Sanmina coming home to Derry!

After reading the article about Sanmina coming back to Derry, I was extremely happy to hear the news had been public. I was fortunate enough to play a small role in bringing them back here to Derry.

It was about 2 years ago, that I was called by a local Sanmina rep about this situation to see what if any interest we would have in bringing the company back. You see the reason he called me was because I was the District 4 councilor. I then had a meeting with the rep and a big named realtor from the Salem NH area. Both men wanted to make sure that any information they gave me would be held in the strictest confidence and I assured them that I would not say a word to the public that would jeopardize such a great opportunity.

After hearing the plans and being asked what the town of Derry could do to either help or assist swaying the " big wigs" that Derry was the place to do business, I immediately told them both that this was such a big issue that we needed to get George Sioris,Russ Marcoux and the DEDC involved.
I wanted to know how serious they were in considering us and was assured that it was indeed serious, so serious that they flew out an upper manager from San Jose to meet with Myself, George, Russ and Joel Olbreicht and David Bulk from the DEDC. we also invited state officials to this meeting.

At the meeting, we were told that Derry as well as a few other locations ( South Carolina and cities in Canada) would be considered for a new facility that would be a state of the art building. They were going to close the Woburn facility and move it here to Derry. Also, their Manchester Sanmina business was expanding but did not have the facilities to expand the building itself because of land constraints. Moving to Derry and any "over spill" from Manchester could be handled in Derry.

However, they were also looking at South Carolina and Nova Scotia and told us that Carolina was willing to give all kinds of incentives like tax breaks and millions in assistance. The corporate manager then turned to us and said " what can New Hampshire and Derry do for them"

Mike Bergeron, director of Economic Development for New Hampshire said as far as give aways are concerned, New Hampshire had nothing to give as far as money, however he did a tremendous job in selling New Hampshire as a state by selling its strenghts like no income tax, low crime, educated citizens, dedicated workforce and ranking as #1 in the last few years as a place to live, work and raise a family.

The big man from San Jose thanked us and went on his way. We did not get any commitment from them and we were left to wonder if we did enough to convince him.

A year later we finally learn that Sanmina is coming back to Derry. Closing their Woburn facility and bringing to Derry. We learn that they also have plans to add jobs over the next few years and they want their facility here to be a showplace!!

This is awesome news for the town. It can and should bring additional business into the area and with the town ready to invest in Manchester Road and Big Box retailers looking at coming to Derry.- it can only get better from here.

I would like to stress that without the team work of Town officials, The DEDC, and State officials ( I'm probably leaving someone out. ) and the Sanmina official who also pushed for us to his corparate office-This would not of happened. It's all of us who will determine Derry's fate including you! Keep your eyes and ears open and pass the word on if you know of other companies looking to make a move!