As of November 1, Atrio‘s membership for their Medicare supplement insurance expanded from under 6,000 to 12,000 through an agreement with Willamette Valley Health Partners (Willamette Valley purchased a portion of Atrio, and Atrio has taken on the administration of their insurance functions). The new deal was closed by Atrio’s new CEO Ruth Rogers Bauman and allowed Atrio to hire an additional 12 employees. Atrio is continuing to consider new markets for its insurance management services.

Linen Services, owned by Mike Fassler, has been expanding (now up to 12 full- and part-time employees). Much of that growth was driven by a successful bid to take on Mercy Medical Center’s primary linen contract. Mercy agreed to pay a significant portion of the contract up front, financing new capacity for Linen Services, in return for a long-term discount. The net result was savings for Mercy and the addition of 10 jobs that were previously outside the County. Linen Services is at (541) 643-2200. 

Other Recent News

• The proposed Jordan Cove LNG project received a preliminary export permit from FERC. That decision has been appealed, by the Oregon Attorney General. 
• Umpqua Research has won a contract from NASA to develop a highly energy- and water-efficient laundry technology for use in space missions.

Resources:

Oregon BEST has announced a new grant program to support the commercialization of new technologies in the “cleantech” sector (renewable energy, green building, etc.) through collaboration between Oregon research institutions and small businesses.

OMEP–the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership–has a new initiative to support Oregon manufacturers improve their position in regional and national supply chains through implementation of Lean and related management approaches.

Up-coming events:

The UCC Small Business Development Center will host a 6-part series “Profit Mastery”–an in-depth look at tools small and medium-sized businesses can use to generate powerful information to support business decisions from your financial data. More info.

Partnership News:

Kelly Morgan, CEO of Mercy, has agreed to serve as Chair of our Board of Directors beginning January 2012. Our thanks to Perry Murray who led The Partnership through several significant recent transitions with humor and grace.

Tools for Export Promotion

Business Oregon has two new programs to support businesses seeking to establish themselves in international markets. The Oregon STEP and Oregon Trade Promotion programs both offer financial assistance to support participation in international trade shows and missions, and attendance at trainings on export promotion. Several potential international trade shows and missions are listed on the export.gov website.

Additional International Trade Resources

• US Department of Commerce offers information resources and trade counseling, market intelligence, business matchmaking, and commercial diplomacy.
• The Ex-Im Bank offers access to loan guarantees to promote trade.
• SBDC network offers training toolkitsand consultation with a trade promotion expert
• Business Oregon has in-house specialists in export promotion in key traded sectors (including advanced manufacturing, secondary wood products and food processing).

Regional Supplier Network: The Connectory

Twenty-five Douglas County-based businesses are now registered on the Northwest Connectory. This is a resource, co-sponsored by State of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition, to help build connections in the regional supply chain.

November Event Highlights:

Over this past month, a number of public presentations on economic conditions around Douglas County identified promising developments. . .

At the Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic forecast, Fred Dickson of D.A. Davidson pointed to 8 long-term economic drivers of economic growth, a number of which southern Oregon is well-positioned to take advantage of, including:

• Water and water resource development, treatment and transmission
• Food production and distribution
• Security needs–especially data security
• Lifestyle/leisure products and services

At the Lunch Bunch’s Snapshots for Success, Dave Larecy of Con-Vey, Hal Ball of Orenco Systems, Inc., and Mick Crowe, FCC Commercial Furniture, all reported significant recent hiring efforts–and were optimistic about the possibilities for more to come.

At the Oregon Trails meeting, a panel of experts in small business lending and equity investment shared a wealth of expertise. The bottom line: credit terms are changing and access to credit has definitely become more challenging, but solutions are out there for the persistent and well-prepared small business. See the Business Financing Programs section on our website for resources.

Holiday Season

With the Holidays fast-approaching, we hope you will consider patronizing local merchants for your gift shopping. Even better, consider gifts that are produced locally!