The answer is that both are the result of two innovative Maine businesses and the energetic, committed, and visionary entrepreneurs behind them. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with those two entrepreneurs. Their stories are inspiring. What's more, they are indicative of the spirit I find throughout Maine's small-business community.
Marianne Sensale-Guerin is President and owner of Guerin Associates in Gorham. This environmental services firm specializes in the removal, replacement, cleaning, and retrofitting of underground and above-ground fuel storage tanks. The company also provides 24-hour emergency spill response, as well as hazardous and contaminated site remediation services to government, corporate, and private clients. This important work is vital to protecting our precious groundwater supplies, and to public health and safety.
It is work that Guerin Associates does extremely well. Since founding the company in 2000, Marianne Sensale-Guerin has grown her business from four employees to 20, and added a branch office in Presque Isle. She provides her employees not only with good wages, but also with an excellent, family-friendly benefits package.
She is a savvy businesswoman, and an extraordinarily generous person. Each year, she donates heating oil to various fund-raising events. She has been active in the Children's Dream Factory, a charity that grants wishes to terminally ill children, and she encourages her employees to participate with her in the Jimmy Fund for cancer research.
That alone would make her story one of Maine's great small-business success stories. But there is more.
In 1991, after a decade of experience working for an oil company and an environmental firm, Marianne and her husband, Marc Guerin, formed Pollution Control Services in Gorham. In 1999, PCS's assets were sold to North American Environmental Services, and the couple accepted managerial positions with the larger company. The positions separated them geographically with Marc working in Maine and Marianne in the New York corporate office.
Tragically, on November 15, 2000, Marc was killed in an industrial accident. Six weeks following her husband's death, North American decided to close its Maine environmental division. Not wanting to uproot herself and her young son, she struck a deal with North American, which allowed her to take over its existing federal contracts and perform them under a new entity, Guerin Associates, which she formed in December 2000 and has led to its current success.
Each year, the President and the U.S. Small Business Administration name a National Small Business Person of the Year. The criteria are business stability, growth in employment and sales, financial condition, innovation, community service, and overcoming adversity. No wonder, then, that Marianne Sensale-Guerin is the 2005 National Small Business Person of the Year, the first Mainer ever chosen for this honor. Her strong work ethic and good business sense have enabled her to build a successful business in our great State. Her generosity and determination are uplifting to all Americans. Her success is hard earned, and this prestigious award is well deserved.
JSI Fixtures began in 1991 in the basement of a family home in Milo manufacturing store displays for the Hannaford Supermarkets. Today, JSI is Milo's largest private employer, manufacturing high-end wood and steel displays for the national supermarket industry. The company now employs 95 workers, and has created more than 30 jobs in the last 14 months. It is owned by Mark Awalt, his brothers Terry and Barry, and their stepfather Clayton Johndro.
When Mark joined the company in 1997, JSI has already outgrown the family basement. In fact, it had outgrown its 30,000-square foot plant in Howland. Mark sought the help of the Maine Small Business Development Center at Eastern Maine Development Corporation and the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council. These institutions helped JSI receive a community development block grant, a Small Business Administration guaranteed loan, and gap financing from EMDC, which enabled JSI to move to the vacant Dexter Shoe Plant in Milo in 2000. Many of JSI's employees previously worked for Dexter Shoe.
Today, JSI's customers are major supermarket chains including Hannaford, Shaw's, Food Lion, Price Chopper, Giant Food Stores, Stop n' Shop, Top's Markets, and Pathmark. JSI also sells to a few retail chains including L.L. Bean.
Another great Maine small-business success story. But what does any of this have to do with unbruised bananas?
Everything. In addition to building better display fixtures for the supermarket industry, JSI re-invented the way that easily damaged produce is merchandised. Its patented BananaBed – a curved thick foam cushion that cradles the fruit – is fast becoming a staple throughout the supermarket industry. Just a few years after its introduction, national sales are approaching $500,000, and JSI recently was awarded a contract to supply its BananaBed to Kroger, the nation's second-largest grocer. This is only the beginning.
No wonder, then, that Mark Awalt was the SBA's Maine Small Business Person of the Year for 2004. With his impressive credentials, including military service, employment at Maine Yankee, a bachelor's degree from UMaine, an MBA from Thomas College, and certification from the esteemed Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Mark Awalt could work anywhere. He chooses to work with his family in Milo.
It was a great pleasure to meet these two amazing entrepreneurs. The specifics of their stories are unique, but their spirit of energy, commitment, and vision is found throughout Maine's small-business community. I am sure that all Mainers join me in offering congratulations for their success, and in wishing them even greater success in the years to come.
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