Wood composites business to start Bangor enterprise to employ 15, use technology developed at university

BANGOR – A wood composites business incorporating technology developed at the University of Maine will open in the coming months, initially bringing 15 jobs to the area and $1.6 million in tax revenue.

Entrepreneur Chip Hutchins said at a press conference Monday he will be opening a 40,000-square-foot production facility near Pilots Grill restaurant to manufacture “advanced engineered lumber,” a composite conceived at the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center at the Orono campus.

The new business will be called Engineered Materials of Maine, and could employ up to 75 full-time workers, with a payroll of $4.7 million, by the end of 2004.

Advanced engineered lumber is made from low-grade hardwood, primarily red maple, that is layered and glue-laminated into beams, and produced to match standard dimensional framing lumber.

How much Hutchins is investing to start the business is not known, but he said his partnering with the center would bring immeasurable benefits to the community. It would demonstrate that northern Maine is a suitable base for business spinoffs that derive from research conducted at the University of Maine, he said.

U.S. Rep. John Baldacci, who helped secure more than $4.3 million in federal funds for the wood composite center, called Hutchins’ investment an integral part in making northern Maine the “Silicon Valley of wood composites,” a reference to the high-technology corridor in California.

Monday’s announcement was attended by a number of politicians and educators, who heralded the benefits of investment in research and development as a conduit to a growing economy. Each pleaded with the community to understand that it takes time for research to be performed, patented and then spun off into job-producing businesses.

“It’s not a magic elixir with instant results,” said Peter Hoff, president of the University of Maine. But “in today’s knowledge-based economy, it’s the only approach.”

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who also helped secure the federal funds, outlined how long it took for the center’s advanced engineered lumber to become ready for commercialization. She said Habib Dagher, the center’s director, needed to persuade the federal government to develop a national building code just so the lumber could be used in the construction industry.

“The development of a national building code for this new product was a huge undertaking, the timeline and cost of which would have been prohibitive for an investor,” Collins said.

Hutchins said even though the state’s economy is hurting, with Maine being considered one of the worst places in the country to locate a business because of its tax structure, that is no reason to stall the manufacture of a product that’s ready for the marketplace right now.

“People have asked me, ‘What are you doing? This is not the state to invest in,'” said Hutchins, standing before more than 100 business people and politicians at Norumbega Hall. “I could not sit around and wait for a new tax program to be passed.”

The city of Bangor purchased the building where EMM will be located for $1.2 million, and added $100,000 in renovations, said Rodney McKay, the city’s director of community of economic development. EMM will lease the facility.

The idea to start the business came from Jon Fiutak, who worked in the university’s research and development office. His specific role at the university was to persuade businesses to use the wood composite center for research into new products or improved ways of making old products.

Fiutak said he approached Hutchins to start EMM, and then both men partnered with the university and the city of Bangor to set up the company. Two UM graduates who worked in the wood composite center will join the new company. Shane MacDougall will be the technical director and Tyler Riggs will be the manager of manufacturing operations, Fiutak said.