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byline: Joan Tupponce

Chip plant expansion will benefit potato farmers

Sarah Cohen was thinking about the future when Route 11 Potato Chips built its 23,000-square-foot production facility in Shenandoah County in 2007.

“We built with the thought of putting a second line in,” says Cohen, the founder and president of the company. “In the last couple of years, we have needed a second line. We are very vulnerable with just one production line. It can be precarious at times. People want their orders when they are expecting them.”

Route 11 produces kettle-cooked potato chips in seven flavors as well as sweet potato chips. It will invest more than $1.2 million in an expansion and create 13 jobs — three of which already have been filled — in Mount Jackson. It will make nearly half of its new potato purchases — and all of its sweet potato purchases — from Virginia farmers. That equates to more than 1.5 million pounds of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

“They can expand and get credit for sourcing Virginia products,” says Carrie Chenery, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership. “The new jobs and capital investment means a lot to our regional economic development efforts for Shenandoah County and Mount Jackson.”

To help with the expansion, the state will provide a $50,000 grant from the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund that will be matched by Shenandoah County. “The grant requires a local one-to-one match,” says Brandon Davis, the county’s director of community development.

He feels that Route 11 is a company that hits several economic hot buttons — entrepreneurism, manufacturing and tourism. The Mount Jackson facility has a store on site and offers tours of the production process. “It’s a unique business that supports everything Shenandoah County stands for,” says Davis.

The company’s distribution is focused on the on the mid-Atlantic states, but it also sells throughout the U.S. and exports to Indonesia, China and Japan. “I would be happy if we sold every chip we made here in Virginia, but it’s hard to convert people from their chip brands,” Cohen says. “Our niche in the market is specialty food.”

One of the company’s largest customers is members-only warehouse retailer  Costco. “We just sell to them in the mid-Atlantic region,” Cohen says. “We pick and choose who we want to sell to based on keeping a simple business model — the lowest maintenance customer with the highest margins. We are so small we can’t sell to everybody.”

The company, which now has 32 employees, produces potato chips six days a week. It was one of the first two potato chip companies to produce sweet potato chips in the U.S. All of its sweet potatoes come from Quail Cove Farms on the Eastern Shore.

“We are not a 24-hour operation. That sets us apart,” Cohen says. “Our motto is unhurried potatoes. The kettle-style chip is a slower method than industrial-style chip.”

The company is moving forward with its expansion. It plans to install the second production line at the beginning of next year. “We have to keep producing while we are in construction,” Cohen says. “Potato chips move pretty quickly.”

Opower software encourages energy savings

Dan Yates and Alex Laskey started Opower in 2007 after recognizing that climate change was going to be a huge issue.

The two thought their company could make a big impact by providing utility companies with programs helping customers understand how to manage their energy bills. “We don’t have a lot of software providers coming to the table with solutions,” says Michael Sachse, Opower’s senior vice president of marketing. “That is the niche we have been able to fill.”

The Arlington-based com­­­­­­­pany’s cloud-based software enables utilities to communicate with customers and drive energy savings. “We contract with the utility companies,” Sachse says, noting his company has grown from 30 employees to 600 since 2009. “We went public in April 2014.”

In August Opower was named to Fortune’s first “Change the World” list of companies that have made a sizeable impact on major social or environmental problems. The company’s software provides information on customers’ energy usage and gives them the ability to track their energy consumption. Opower also provides utility companies with analytics.

“The average utility customer spends about nine minutes a year thinking about their energy use,” Sachse says. “We have made energy information sensible and actionable for customers. The information may come in the form of paper mailings, emails, text messaging or a website.”

Opower’s software platform is used by almost 100 utilities worldwide. Its software reaches more than 50 million households and businesses.

In September, Opower expanded its energy efficiency program for Hawaii Energy to nearly 250,000 residential customers across the state. The program has helped Hawaiian customers save more than $5 million on their energy bills, the company says.

“We saw the energy bill as a huge opportunity for innovation and improvement,” says Sachse. “When people look at their energy bill, it’s hard for them to understand. We have built a platform to analyze the bill and present the analysis coupled with insights to customers through multiple channels. Customers change their behavior as a result.”

In making Fortune’s first “Change the World” list,  Opower was in good company. Others on the list include Google, Facebook, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Twitter and Kickstarter.

“This is an exciting company to be in,” says Sachse. “We are small compared to many other companies on this list. It’s recognition of the opportunity we at Opower have as a company but also the opportunity that software companies serving utilities have as a whole.”

