Winderosa In The News
Peru -- New Home of
world's best gaskets. Rumford Times Newspaper 1997
Peru -- New Home of
world's best gaskets. Gov. Angus King holds one of the
Winderosa Custom Gaskets as he talks with Rachel Carignan(left) and
Distribution Manager LoLisa Bonney (right)
PERU-- On a terrific
spring afternoon Wednesday, some 450 people, including Gov. Angus
King, welcomed Winderosa to its new
facility on Route 108. From
a building that had once been a three-story chickenbarn has been
transformed into the new
headquarters of Winderosa, which has
produced more than six million gaskets since starting the business
12 years ago in Dixfield.
Rachel Carignan, said they
purchased the facillity and began renovations last September. Jay
Windover runs the production of
the plant, as well as
being the chief engineer on staff to make the gaskets. LoLisa Bonney
heads the distribution of their products.
She deals with the
numerous distributors, and there are many, because Winderosa exports
40 percent of its products to 36 different
countries. Gov.
King noted "Is there any particular reason that the world's best
gaskets for snowmobiles and motorcycles are being
made in Peru,
Maine?" Is there any reason that they can't be made in Peru, Maine?
If we can do what this company has achieved,
we can do
anything."he said. Winderosa is a community business, a family
business, which made the event so special. King noted
that
only five percent of the world's population lives in North America.
With 95 percent of the customers living somewhere else,
that
presents an opportunity. "There are a lot of people who are whining
about international trade, worried about losing jobs, and
worried about competition from other countries. I say that's
bunk!" "We should look at the globalization of the economy as an
enormous opportunity for us. All those people are going to need
gaskets for their motorcycles, snowmobiles or for the other things
they're going to start buying with their new found wealth," he
said. "Anybody who is making anything ought to be exporting.
If
Winderosa can do it from Peru, Maine we can do it from
Skowhegan, from Waterville, from Fort Kent, from Caribou, from
Kittery,"
said the governor. "Politicians don't create jobs. All
we can do is grease the skids. All we can do is try to work on the
worker's
comp so they can compete in the international market.
And then get out of the way," he said. "That's what today is all
about. A
company willing to take a risk, and putting what
they've earned on the line. I don't know the details of the
transaction but I can see
that there's a lot on the line
with these bankers behind me to finance this building." said King.
"To take a chance on creating job
and creating an opportunity
for Maine people. This is exactly what we ought to be doing. And I
hope I can come back and clip a
ribbon on the next phase
because there's an awful lot of people who are going to need one the
these (gaskets). They may not
know it. But one day, they are
going to come out, look down, and see a little puddle of oil under
their motorcycle. And they're
going to need it," he said.
"They're not going to know where it's (the gasket) going to come
from. They may not have heard of
Maine or Peru,
Maine. But they're going to go for quality. And that's what is
happening right here today," during Wednesday's open house in
Peru
noted King." (Times photo by Bruce Farrin) by Bruce Farrin.
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