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June 15, 2020

Manufacturing industry group rebrands, looks ahead to second century

Workers at Sargent/Assa Abloy’s Sargent Drive headquarters.
By Michael C. Bingham

The New Haven Manufacturers Association this month celebrates its centennial, an occasion both to look back at the evolution of both the trade group and its industry since the Great War era — and also to look ahead.

The state’s largest manufacturing trade organization hosted its 100th annual meeting Thursday. “This is not your grandfather’s annual meeting,” said Executive Director Jamison Scott. For one thing, it was on Zoom, where some 225 participants took part.

Which — COVID pandemic or no pandemic — seems apt for an industry striving to bring its image and perceptions into the 21st century. “Our manufacturing success is all about the future and about embracing technology,” said Ari Santiago, president of IT Direct in Hartford and host of the manufacturing podcast “Made in America.” 

And speaking of perceptions, the group used the occasion Thursday to launch a new brand name and a new slogan: Manufacture CT — We Make Things.

The new name and brand, developed over two years by the New Haven marketing firm Red Rock Branding, represents the culmination of a long transformation from local to statewide identity scope for the industry group.

Red Rock head Glen McDermott said in developing a new brand identity the group preferred to steer away from an acronym (such as the old NHMA) and give the organization more of a statewide “look and feel.” Manufacture CT accomplished both of those objectives.

McDermott noted that Connecticut is home to some 4,000 manufacturing companies, and despite its name the NHMA in recent years welcomed dozens of companies from beyond south-central Connecticut into the fold. Of companies based beyond the traditional Hartford-New Haven-Stamford manufacturing corridor, “We look forward to welcoming them into this community,” he said.

And not just new companies, but new members of the rapidly evolving manufacturing workforce. 

Marcy Minnick, chief operations officer for Excello Tool Engineering & Manufacturing in Milford, talked about changes to the industry, many technology-driven, that have made it a more inviting career path for females — both line workers and managers.

“The opportunities that women now have is because manufacturing has started to become more of a work-life-balance career,” said Minnick, who just completed a term as secretary of the NHMA board of directors. “It’s digitalized, and many women are able to work different shifts and different hours to be able to support the lifestyle they need to be able to work from home, to do programming,” she said. “That makes it inviting [for women] to enter [manufacturing] as a career — and Connecticut is certainly cultivating that.” 

In addition to celebrating a new name and new mission, the annual meeting was also an annual meeting, whose agenda included association business including election of officers. Jill Mayer, CEO of Bead Industries in Milford, was elected president for the 2020-21 term, succeeding Kate Houlihan of CBIZ Insurance Services in West Hartford.

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