 to 85 hours per vehicle.”

KEY LOCATION Since the manufacturer provides its services exclusively to the two local Volvo Bus plants, it would be safe to assume SpencerARL New York, a subset of Spencer//Butcher Group, planted roots in Plattsburgh because of that connection.

“To be more specific, we ended up here because of Nova and Prevost’s geographic proximity to their parent facility, which is in Canada just outside the City of Montreal,” Vermette said.

“For them to have a presence in the United States — it made sense because of how close we were,” he of Coryer Staffing’s work connected back that sector, but the agency matched employees in other fields, too, including maintenance, housekeeping and retail.

“Everybody out there could benefit from working with us,” Elizabeth said. “Whether it’s a company looking for workers or a person who is looking to improve their career, make a change of career or start their career.”

Email McKenzie Delisle: mdelisle@pressrepublican. com Twitter: @McKenzieDelisle

PRESSREPUBLICAN.COM

continued.

“It wasn’t just that we were here next to them, it’s the fact that we’re also close to the facilities up north to give support, work closely with them as these new contracts come in and out.”

GROWING TOGETHER Since opening in 2009, Vermette said the Plattsburgh plant has grown tremendously.

What was once a 40,000- to 50,000-squarefoot operation, was now a 160,000-square-foot setup, split between two facilities.

“We were a mere operation of about 35 employees,” he said, adding that, as of the beginning of November, that number had grown to roughly 150.

While COVID-19 had slowed things though April and May, Vermette said SpencerARL New York was fully operational again and was, mirroring its partner groups, building up to begin manufacturing three buses per day, instead of its typical two per day.

FINDING WORKFORCE SpencerARL began 2020 with about 115 to 120 workers, but Vermette they were looking to add about 50 new workers, some of which had already started.

Like other North Country manufacturers, the general manager said hunting down workers was the trickiest part.

“Especially now,” he said.

“It has been very, very difficult to find employees here and to find employees who have the basic soft skills to understand communication or just show up for work and really put in the effort.

“It is difficult to find good candidates in general these days; it’s tough.”

He also said the company wasn’t seeing the same number of applications, and hadn’t seen as many high school grads or CV-TEC students as one might think.

“We have tried to drum up some recruits and groom the next generation of workers, but, for some reason, we’re unable to reach them.”

‘NOT LIKE TV’ Asked what he felt the disconnect was, Vermette thought it was stereotypes.

“It’s not the environment that they see on TV, of these large, dark and dirty facilities,” he said of the industry.

Nowadays, the general manager said manufacturers, like SpencerARL, were clean and organized, conforming to lean principles of manufacturing.

“Everything has a place,” he said. “As the businesses are run in that regard, their facilities follow suit.

“The old stories of people who come out smelling like a coal miner, looking like a coal miner — those aren’t true anymore.”

Email McKenzie Delisle: mdelisle@pressrepublican.com Twitter: @McKenzieDelisle

4

North Country Manufacturing

Wednesday, november 18, 2020

Belcam’s total body care weathers coronavirus pandemic

OPEN: Longtime Rouses

Point business receives essential business status during COVID-19

By ROBIN CAUDELL Press-Republican

ROUSES POINT – Belcam Inc., established in 1946, touches millions without their knowledge.

“We have been here for a long time,” Fran Wynnik, human resources manager, said.

“For some of the older people in the community, we were Delagar to start with. We’ve always been Belcam, but when the family bought the business, they stuck with the original name for a while because that’s what the customers recognized. So that was the Delagar bit, but we are Belcam. That is what we’re known as now and have been for the last 20-odd years.”

Belcam’s primary lines of business are fragrances, bath and body (shampoo, lotion, powder), and personal care implements (manicure, pedicure, beauty tools).

CANADIAN ORIGINS The company started off in a couple of small buildings on Main Street, but operates in a more than 130,000 sq. ft. warehouse and production area at 27 Montgomery St. in Rouses Point.

Originally from England, the Bellm family started the business in Canada West.

“Then, one of the brothers came down here and they registered in New York State,” Wynnik said.

“We moved to Rouses Point at the end of 1953. We built this building in 1967.”

In 1980, Belcam moved into personal care implements with Denco.

“And, it still sells under the brand name of Denco,” she said.

Customers include Wal-Mart, Amazon, Kinney Drugs and Price Chopper.

“We also do private label, which we can’t talk about,” Wynnik said.

“Particularly in the beauty implements, personal-care tools, we sell to a lot of what would be called mom-and-pop pharmacies, so single-owner pharmacies.”

EMPLOYEE OWNED Belcam has 100 employees hailing from Mooers, Champlain, Rouses Point, Plattsburgh, and Alburg, Vt. “This company started as a family-owned company, but in 2008 the employees bought it,” she said.

“So, it’s 100-percent employee owned. Any employee after they’ve been with us for a year, they start to become owners.

There’s no cost to the employees.

We have a mortgage, and we pay off our mortgage with money that we make from the business.”

