PROGRAM develops nonprofit executives.
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SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 VOL. 39, NO. 19
The Business Newspaper of Metro Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon & West Michigan
MCDERMOTT IS Mailing house helps companies save money collects, MOVED TO SERVE KCI sorts and meters THIS WEEK
Guiding Light development director aims to help others who may be suffering in shame and silence like she was. Page 11
mail from businesses, and USPS gives it a discount on postage.
Rachel Watson
rwatson@grbj.com
Sector energized Employment in the green energy industry is recovering after a significant COVID-19 hit. PAGE 3
Food for thought Food startups need more expert advice, training before matching with investors for a capital raise. PAGE 3
CLEARER PICTURE? IRS provides clarity to guidelines of the Employee Retention Credit, which has proved to be a puzzling financial aid to employers and tax experts alike. Page 8
THE LISTS
The area’s top CPA firms Page 6 The area’s top SBA lenders Page 7
A 46-year-old local company is softening the blow of the recent postage rate hike for its hundreds of clients as it continues to procure and pass along lower prices from the U.S. Postal Service. Kent Communications Inc. (KCI) was founded in 1975 by Phil Quist and Joyce Vugteveen as a printing and mailing company serving greater Grand Rapids. Today, the company’s ownership has passed to Brian Quist, the son of Phil Quist and current company president, and KCI now offers design, print, mail and e-marketing services for organizations across Michigan from its location at 3901 E. Paris Ave. SE in Kentwood. “One of the things that we do is we pick up mail from about 300 different organizations in the western/ mid-Michigan area, so from
President Brian Quist said KCI picks up mail from approximately 300 companies in Michigan.. Courtesy KIC
Muskegon to Lansing, and from Grand Rapids north to Fremont. Every day, we pick up mail from either government, schools, companies (or) nonprofits, and we mix it all together, (sort it) and get postage discounts” after delivering it to the postal service, Brian Quist said.
USPS offers rebates for companies that pre-sort and meter mail at volume. KCI typically can save customers about 4 cents per envelope by serving as a go-between with its quality pick-up, sort and process services. The price of metered mail rose from 51 to 53 cents as of Aug. 29,
according to usps.com, but KCI customers only pay 49.4 cents, up from 46 cents prior to August, Quist said. To prepare the mail for delivery to the postal service, KCI’s sorting operation is high-tech and has the look of something out of a movie. Its facility contains a huge, automated mail sorting machine that has the capability to sort to 160 different ZIP codes at a rate of 10 per second, or 40,000 envelopes an hour. As the mail goes through the machine, it reads the address, takes a picture and turns that data into a unique barcode via optical character recognition. “It looks at that address and then finds it — we have a database of all the addresses in the whole country — and then it sprays the barcode to direct it to that house. At the same time, it’s checking if there’s a move update on file for that individual on the envelope, and if there is, we can print their new address and forward the mail to the new location,” Quist said. The mail is then sorted into the appropriate trays according to location to pass off to USPS. He said today’s technology allows KCI and the post office to be CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
Rockford puts emphasis on sustainable construction Builder also looks at projects in ‘holistic’ way for clients. Paul R. Kopenkoskey
Special to the Business Journal
When it comes to Rockford Construction integrating sustainability into its building designs and developments, the tent poles of people, planet and profit are kept to the fore. “That’s our triple bottom line,” said Jennifer Boezwinkle, executive vice president, construction for Rockford Construction. “That’s really the challenge our clients are facing. It’s really an approach that’s gaining more and more popularity
as we look at buildings’ impact not just on energy and the environment, but the people who live there and work there from a day-to-day standpoint. We are very much about the triple bottom line.” Increasingly, builders must be on the vanguard of mining ways for Earth’s biosphere and human civilization to coexist without ravaging the environment, according to Boezwinkle. New construction and rebuilds that follow the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification developed by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council certainly are a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t stop there, since buildings will likely outlast the peoCONTINUED ON PAGE 15
Sustainable features at Grand Rapids Public Schools’ Southwest Community Campus include flooring made of recycled content, recycled countertops, low VOC paint and adhesive, and access to natural lighting. Courtesy Rockford Construction
GRBJ.COM Vol. 39, No. 19 $2.00 a copy. $59 a year © Entire contents copyright 2021 by Gemini Media. All rights reserved.
Inside Track ...... 11 Guest Columns.. 18 Student debt hype Change-Ups ..... 24
UNITED Federal Credit Union marks progress, reflects on past.
Calendar .......... 24 Public Record ... 25 Street Talk ...... 26
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