Business briefly: New, expanding businesses welcomed to region

Fifty five Nevada Business Connections members, guests and manufacturers filled the Gold Dust Casino and Resort meeting rooms in Carson City on Dec. 21 to hear from Dave Marson, president of Nature’s Bakery.

Kris Holt, Executive Director of NBC, began the meeting by naming 22 new and expanding companies in Carson City, Douglas and Lyon counties.

Currently, Carson City has 140 manufacturers, Douglas 70 and Lyon County 95. Storey County has 133 distributors and 28 manufacturers. Las Vegas’s economic development organization reported 28 new and expanding companies which created 7,300 new jobs in 2016. EDAWN in Reno assisted with 27 new and expanding companies and created 3,000 new jobs (including Tesla).

Dave Marson talked about how Nature’s Bakery had to recruit outside of Ferguson, Mo., for an additional 750 temporary positions in order to build a reliable and strong workforce. Marson said the fig bars they produce have been a complete success through research and development, manufacturing, trial and error and luck.

With 577 employees, the bakery’s biggest clients include Target, Costco, Sam’s Club and Walmart. The bakery offers a competitive wage, complete benefits and has a 30-year track record in Carson City. It’s launching several new products in 2017.

For more information, go to www.nvbizconnect.com.

NV Energy donates van to nonprofit health center

Nevada Health Centers has received a donation of a 2006 Ford passenger van from the NV Energy vehicle donations program.

The vehicle was used by NV Energy to transport employees between rural locations and will now be used by Nevada Health Centers (NVHC) to help with transportation needs of employees and supplies between NVHC’s 18 primary care health centers located throughout Nevada.

Nevada Health Centers reached out to NV Energy this past May to ask for consideration of a vehicle donation and the request was a great match for a vehicle in line to be donated.

Nevada Health Centers operates 18 health centers, seven Women, Infants and Children (WIC) offices, two mobile health programs and a Visiting Nurse Program.

Each year it cares for more than 47,000 Nevadans by providing family medicine, pediatrics, dentistry, behavioral health, and pharmacy. It accepts most insurance plans, Medicaid, Medicare and offers a sliding fee scale for uninsured patients.

For more information, go to http://www.nvhealthcenters.org.