The Bellms reached the point where they wanted to retire.

“They wanted to, I think, preserve the business the way it was,” Wynnik said.

“We’re very family oriented.

So this was a way that they could, if you want, to give back to the employees.”

Many family businesses get purchased and absorbed into multinational conglomerates or disappear after a few years.

“We have managed to keep on going,” she said.

“We continue to grow. It is a steady, sort of quiet kind of growth.”

photo provided Belcam Inc.’s 3-in1 bodywash assembly line. The company creats a variety of products, including shampoos, washes, fragrances and lotions, as well as personal care implements like manicure, pedicure and beauty tools.

ESSENTIAL BUSIINESS In 2020, the company was deemed an essential business by the state during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“We were able to keep operating, under the mandates, obviously, but we were able to keep going,” Wynnik said.

“Not only do we make hand washes, body washes and things, but we converted from making our fragrances over to hand sanitizers, which we still do. Now, things are more normalized.”

Fortunately, Belcam already possessed an alcohol license.

“The FDA had put in provisions because there were such shortages,” she said.

“There was a way we were

able to do it because it is considered a drug. If you used a certain formulation and followed the rules, you were able to do that.

“So fragrances weren’t really considered to be essential, we converted over. It took us about a month to pull it all together. We were still able to do it.”

Belcam was declared essential because it made things people needed to wash with.

“Hand sanitizers are great but honestly just our soap is better,” Wynnik said.

“We have hand washes. We don’t actually have soap. Our liquids are very effective on combating the virus. People still need to cut their fingernails and those types of things” photo provided Belcam rides the pandemic Some of the finished fragrance and liquid wash products produced by without missing a beat or any Belcam Inc. The company with English roots has been the North Country in staff reductions.

“One of our biggest chal- some capacity since 1946. lenges right now is finding 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. have a lot of people with a lot enough people for the posiWynnik has worked the of years. We have new people, tions that we have open,” Wyn- company for 37 years. too.” nik said.

“I still really like working for Email Robin Caudell: “But I think that’s a common this company,” she said. problem in this area. We’re not “I also do regulatory affairs rcaudell@pressrepublican.com alone.” for the company. I think it’s The business operates from a good place to work and we Twitter:@RobinCaudell

image provided Belcam Inc.’s finished products warehouse.

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Wednesday, november 18, 2020

GP: Official talks making

North Country Manufacturing

5

Rolling off the line

toilet paper during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By McKENZIE DELISLE Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — Amidst a global pandemic, it has been a big year for toilet paper, which was welcomed news by the Georgia-Pacific operation here.

The 1 million-square-foot paper mill on Margaret Street in the City of Plattsburgh was a 24/7 operation before its product, and others like it, started flying off of shelves earlier this year.

“It isn’t like we could find more hours to operate,” Kelly Ferguson, the senior director of public affairs and communications, told the PressRepublican. “However, we completed an investment at the mill in late 2019 that increased the mill’s ability to produce more than 30 percent more bath tissue.

“That was excellent timing for the mill to be able to meet the increased demand that came along with the pandemic.”

While Ferguson couldn’t give more recent production numbers, about a year ago, a Plattsburgh Mill official had said it produced 15,000 cases of the bath tissue daily.

QUILTED NORTHERN Georgia-Pacific started at the Plattsburgh site after purchasing the mill in 1963.

At the time, Ferguson said it manufactured both bath tissue and napkins for quick service restaurants.

Today, it was solely focused on producing Quilted Northern Ultra Plush bath tissue.

ACROSS THE STATES Georgia-Pacific has a video on its website titled, “How We Make Tissue.”

In 60 seconds, the company takes viewers through the process, showing how wood becomes bath tissue.

The process starts by creating pulp, which gets bleached and later processed into a sheet using a paper machine that is larger than a football field. The sheet gets rolled and further processed, eventually becoming large logs of bath tissue; those are then sliced into the rolls seen at stores around the country.

“The Plattsburgh mill has the ability to ship directly to some retail store customers locally in the northeast, but much of it is sent to distribution centers across the U.S.,”

IMAGE PROVIDED A screenshot from Georgia-Pacific’s, “How We Make Tissue,” video shows a giant roll of tissue, called a parent roll, being carried around by a truck the company refers to as an, “Elephant.” Per the video, the parent roll is made up of more than a lifetime supply of toilet tissue for a whole family. The large roll then gets converted into logs, which are then cut into the rolls found at the store. The video, found on YouTube, gives a snapshot of what the Plattsburgh-based Georgia Pacific plant, which produces Quilted Northern toilet paper, might look like on the inside.

Ferguson said.

“So, you can likely find (Plattsburgh-made) tissue from northern Maine to southern California.”

LOCAL HISTORY Even before Georgia-Pacific, the mill had a history in paper products.

Ferguson believed the first paper mill was built there about four decades earlier, in 1920, by the Saranac Pulp and Paper Company.

“There were a series of name changes and different owners through the years,” he said.