Media General weighs its fate in two deals

On Sept. 8, Richmond-based Media General announced plans to acquire Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith Corp. for $3.1 billion. Just 20 days later Media General received an unsolicited $4.1 billion takeover offer from Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. that would cancel the Meredith deal.

By early October, two Media General major shareholders, Oppenheimer Funds Inc. and Starboard Value LP, had said they opposed the Meredith merger. As this issue went to press, Media General was reviewing Nexstar’s offer. If Media General backs out of the Meredith deal, it will owe the Iowa company $60 million.

Media mergers among television station owners have become increasing common. “It’s just going to be more consolidation in the industry,” says Tracy Young, analyst for Evercore ISI in New York.

With the Meredith deal, Media General would add 17 television stations and a magazine business with well-known titles such as Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Shape. “They aren’t buying it for the magazine business,” Young says. “There are more dollars on the broadcast side.”

The combined company, Meredith Media General, would become the third-largest owner of major network affiliates in the nation, initially owning 88 stations in 54 markets. The stations would reach 30 percent of U.S. television households.

“There are six markets that have overlap and will have to swap or sell a station,” Young says. “The new combined company could buy more television stations.”

Media General and Meredith were talking “about having two different headquarters” in Richmond and Des Moines, Young says. But that decision wasn’t set in stone.

In its September bid, Nexstar offered to buy Media General for $14.50 a share. The combination would create a company with 162 stations in 99 markets, reaching 39 percent of U.S. television households. Nexstar shareholders would own 74 percent of the combined company.  

Nexstar described the Meredith-Media General deal as “ill conceived” and “value destructive.” The Texas company revealed that it had been rebuffed in a previous bid for Media General in August just before it announced the Meredith deal.

“Media General probably should have picked up the phone a while ago [for Nexstar’s August offer of $17 a share],” Marci Ryvicker, a senior analyst for Wells Fargo, says in a written assessment of the two deals. “We believe the Street would have been extremely happy with that.”

What’s new at JMU?

Kevin Meaney knew the long-awaited Apartments on Grace at James Madison University would be a hit with sophomores, but he had no idea the 506 student beds would fill up in an hour.

“The apartments were in response to a need,” says Meaney, JMU’s director of residence life. “A couple of years ago, the university decided it needed to build some transitional housing.”

The $55 million, 200,000-square-foot, apartment-style residence hall opened in August. Each unit offers a full kitchen and two bedrooms to accommodate four students. Amenities include recreational areas with table tennis and pool tables, a Subway restaurant and academic spaces with desks and access to multimedia, plus study and group rooms.

The apartment-style design will open the door to new options for the university when students are away during summer break. “We are trying to develop our conference services during the summer,” Meaney said. “It’s nice to have an apartment option for adults who come in for an academic conference.”

The residence hall is just one of many new developments at JMU designed to benefit the student body and the community. The school also is planning to build a new on-campus convocation center at the corner of University Boulevard and Carrier Drive, adjacent to the East Campus Dining Hall and the Festival Conference and Student Center. The $88 million, 8,500-seat building will be a venue for basketball games, public speakers, university ceremonies, concerts, trade shows and other events.

The center was approved by the state legislature three years ago as part of the planning process for the university. The university began its fundraising efforts in April. It needs to reach $12 million in donations before construction can begin. JMU had raised $2.5 million by mid-September. Kevin Warner, the interim director of athletics communications, expects that number to jump in coming months.

“There are a number of private gifts that we feel optimistic about closing,” he says, noting there are  several naming opportunities for the building and key spaces in the structure for individuals and corporations.

The facility will replace the current 30-year-old convocation center, which Warner refers to as “an inefficient use of space.” The new center will feature more courtside seating for donors and “a center-hung video board and ribbon boards around the concourse level,” Warner says. “We’ll also have a built-in practice facility and improved office space for the coaches.”

The center also will offer eight suites as well as a club-seat section with a pregame hospitality area and center-court seats for club membership holders.

“The center is for the entire Shenandoah Valley. There is no other space like this within an hour’s radius,” Warner says. “The John Paul Jones Arena [at the University of Virginia] is the next closest. We feel it will make a big impact on the local community.”

In another development at JMU, the university recently renamed the School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management as the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management.  It is named for alumnus G.J. Hart and his wife, Heather, who gave the university more than $3 million. Hart is the executive chairman and CEO of California Pizza Kitchen.

“With the naming of the school, we are looking to bring a little more focus to the restaurant side. We are able to do that thanks to G.J. and his connections in the restaurant industry,” says Michael J. O’Fallon, the school’s director.

