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By Polina Fishof

Shoe factories and paper mills used to be the biggest employers in Maine. But in recent years, unable to compete with low-cost competitors, mills closed and factory production moved overseas.

Adam Sutton, a struggling manufacturer in Brewer, a suburb of Bangor, was determined to find a way to survive.

Sutton had started out manufacturing shoes and handbags, but found them too labor intensive and costly to produce. Fifteen years ago, he founded the Highland Belt Company. Although belts are much less labor intensive than shoes and handbags, Sutton’s business still struggled.

About five years ago, Sutton reinvented himself again, this time as a contract manufacturer for major retailers like LL Bean and Brooks Brothers. Instead of laying out capital to purchase raw materials, Sutton’s clients supply the leather and fabrics he uses to make a wide array of belts–from high-end men’s leather belts to casual fabric belts.

His customers, said Sutton, benefit from quick turnaround times and the ability to place small custom orders. Highland’s upfront costs are much less, and big companies pay their manufacturers punctually.

“We did good last year,” said Sutton, and the company has “done better every year” since he started contract manufacturing. In 2017, Sutton made a profit of $146,000, about 18 percent of his total revenue of $810,000.

Sutton produces between 130,000 to 150,000 leather items per year. His biggest sellers are ribbon belts; he made 55,000 in 2017.

Remaining U.S. belt companies often produce their goods overseas. Highland is one of the few belt companies that continues to manufacture in Maine.

Ironically, domestic manufacturing is now Highland Belt’s competitive advantage, according to Sutton, who said he was able to deliver a finished product three to four times faster than foreign factories can. Sutton also is able to complete much smaller orders, whereas overseas factories need “high volumes” to sell at low prices.

Starting in March, Highland’s production begins to pick up, just in time for the early April opening of East Coast golf clubs, a big market for Highland, which produces customized belt orders for a wholesaler that supplies clubs all over the region. “The sooner we fill their inventory, the more likely it is that they will reorder,” explained Sutton.

Most golf clubs reorder two to three times per season, almost always items that include the club’s logo.

Today Highland has 15 employees on its payroll and adds another four or five during high season. Four employees are making $10 an hour, the minimum wage, while a few experienced stitchers make $12 to $15 per hour. Sutton said he would like to offer his workers health insurance but cannot afford it.

The company works out of a former shoe factory where Roberta, one of Highland’s more experienced stitchers who would only give her first name, used to work. A grandmother, Roberta said she had retired but decided to go back to work to keep busy after her husband passed away a few years ago. Virtually all the workers at Highland are about Roberta’s age. Finding young people who are willing to learn how to stitch belts is hard, said Sutton.

Video: Inside the factory

Article and photo by Polina Fishof

While most of her friends attend college hoping to one day enter the corporate world, 25-year-old Christina Edwards spends her days as a nanny, working 50 hours a week caring for two small children.

Edwards, who lives in Etna, west of Bangor, said she never went to college because she did not feel comfortable with the idea of incurring student loans and then facing the uncertainty of finding work.

While she is considering whether to continue her education, she is more focused on pursuing an entrepreneurial avenue by opening a nanny agency in Bangor.

The idea of a new business came to Edwards when she started getting more requests to babysit than she could handle.

In addition to her main job caring for one family’s 2½-year-old boy and 9-month-old girl, she also picks up 20 to 30 hours a week babysitting for other families in the evenings.

“I’m going to have to start referring my friends,” Edwards said during an interview at Bangor’s Crosspoint Church, where she is a member of a youth group.

Looking at her peers who are pursuing college degrees, Edwards said she realized that opening her own business might be the only way for her to earn more money without a college degree.

A passion for providing child care runs in Edwards’ family. Her mother, who is originally from Norway, went to Europe to participate in an au pair program. Her sister works as a nanny for a family in New York City.

“She (her sister) makes way more than me,” Edwards said. Her sister makes $50 an hour, while Edwards’ hourly rate is $15 at the most.

While Edwards makes much less than her sister, she makes 50 percent more than an average non-college educated worker in Maine, where the minimum wage is currently $10 per hour.

When Edwards divorced last year, she had to move back in with her mother. The idea of starting her own business and being able to connect other nannies in the area gives her hope for the future.

Bangor has no nanny agencies, and her only competition would be in-home daycare services that charge about $100 per week and care for multiple children at once.

Even though the cost of in-home day care is much lower than a private nanny rate, the quality of the care is significantly different, Edwards said, pointing out there is simply not enough time to give each child the attention she or he needs. In addition, most day-care homes do not care for infants, she added.

Edwards also envisions creating a supporting community for nannies. The support groups available to nannies in the area are currently only  online, facilitated by social media networks.

By creating her own agency, Edwards is hoping to not only bring families and nannies together but to provide child-care training and support for young nannies to advance their skills.

 

In interviews in early April, voters across the 2nd Congressional District voiced their opinions on the House seat race and the issues that are important to them:

Marsha Donahue, artist and owner of Millinocket’s North Light Gallery

Donahue switched her political affiliation from Independent to Democrat after aiding Democratic candidate Lucas St. Clair in getting Katahdin Woods and Waters recognized as a national monument in 2016. She recently held a campaign rally for him in her gallery.

“I just feel like [St. Clair] has got the right stuff … And this 2^nd District, as you are beginning to see I’m sure, needs tremendous help, and they really need a champion and I think he’ll be a champion.”

Bruce Basinger, 55, of Alfred, manager of Highland Belts & Fine Leather in Brewer

For Basinger, keeping  his stable job at Highland Belts is worth the 2 1/2-hour commute he makes once a week from his home in southern Maine.

“The company puts me up in an apartment in Bangor. I have been traveling up to here for 18 years… You do what you gotta do to survive.”

John Davis, Millinocket town manager and former worker at Great Northern Paper Co.’s Millinocket mill, which closed in 2008

Davis, a staunch Republican, says his support for Donald Trump has not wavered since the 2016 election.

“I think Trump’s a little rough. He’s not very well refined, but he told you exactly what he was going to do and he’s doing it. Just look at the stock market, look at the economy. What was it? Two point growth last year. We haven’t seen that for a long time.”

Ann Luther, of Bangor, member of The League of Women Voters of Maine

Luther, who has long been active in local politics in Maine, says she sees signs of growing political engagement among Maine’s youth. According to Maine election laws, 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by Election Day in November can vote in the June primary.

“We’re seeing a big upsurge in youth voting. Now all of a sudden, whoa, everyone wants to do voter registration in high schools. It’s partly a Trump effect. We’ve never had this many requests.”

Cory Osbourne, 29, Bangor, bartender

Osbourne says he grew up in Millinocket, a former mill town where unemployment is rampant, and moved to Bangor to find work.

“I come from a very big Catholic family. My family has always been very liberal, liberal Democrats. It’s kind of just instilled in us from a young age. And everyone is still kind of at the same platform.”

Jared Charrier, 20, of Hermon, college student and member of the Thrive Student Ministry at Crosspoint Church in Bangor

Charrier says neither he nor his friends follow politics.

“Maybe in high school, in history class you learn a lot about politics and that comes up in conversation as you are learning about it, but it never really happens a lot. You don’t just hear a kid say, ‘Oh, vote Democratic,’ you don’t hear that.”