“Those different companies apparently made a wide range of products, including molded pulp plates and egg cartons, toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, wax paper and pie plates.”

In 1955, Vanity Fair Paper Mills bought the papermaking part of the mill and focused mainly on bath tissue, he said, adding that Georgia-Pacific purchased it from them less than 10 years later.

“It was one of Georgia-Pacific’s first tissue mills.”

‘ESSENTIAL PRODUCT, WORKERS’ The mill now has about 85 employees.

Though workforce size was not impacted by the novel coronavirus, Ferguson said the mill had added safety precautions.

“I think most people would say that there’s been nothing normal about 2020,” Ferguson

IMAGE PROVIDED Single rolls of toilet paper are carried along a conveyor belt in a screenshot from Georgia-Pacific’s, “How We Make Tissue,” video. The City of Plattsburgh-based facility produces Quilted Northern toilet paper and the video gives a look at that process. This is one of the final steps, as the paper gets prepped for distribution. said. “As a mill and as a company, we’ve never experienced the interest and demand for our bath tissue as we have seen since the pandemic began.

“We make an essential product, and our employees are essential workers. We are proud of all the work they do every day to keep product on the store shelves.”

Email McKenzie Delisle: mdelisle@pressrepublican.com Twitter: @McKenzieDelisle

A

A

gri-Mark, is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative with m gri-Mark, Inc., Inc., is a farmer-owned dairy cooperative with more 850 members, including 475 York fromState.

New York State. T than 850than members, including 475 from New The co-op co-op with the Chateaugay Cooperative in 2003 a merged with themerged Chateaugay Cooperative in 2003 and purchased purchased the cheese-making plant in Chateaugay.

The merger the cheese-making plant in Chateaugay. The merger and purchase purchase gave the dairy of the North Country an excelle gave the dairy farmers of thefarmers North Country an excellent local local market and atochance to resurrect the McCada market for their for milktheir andmilk a chance resurrect the McCadam cheese brand. cheese brand.

Since then have invested millions of dollars our facility, inc Since then wewe have invested millions of dollars in ourinfacility, ing newnew cheese vats andand cheese finishing including cheese vats cheese finishingtables tableswithin withinthe past years.

We years. had 60We employees when wewhen started, we now the past few had 60 employees we but started, but hav working three shifts.

Our facility is comprised of appr weemployees now have 120 employees working three shifts.

Our facility is imately 59,000 square feet, 48,000 of which are dedicated to ma comprised of approximately 59,000 square feet, 48,000 of which ufacturing. are dedicated to manufacturing.

IMAGE PROVIDED A screenshot from Georgia-Pacific’s, “How We Make Tissue,” video looks down onto pulp after it has been bleached. The pulp is at the beginning of a paper machine that is bigger than a football field. Kelly Ferguson, senior director of public affairs, said this is called the forming section, because the mix of water and pulp begin to form into sheet as the water drains and is pulled away.

Contact the Press-Republican by email The Press-Republican newsroom has email addresses for public access to news, sports, letters and arts-related events.

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For News, call 565-4131; for Letters to the Editor, 565-4148; for Sports, 565-4124.

Our employees help plant receive between 1 million Our employees help thethe plant receive between 1 million to 1.5to 1.5 m pounds of milk per day from more than 200 local dairy farmers o million pounds of milk per day from more than 200 local dairy about 365 million pounds per year, which equals more than 42 m farmers or about 365 million pounds per year, which equals more gallons. From this high quality milk we produce more than 40 m than 42 million gallons. From this high quality milk we produce pounds of award-winning cheese per year. more than 40 million pounds of award-winning cheese per year.

We are looking forfor more employees to help us continue to produce We are looking more employees to help us continue to produ award winning dairy products for our farmer-owners.

We offer award winning dairy products for our farmer-owners. We offer co competitive wagesand andgreat greatbenefits benefits including including health petitive wages health insurance. insurance.

If you are an experienced Maintenance Technician and looking for a If great please send in a letter of interest, youcareer are anopportunity, experienced Maintenance Technician andcall, looking oraemail the following: great career opportunity, please send in a letter of interest, ca email the following:

Janet Clark Attn: Maintenance Technician 39 McCadam Lane Janet Clark Chateaugay, New York 12920 Attn: Maintenance Technician Phone: 518-497-6644 39 McCadam Lane jclark1@mccadam.com

Chateaugay, New York 12920 518-497-6644 The Agri-Mark farmers arePhone: committed to maintaining and growing jclark1@mccadam.com this business for future generations of New York dairy farm families and the rural communities they help support!

The Agri-Mark farmers are committed to maintaining and growin this business for future generations of New York dairy farm fami and the rural communities they help support!

111 Quarry Road • Plattsburgh, NY • 12901 • 518.561.5321 • www.upstonematerials.com

McCadam Cheese, 39 McCadam Lane, Chateaugay, New York 12920

6

North Country Manufacturing

Wednesday, november 18, 2020

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