The Harts want to ensure that graduates of the school will be among the top in the nation. “My wife, Heather, and I decided to get involved as an opportunity to make a difference that’s long-lasting for James Madison University and in the lives of its students,” Hart says. “With this gift our goal is to create an environment where young people can get a fantastic, world-class education that inspires them to go on and do great things in the world. We also hope this gift encourages others who are thinking about making a difference in students’ lives to do so by supporting the university.”

The school prepares its approximately 900 students for entry-level management positions. “Our programs require internships so our students will understand the business,” O’Fallon said. “That is why our school is becoming more popular with organizations. We have recruiters that come on campus that only recruit our students.”

JMU also is reaching out to area schools to help prepare students for college. Under its Valley Scholars Program, now in its second year, JMU works with seven school districts — Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro and the counties of Rockingham, Augusta, Page and Shenandoah.

Currently there are 70 students in the program. This year JMU’s partners in the project include Blue Ridge Community College and several area businesses.

“We provide a pathway for students who come from families that believe college may not be an option because of their social or economic situation,” says Shaun Mooney, director of the program. “If students do everything that is required, JMU and its partners will pay for their college tuition. We see it as long-term investment in the valley.”

Building a 21st-century city

Rhode Island native Michael Desplaines was attracted to Norfolk’s urban vibe.

“When I did my research, I was really impressed with what I saw. It’s a great city,” says Desplaines, who last year became president and CEO of Norfolk Botanical Garden. “I was surprised at how young the city’s population is. I was excited about the vibrant, creative economy and the amazing art scene and fantastic venues.”

Norfolk, which has a population of nearly 250,000, is grabbing the opportunity to transform itself into “a vital 21st-century city,” says George Homewood, the city’s director of planning and community development.

“Our city is driven by the aspirations of our residents and the people that work here,” he says. “We are trying to do a lot of things to become more agile and to respond more quickly.”

Homewood acknowledges that the city still faces many challenges as it remakes itself, including declining federal funding (in a region where defense spending accounts for a sizeable portion of the economy), a relatively high level of poverty, chronic flooding problems and a rising sea level.

Those last two issues are tied to the city’s geography. Norfolk ranks high among U.S. cities most impacted by flooding and sea-level concerns “right behind New Orleans,” says Chuck Rigney, the city’s director of economic development. “We have to pay attention to how we build our city with those principles in mind.”

A new look in 2017
Several projects now in the works will give Norfolk a new look in 2017.  The Main, a $126 million, 300-room Hilton hotel and conference center, is scheduled to open at the corner of Granby and Main streets. It will include three food and beverage venues along with a conference center housing the largest ballroom in Virginia.

“This is a huge economic engine for the city,” says Kurt Krause, the facility’s managing director. “There is a neat buzz happening in downtown Norfolk. It’s really been exciting.”

The city’s downtown waterfront also will change with the opening of the $40 million Waterside District, an entertainment complex replacing the Waterside marketplace, a city-owned mall on the Elizabeth River.

The long-awaited Simon Premium Outlets, a 351,000-square-foot outlet mall, also is scheduled to open in 2017 on the site of the former Lake Wright golf course. The $75 million-plus project will include up to 120 stores and is expected to create 800 jobs. “We’ve had a lot of fits and starts related to challenges to the road infrastructure,” says Rigney. “We think we have resolved all of them.”

The city also is studying whether The Gallery at Military Circle mall, a 100-acre property now in foreclosure, can be revitalized as a mixed-use, mixed-income project.

“Norfolk is serious about putting skin in the game,” says Rigney, noting that last year the Norfolk Economic Development Authority purchased for $2.5 million 16 acres owned by J.C. Penney at the mall. The property, which had been assessed at $9 million, includes a 209,000-square-foot building and 1,436 parking spaces. “The city has demonstrated its desire to assist in bringing about a change. This is a very high priority for the city.”

Vibrant Spaces
An effort to bring more retail businesses to downtown Norfolk also is gaining momentum. The Downtown Norfolk Council and the digital marketing firm Grow are the sponsors of Vibrant Spaces, a program designed to increase the number of street-level businesses in the city’s Granby Street area. The program also will help existing downtown businesses that want to refurbish their stores.

The project attracted 97 applicants.

“The large number and quality of applications the program received speaks volumes about the interest in downtown as a prime location to support innovative and unique business concepts,” says Mary Miller, president and CEO of Downtown Norfolk Council.

