Business recruiters pitch outdoor life

A team of six Douglas County economic development officials last week descended on a large outdoor and recreational trade show in Salt Lake City to pitch Douglas County as a great place to locate companies that manufacture outdoors and leisure products.

The value of Douglas County's scenic outdoors was identified as one of the county's key benefits in a recent economic vitality action report. The team from Douglas County, the Northern Nevada Development Authority and Heavenly Mountain Resort found the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake the perfect forum in which to tout the benefits of relocating businesses to Douglas County.

Lisa Granahan, economic vitality manager, says the Outdoor Retailer expo is the world's largest sports industry trade show, with more than 1,000 brands represented and 21,000 attendees.

"This trade show in particular is very important to our efforts," Granahan says. "We saw it as our best opportunity to get a lot of these people in one place and reach out to them."

NNDA Executive Director Rob Hooper says the thrust of the Ascent Douglas initiative is to position Douglas County as a premier business destination for outdoors manufacturers.

"If you think about all that is in Douglas County - Heavenly Mountain, kayaking on the Carson River, soaring - it truly is an outdoor adventure destination and lifestyle capital," Hooper says. "Ascent Douglas County is really to point that out to both manufacturers and participants in those sports, which will lead to tourism, visitations, and business relocations and expansions."

The Ascent Douglas initiative blends the county's unparalleled outdoors offerings with the benefits of doing business in Nevada. Several outdoors manufacturers already call the county home, including:

• North Sails, sail-maker for World Cup racing yachts

• Aviso Surfboards

• Patmont Motor Werks, maker of the Go-Ped motorized scooter

"We have a very small cluster already, and it is working for them," Granahan says. "We thought Outdoor Retailer was the prefect match for what we have identified as our greatest asset, which is the spectacular natural environment. This is an industry that really appreciates the environment that Douglas County has."

Johnny Omohundro, president of Aviso Surfboards, moved his business to northern Nevada from Newport Beach in 1993. Aviso employs 17 people, down from 27 at its peak, at a 16,000 square-foot manufacturing facility on Airport Road in Minden.

Omohundro says Nevada's business climate makes doing business infinitely easier than in California.

"We have to abide by the same rules with OSHA, but the enforcement of those rules is completely different," he says. "It is hostile in California; you have enforcement officers trying to enforce fines for nothing. People want businesses here, and they want businesses to be hiring employees. It is just a super friendly climate, and that is why we are staying here."

Rather than setting up a booth at the outdoors expo, the team from Douglas County split up to work as many groups and generate as many leads as possible. Hooper generated more than 20 leads in the first day of canvassing the expo.

He says he engaged a company seeking to relocate its distribution warehouse, and another company that desires to bring its manufacturing center back to the U.S. from China.

"The first step is building a market," Hooper says.

Part of the Ascent Douglas plan includes building a presence on social networking sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.

"We are trying to interest them in our quality of life and the fact that we have so many areas available to test their products, and we have a great business climate too," Granahan says." We think it is a great area for this type of industry or manufacturer."

By bringing outdoors manufacturers to the area, Hooper notes, it will increase Douglas County's tax and job base, yet still adhere to the tenets which many people in the county desire to protect.

"There needs to be growth, and everybody recognizes that there will be growth," he says. "But growth can be something that takes away from the lifestyle people moved here to enjoy, or we can push growth that supports the lifestyle and reasons why they continue to live here."