Blaine Convention Services Inc. is upgrading its headquarters with the help of a Small Business Administration loan it got for cutting down on electricity.
The Brea-based builder of display booths for conventions recently bought a 107,000-square-foot building for $8 million, including a $3 million loan.
To get the loan, Blaine Convention had to shed at least 10% of its energy usage at a new building, owner and Chief Executive Tom Blain said.
The new building is 40,000 square feet larger than Blaine Convention’s old site in Buena Park. But Blain said the company will save as much as 20% annually with skylights and motion detector switches that turn lights off when people aren’t around.
It took over the building from Audiobahn Inc., a distributor of audio equipment that no longer appears to be operating under that name.
Blaine Convention’s sales will be down about 15% this year from 2008 to about $20 million as the convention business feels the recession, Blaine said.
Next year the 37-year-old company is hoping for a 5% increase as some clients bounce back.
Blaine Convention has about 50 full-time workers. The majority of its work is contracted out to about 1,800 union workers at cities across the country that host conventions.
Rivals include Dallas-based Freeman Decorating Services Inc., Phoenix-based Viad Corp.’s GES and Middleboro, Mass.-based Champion Exposition Services Inc.
Climate Change
Santa Ana-based Air & Water Inc. tends to see a big pickup in sales in the summer.
But this summer the seller of portable air conditioners had to contend with the recession, leading to a slight increase in sales from the previous year, according to owner and Chief Executive Luke Peters.
In the years running up to 2009, the six-year old company was growing at least 20% a year, he said.
He declined to disclose how much Air & Water does in yearly sales.
The company also sells heaters, humidifiers, fans and other seasonal products. Air conditioners bring the highest profit, according to Peters.
Air & Water’s products are made in China under contract. The industry as a whole is “fiercely competitive,” Peters said.
The company recently moved into a 35,000-square-foot building in Fountain Valley, where it employs 30 people.
Before, it was spread out in three locations spanning 22,000 square feet.
During the summer, Peters said he hired three warehouse workers thanks to a government stimulus program that paid their wages.
Most of Air & Water’s sales are online, which can be more of a challenge when it comes to customer satisfaction, he said.
“If you walk into a store you can easily solve some issues face to face,” he said. “That’s not as easily achieved with people over the Internet.”
Micro Funding
Orange County’s chapter of early stage funding group Tech Coast Angels has launched SeedTrack, a program to finance companies even smaller than what the group usually deals with.
The local investors behind Tech Coast Angels, which helps young companies prepare for venture capital funding, started the program to help move young companies along.
“We saw that a lot of companies with potential could use our help to get to the next level,” said John Murphy, chairman of SeedTrack.
The goal is to prepare small startups for regular Tech Coast Angel or venture capital funding, he said.
Initial funding of about $100,000 for these companies will be a lot less than the $300,000 to $1 million the group traditionally gives out.
Murphy said he expects the program to be modeled after one in San Diego. It could overtake what Tech Coast Angels does in number of deals per year but not total dollar amount, he said.
SeedTrack also will help with services such as human resources, finance, hiring and contract negations.
“The idea is to have the entrepreneurs focus on what they do best,” he said.
SeedTrack plans to go after businesses that don’t require a lot of money to get up and running, such as those in media and software, he said.
So far its only investment with the program is with Calabasas-based Masher Media Inc., an online entertainment company.
Overall activity for Tech Coast Angels is slower than last year. Murphy didn’t give exact figures.
Grow Your Own
Growing your own food at home is the idea behind Newport Beach-based Harvest To Home.
The company rents boxes in which you can grow vegetables and herbs starting at $70. It then charges a $5 a month rental fee.
A box of tomatoes can harvest between 30 pounds to 50 pounds within three months, owner Mike Sarayilan said.
“We have customers who look at this as cost savings and customers who look at it as more of a luxury and easy way to eat organic and healthy,” he said.
Sarayilan said the company, in its first year, is adding customers every week and hopes to soon find a new headquarters.