The downtown Norfolk area near the Arts District already is bustling, with new investments in restaurants, apartments and other businesses. A contemporary art gallery, Glass Wheel Studio, is expected to open this fall in a renovated 8,500-square-foot building.

A key element in building Norfolk’s economy is workforce development. The city wants to work with “organizations that already exist and come up with ways to focus on two areas: veterans getting out of the military and the city’s most-distressed citizens that may have dropped out of school or have health issues, for example, and are unable to find employment that would lead to a sustainable, lifetime opportunity,” says Rigney.

ODU’s role
Norfolk-based Old Dominion University plays a major role in producing an educated workforce and supporting local entrepreneurs in the region. A research institution with a student population of 25,000, ODU has an estimated $2.1 billion annual impact on the state’s economy.

The  Business Gateway in ODU’s Innovation Research Park provides assistance through a number of programs, including the Veterans Business Outreach Center, the Women’s Business Center and Launch Hampton Roads, which works with aspiring entrepreneurs. “We have a lot of truly talented people who are exiting the military through retirement,” says ODU President John Broderick, noting that many veterans have ideas for starting businesses. “The university has expertise to help them evolve and generate jobs.”

In collaboration with the city, ODU is opening a downtown incubator this fall.  “This is a big piece of extension of ODU out in the world,” says Martin Kaszubowski, Business Gateway’s executive director. “We will be more aggressive working with early-stage companies and entrepreneurs.”

Last year the university established the Strome Entrepreneur Center, which is  focused on exposing the school’s “students to the world of being an entrepreneur,” says ODU’s COO Dave Harnage. “It is an interdisciplinary-based program. It is not limited to a specific discipline or major. Any student who wants to explore entrepreneurial activities can participate.”

While it is building its business community, Norfolk is attempting to reposition large areas of the city through redevelopment.

For example, the city is developing revitalization strategies for the 100-acre St. Paul’s section of the city where public housing projects now dominate the landscape. The area is frequently subject to flooding.

The city’s success in turning around neighborhoods is seen in the East Beach area of Ocean View. The once-blighted neighborhood now commands high home sale prices. says Rigney. “The average sales price is approaching $700,000,” says Rig­ney. “National retailers want to set up shop in that area, and we’re seeing more apartment activity.”

Health facilities
The city’s economy, along with the well-being of its residents, is bolstered by the area’s health-care facilities. This fall Sentara Norfolk General marks its 30th anniversary as a Level 1 trauma center, one of just five in Virginia. It is also home to the Sentara Neurosciences Institute, which includes the Neuromuscular and Autonomic Center.

A sister facility, Sentara Leigh Hospital, is completing a $126 million project. The five-story East and West towers are now occupied and the atrium entrance is scheduled for completion in 2016.
Both hospitals are owned by Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare, which has 12 acute-care hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina.

Norfolk also is home to Eastern Virginia Medical School, which tied for 42nd in the nation among schools for primary care, according to a recent ranking by U.S. News and World Report.

Norfolk’s amenities draw visitors and area residents into the city. January’s opening of the $65 million Slover Memorial Library gives Norfolk one of the most technologically advanced public libraries in the country. The library’s features range from its vast collections to a digital media lab. The community also will be able to access high-tech civic meeting rooms and the Sargeant Memorial Local History and Genealogy Collection.

One of the city’s oldest institutions, The Virginia Zoo, attracts locals and tourists, bringing in a half million visitors annually. The zoo features more than 500 animals on more than 53 landscaped acres.

The Norfolk Botanical Garden headed by Desplaines has nearly 10,000 members and draws almost 300,000 visitors a year.

Desplaines believes the LanternAsia exhibit at the botanical garden will attract 100,000 visitors during its two-month run next year.

Chinese artists will live on-site for a month to create the 30 three-dimensional works of art symbolizing scenes from China. The artwork will be illuminated at night.

“This is going to be a nice tie-in to our botanical garden. It’s going to be huge, we think,” says Desplaines.  “We are really excited.”

Funds initiative

Norfolk has created NorfolkFirst, an initiative that provides four funds to help companies that want to invest in Norfolk.

The program includes: the Citywide Partnership Fund, the Global Initiatives Fund, Innovation Fund and the Grow Norfolk Fund.

The city is using federal community development block grants as well as other federal resources through grant programs “that we have never really deployed in this fashion,” says Chuck Rigney, the city’s director of economic development.

The Innovation Fund focuses on financing for startups and early-stage companies in targeted areas, such as technology, health care and life sciences, that are focused on sustainability and resiliency.

