🔒For northern Maine businesses, transportation infrastructure is key

Business that have operations north of Bangor or outside the I-95 corridor are well acquainted with the frustrations of arranging shipping.

At our Mainebiz CEO Forum, held Oct. 21 at the University of Southern Maine, the topic of logistics was on the mind of at least one of our panelists. Kate McAleer, a steely entrepreneur and CEO of Bixby & Co. in Rockland, cited the difficulty of getting a trucking company to stop at Bixby's production facility. It produces organic chocolate bars, which don't take up a ton of truck space but nonetheless cannot be cheaply shipped via UPS or FedEx. Often, she told the audience, shipments amount to a single pallet, which trucking companies are not eager to drive out of their way for.

The farther you get from the population centers, the harder it is to find transportation for goods.

Appropriately, this issue of Mainebiz is partly devoted to transportation and infrastructure.

Like McAleer at Bixby & Co., businesses in Aroostook County face challenges in getting supplies but also shipping its finished products.

Senior Writer James McCarthy and I had talked about the best way to tell the story of transportation and logistics, and for nearly a year he'd been talking about getting on the Organic Valley “milk run” to The County. The plan was to hitch a ride with the driver of the milk truck, the vehicle that visits dairy farms in The County. The truck picks up the milk and delivers it to a Stonyfield plant in Londonderry, N.H., where it is turned into yogurt.

He settled for Plan B, which was to join Organic Valley's business agent in Maine, Steve Getz, as he made the rounds visiting the cooperative's member dairy farms in The County. It should be mentioned that the milk run is no Sunday drive; it's almost 900 miles, round trip, and the Aroostook loop alone is 520 miles.

Now this was no ordinary trip. Jim's alarm clock went off around 4 a.m. and he set out in his own car to meet Getz in Houlton — itself a three-hour drive. To complicate matters, the trip was scheduled for Sept. 30, the day we had six or more inches of rain throughout Maine. Better that than snow, eh?

Jim weaves the details of this trip into a narrative that clearly spells out what's at stake for dairy farmers in Maine's most northerly state. We talk about the importance of getting out to visit our sources, whether they're in downtown Portland or tucked into a sparsely populated stretch along the New Brunswick border. It was in that latter locale, as a matter of fact, that Jim was able see the reaction on a young Amish farmer's face when he was told he'd be part of the milk run. His fortunes had been changed in front of Jim's eyes, but the story also points out the logistics challenges that remain.

Elsewhere in the issue, Laurie Schreiber, our Bass Harbor-based correspondent, has a story about the importance of rural airports and how they often serve as a lifeline for businesses along the coast and, again, in The County. Luckily, the airports have two advocates in U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, and federal funding is helping airports make needed upgrades in runways, lavatory facilities (for the planes), snow removal trucks and other equipment.

For our cover story, Senior Writer Lori Valigra sat down with David Shaw, the founder of IDEXX Laboratories, a leader in diagnostics and IT solutions for animal health and water-and-milk quality. Nearly a year ago, Lori sat down for an in-depth interview with Tom's of Maine founder Tom Chappell, and this Q&A strikes a similar chord. Shaw talks about his journey to IDEXX, but also what he's been doing since. He's a savvy investor and he was candid about what he looks for in a company. It's a good read.