Southwest Colorado Companies to Watch celebrated in Durango

Ska Brewing Company of Durango and Growing Spaces of Pagosa Springs were honored at a reception in Durango August 25 to celebrate the companies’ recognition as a “Colorado Company to Watch.” Both companies were recognized on June 18 at the Denver Marriot City Center in a ceremony sponsored by M3 Insurance.
 
A program of the Edward Lowe Foundation, “Top 50 Colorado Companies to Watch” is an annual awards ceremony designed to energize the state by recognizing the second-stage growth companies that are developing valuable products and services, adding jobs, enriching communities, and creating new industries throughout the state, said Durango Chamber director Jack Llewellyn at the local reception.
 
 Criteria for honorees includes being growth-focused, privately held, headquartered in Colorado and having six to 99 full-time-equivalent employees and annual sales of $750,000 to $50 million.
 
Since moving into a new facility in 2009, Ska has added 10 jobs for a total of 35 employees. Growing Spaces employs 13 people year-round and hires several sub-contractors to build its greenhouse-dome kits.
 
The reception in Durango was sponsored by Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado, the Durango Chamber of Commerce, and the La Plata Economic Development Action Partnership (LEAD).
 
“It was an honor to be on a list with some of the other companies on it,” commented Ska Brewing co-founder Dave Thibodeau at the local reception. “This is only the second year of Companies to Watch in Colorado, so to be an alumnus of that group is cool. It will continue to be a neat thing in the future as the program grows.”
 
In his thank-you speech to reception attendees, Growing Spaces founder Udgar Parsons shared the company’s “overnight success story that only took 21 years,” he joked. “I was first inspired by a huge 50-foot-diameter geodesic dome at John Denver’s Windstar Foundation back in 1987. To step into this dome and see pomegranates, carrots, grapes and peas flourishing, when there was two feet of snow outside, it was like going from Alaska to Florida in one step. I was so inspired that this greenhouse did this without using any fossil fuels. I decided there and then that I was going to make these affordable to the ordinary person.”
 
Parsons thanked his employees and called the experience of growing his company joyful and fun from the very beginning. Added Parsons’ wife and business partner, Puja Parsons: “When we were up onstage together in Denver, to see how much innovation is going on in Colorado and to be a part of that was such a privilege. For all of us to celebrate together here is special, because everybody has worked really hard.”
 
In his speech at the Durango reception, Thibodeau thanked Ska employees and recognized regional resources for businesses: the Durango Chamber, LEAD, Region 9, and the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center, which help entrepreneurs live “in the best place and make a living in the best place.”
 
“Thanks for all the support and for offering support to other businesses. To see this level of appreciation reinforces what we are doing and let’s us know we’re a part of something that matters and helps our local economy thrive.”
 
For additional information, contact: Cassie Alexander, Business Development Specialist for Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado, (970) 247-9621.