The Citywide Partnership Fund helps provide a portion of gap financing for small, expanding businesses engaged in brick-and-mortar projects, such as housing, retail and commercial projects. “We want to make sure the borrower has skin in the game,” Rigney says.

The Grow Norfolk Fund offers assistance to small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses that need money for expansion.

The Global Initiatives Fund, the first of its kind in Virginia, offers capital to local companies to support export-related activities.

“A very small percentage of U.S. businesses export,” Rigney says, noting the Norfolk-based Virginia Port Authority creates prime exporting opportunities. “There is real money to be made for our companies with products that will sell well in other countries.”

Local firms can access this fund, initially capitalized at $250,000, to participate in trade missions and to connect with prospective buyers. They can pair Global Initiatives Fund capital with trade finance services from the Small Business Administration.

The city has hired Sandra Choi to focus on increasing the number of export activities for Norfolk companies. “Her job is to tell people why exporting may be a way for them to increase their sales. She will have seminars and conferences and reach out to local businesses,” Rigney says.

Icelandic company ships U.S. goods overseas

Eimskip, an Icelandic shipping company, is celebrating its 30th year in Virginia as well as its 100th anniversary of sailing to the U.S.

Its ships began arriving at U.S. ports in 1915 during World War I. They mainly brought fish to North America and, on the way back to Iceland, took supplies to Allied powers, such as Great Britain.

The U.S. did not enter the war until 1917. Nonetheless, its neutrality in the first 2½ years of the conflict did not prevent it from being an important supplier to the countries fighting Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

“The U.S. military often escorted the ships from North America to Europe to prevent attacks from German U-boats, which made great efforts to stop this supply chain,” says Gylfi Gylfason, Eimskip USA’s director of marketing and business development.

Eimskip USA employs 14 workers at its 30,000-square-foot office and warehouse in Virginia Beach. Its services include freight forwarding, drayage (transporting goods over a short distance), truck brokerage, customs brokerage, inventory management and transloads (moving freight from truck to container, or vice versa, for import and export). 

One of Eimskip’s main customers is ShopUSA, an Icelandic e-commerce company. Eimskip’s Virginia warehouse has handled the company’s logistical arrangements since 2003. “ShopUSA was started to help consumers around the world purchase products from U.S. online retailers,” Gylfason says.

Eimskip ships nearly 40,000 packages annually for ShopUSA to customers in Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and India. ShopUSA franchises in those countries handle customer service and marketing. “That would be very costly for U.S. retailers to get involved with [these arrangements] — not mentioning the language barriers, time-zone differences and lack of export knowledge,” says Gylfason.

In Virginia Beach, Eimskip receives ShopUSA customers’ packages, stores them in inventory, repacks and consolidates them and arranges delivery. “In order to save on shipping costs, Eimskip arranges shipments via air once a week and via ocean every other week to the franchise countries,” Gylfason says.

Products most frequently shipped include apparel, car parts, and health and beauty products. “We have shipped everything from a car manual to a Ralph Lauren T-shirt,” Gylfason says.

ShopUSA plans to offer direct international shipping to more than 220 countries by the end of the year. In delivering goods around the world, it will work with UPS, FedEx and DHL. Eimskip will arrange the logistics. “This is a great step for U.S. businesses that want to expand their sales and explore new international markets in the process,” Gylfason says.

Shentel to pay $640 million to acquire Ntelos

If all goes as planned, nearly 300,000 Ntelos customers will get their wireless service from another valley-based company next year.

Edinburg-based Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. (Shentel) has agreed to acquire Waynesboro-based Ntelos Holdings Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $640 million. That amount includes debt, which stood at around $431 million as of June 30. Ntelos shareholders will receive approximately $208 million. The deal still faces shareholder and regulatory approval.

Shentel’s wireless service operates under the Sprint brand. When the deal closes, the company will have more than a million wireless customers, making it the leading provider of Sprint-branded communications services in the mid-Atlantic.

Discussions between Ntelos and Shentel have been going on for “quite some time,” says Mike Minnis, Ntelos’ director of marketing and communications.

“In our industry, consolidation has been ongoing for many years.”

Minnis says the Shentel deal offers Ntelos customers “the benefits that go with a national brand but at the same time … the level of service you can only get from a locally operated company.”

Shentel plans to invest more than $300 million to accelerate a 4G LTE upgrade and expand the existing Ntelos wireless network. It also will add an additional 150 coverage sites.

