Success sells | NotifyMD chose Maine, and now other companies will take notice
It was the summer of 1987 and I was a pilot in a formation of 18 C-130 transport aircraft. Our mission that day was to pick up about 2,000 U.S. Army Airborne troops in Aviano, Italy, and deposit them in a drop zone in Germany a few miles from the Czech border.
A safe airdrop was our first goal. But we also had several other, sometimes competing, goals. My squadron commander wanted his aircrews to get experience flying a large formation. The escort F-15 fighter aircraft were practicing different protection techniques. The intelligence guys were interested in seeing how the Russians would react to such a large airlift so close to the border. To the paratroops in the back of my airplane, none of that mattered. They were only concerned with getting safely to a drop zone in Germany.
On Nov. 18, 2008, NotifyMD announced 300 new jobs in a facility in Winthrop. Like that airdrop mission 20 years ago, there were several potentially conflicting goals from competing groups.
The team at Maine & Co. first met with Tenn.-based NotifyMD in 2006 when we worked to locate their first Maine facility in Farmington. At that time, CEO Gary Ferguson told us that their next expansion would be in Missouri. Over time, we strengthened the relationship with Gary and his team and, after several months, we were able to convince them to take a look at Maine again. Our goal was to get them to locate their next facility anywhere in our state.
Like every company we work with, NotifyMD had very specific selection criteria. Access to enough quality workers was its first requirement. Ferguson said at the opening of NotifyMD’s second Maine facility in Winthrop that Maine’s workers are the best he’s seen — and he operates seven facilities around the country. The new Winthrop location involved 300 new jobs, so a facility that could support that many people was also critical.
Additionally, NotifyMD’s corporate culture requires that the company become integrated in the community. It wants to do more than just provide good jobs. It is important to this company that it improve the towns where they locate their facilities. NotifyMD wants to find a community whose size allows it to make a significant difference.
NotifyMD needed a facility with about 25,000 square feet. It’s model requires superior customer service, so infrastructure with robust telecommunications infrastructure and capacity is a strict requirement.
The company also needed to be able to acquire the space at an affordable price. And it needed to move quickly. Building a new facility was not possible if we were going to be able to win over Missouri. There simply was not enough time.
What we did right
As we looked at potential locations around the state, Sanford and Winthrop emerged as the two leading locations. Both had energetic municipal and economic development leadership who worked hard to impress this company. Between these two towns, NotifyMD’s management team faced a difficult choice. Both places fit their requirements for existing affordable space. Both offered a small-town atmosphere where NotifyMD could be the employer of choice. Both offered NotifyMD the opportunity to quickly become a civic leader in their communities. Both could access a large enough demographic to staff a 300-job facility.
The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development acted quickly to approve Pine Tree Zone tax incentives for both locations. In Winthrop, local and Kennebec County officials worked effectively to make sure the chosen facility was located in the Pine Tree Zone. Sanford’s officials did the same.
Members of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce in both cities met with NotifyMD to share knowledge about business climate and hiring experience.
Just like the airdrop mission, there were several agencies that had competing interests and goals. Certainly Sanford and Winthrop made compelling cases, and competed hard. Ultimately, NotifyMD selected Winthrop.
In this success, we showed that we have lots of communities that could make companies successful. And while one great community didn’t win this time, their efforts made Maine look more attractive. Other companies will see what happened on the NotifyMD mission. Those other companies will be more likely to choose Maine next time because we proved that we can work together.
Do you know of any other place in the country that announced 300 new jobs in the last month? We did it here — and all we had to do was work together to put the load on the target.
Matt Jacobson, president of Maine & Co. in Portland, can be reached at mjacobson@maineco.org.
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