Look’s Gourmet Food in Cutler gets $200,000 grant to expand

CUTLER – Look’s Gourmet Food Co. will become the first tenant in the new Cutler Commercial Park as it expands into a 12,000-square-foot warehouse – thanks to $200,000 in business assistance money through the federal Community Development Block Grant program.

The money has been reserved for Look’s by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, which reviews applications three times a year and determines which businesses will get the money – generally matching funds.

Jack Cashman, the department’s commissioner, mentioned the award on Tuesday when he attended a meeting of the Washington County Development Authority in Machias.

Look’s owner Mike Cote had known since last week that the money was heading his way, but was so cautious that he didn’t even tell his 20 employees at their company picnic on Tuesday.

Cote bought the company, the last remaining cannery in Washington County, three years ago from the Look family, which started the business in 1917. He took over the business with seven employees at the time of the sale and since has added 13 employees.

He will add seven jobs at the Cutler warehouse, where labeling, order fulfillment and shipping of the canned goods – seafoods and traditional Down East foods – will be centralized. He currently makes use of a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in East Machias in addition to his main location in Whiting, one mile from the Cutler town line.

The company has national sales, boosted in part by the “Made in Maine” image. Look’s is attending as many as 20 food shows for the industry in 2006.

“The biggest problem the company has has not been the lack of opportunity to sell, but to store,” Cote said Wednesday. “This CDBG money supports the opportunity for us to move forward. It’s the support net we need to expand our business.”

The $200,000 is just a portion of Look’s $468,642 expansion project. Cote already has $268,642 in venture capital in hand from a pair of Portland companies, CEI Ventures Inc. and CEI Community Ventures Fund.

Four of the new jobs will go to people of low to moderate income, according to CDBG guidelines. Look’s will pay an average wage of $8.15 per hour, plus $3.22 more per hour in fringe benefits, according to the CDBG application.

Cote had an inkling, but no confirmation, that the CDBG grant would come through, because the Whiting premises got a visit from Cashman himself two weeks ago.

Rep. Eddie DuGay, D-Cherryfield, who was driving Cashman through the Cutler Commercial Park and the adjoining condo redevelopment, had Cashman tour the Look’s facility. The business park is located on the former Cutler Navy base property.

After tasting a batch of Look’s clam chowder, Cashman pronounced it “as good or better” than that from Legal Seafoods – a standard-setter for New England – in Boston.

The Look’s headquarters, where manufacturing takes place, is perched at the edge of Holmes Bay in Whiting. There is no room to expand between Route 191 and the water.

The town of Cutler sponsored the CDBG application, and the town of Whiting provided a letter of support. The application was prepared by Dianne Tilton of the Sunrise County Economic Council.

Tilton outlined how, unless it receives the CDBG money and shifts part of its operations to the warehouse in Cutler, Look’s aging facility could not accommodate “imminent physical growth.”

“Expansion of the physical plant is not possible,” the application reads. “The company needs room for warehousing, frozen storage and processing.”

The Whiting plant, itself 10,000 square feet, will continue to be the company’s manufacturing point.

Look’s additionally has a Pine Tree Zone application pending for its business.