Ntelos stores will convert to Sprint-branded stores managed by Shentel. “All of the retail locations and sales force will be merged,” Minnis says. “In any transaction of this type, there will certainly be duplications of responsibility. Not all Ntelos employees will have the chance to stay on as Shentel employees.” Currently Ntelos has 680 employees, and Shentel has approximately 700.

This year marked Ntelos’ 25th year of providing wireless services to customers in Virginia, West Virginia and portions of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The company began as Clifton Forge-Waynesboro Telephone Co. in 1897.

Shentel specializes in serving rural markets in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The company started in 1902 as Farmers Mutual Telephone System. It provides a wide range of services that include local and long distance telephone service, high-speed Internet and data services, and wireless voice and data services.

Martinsville plant helps employees earn GEDs

Monogram Snacks Martinsville is looking at its participation in the Business IQ program as a plus for the company and its employees. The program is expected to help the company workers without high-school diplomas work toward earning high-school equivalency certificates.

“This will assist them in reaching their goals,” says Ron Charpia, the company’s training and development manager. 

The Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce had sponsored the program in 2005 and 2007. This year the West Piedmont Workforce Investment Board is partnering with the chamber, the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, Patrick County Public Schools and the West Piedmont Regional Adult and Career Educational Program to restart the program.

“The Martinsville-Henry Chamber has done this program with success. Businesses have found it to be of value,” says Lisa Fultz, executive director of the workforce investment board. “This is an attempt to broaden that success over the entire region.”

The board is putting $60,000 of carry-over funding from the previous year’s budget into the program. “We will be able to provide tests and workbooks for 60 people and give $200 incentive [to each after they obtain their GED],” Fultz says, noting that 21 percent of the people in the region who are 18 or older do not have high school diplomas or GEDs.

So far, Monogram Snacks is the only company participating in the program, which kicked off in August. “We have had interest from other companies, and we are hoping to have several more sign on,” Fultz says.

Monogram Snacks has been in Martinsville since 2009 when its parent company, Monogram Food Solutions, purchased Knauss Foods. The Martinsville plant produces meat snacks.

Monogram Snacks announced this June that it plans to invest $7.2 million to construct a warehousing and distribution facility. The expansion will create 101 jobs.

The project marks the second time in six months that Monogram has expanded its Martinsville operations. In December, the company said it was planning a $36.5 million expansion that would add 200 jobs. The new jobs created after the expansions are complete will raise the company’s employee count from 635 to 936.

The company says that Business IQ enables it to broaden its scope in recruiting employees by reaching out to workers without high school diplomas or GEDs.

“Looking at the bigger vision, we want to make an impact in our community. As we grow and expand we want to bring people along with us and take them to the next level so they have the education and foundation to go on to the next level and get an associate’s degree,” says Sean Nix, director of talent at the plant. “It also gives people a benchmark for their family so they can impact the next generation.”

Zoobean makes its case at White House Demo Day

Jordan Lloyd Bookey and Felix Lloyd aren’t running for president, but they already have made it to the White House.

The couple was invited to the first White House Demo Day, at which entrepreneurs from across the country had the chance to showcase their innovations.

Bookey and Lloyd are the founders of Arlington-based Zoobean, which offers an early literacy tool for libraries and helps parents find the right books for their children. Zoobean was the only Virginia startup among the 32 companies selected for the event.

“It’s like being part of a trade show, but you are in the White House,” says Bookey. “They let us know a week before the event that we could set up our booth.”

Bookey and Lloyd founded Zoobean in 2013. They began their careers as educators. Bookey is the former head of Google’s K-12 Education Outreach team. Lloyd’s first entrepreneurial venture was a financial literacy game, MoneyIsland, which was bought by BancVue.

Zoobean’s core service is Beanstack, which provides families with learning tips, tools to log reading sessions, book and app recommendations and special badges tied to local library programs.

“Our first partner was the Sacramento Public Library,” says Bookey. “We now have about 50 different partners around the country and in Canada.”

The company also started Beanstack for Summer Reading, a service involving the Montgomery County Library in Maryland. “They had a 25 percent increase in registrations from their previous summer so we consider that a success,” Bookey says.

She nominated her husband to attend Demo Day after reading about the event. “Over 2,000 companies were nominated to attend,” she says. “We got a phone call, and they said they were interested in having us come.”

During the event, the couple had a chance to pitch their company to potential investors and talk with Obama administration officials.

“There were a lot of people there that would be more like strategic partners,” she says. “We’re making a lot of networking connections, and we have a lot of things in the works. Three or four real opportunities have emerged and are in the pipeline.”