Ed Girrbach likes potato chips. So much so, he’s put money, determination and business acumen toward a made-in-Michigan venture that is frying 20,000 pounds of raw potatoes a week in the hills outside of Traverse City. The Great Lakes Potato Chip Co., co-owned by Ed, 63, and son Chris, 33, has gone from a conversation […]
Business Watch
Covering the intersection of business and policy, and informing Michigan employers and workers on the long road back from coronavirus. Our Michigan Economic Dashboard shows key metrics that show how the state is performing.
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Michigan bucks trend – in good way – on family incomes
Michigan finally bucked a national trend in a positive direction as median household income rose while the national median was falling last year. More about that after the national news. Fall is almost here and the time has come for the Census Bureau to release its latest analyses of the economic health of the country […]
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Drooping natural gas prices slow rush to 'frack'
Two years after oil and gas companies spent a record $178 million for the right to drill on state land, the rush to tap deep deposits of natural gas using a controversial drilling technology known as “fracking” still has momentum in Michigan. Even the Chinese government has joined the pursuit of what could be large […]
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Large employers help cities keep good company
Most large Michigan cities owe their economic successes — and downfalls — to an astounding number of entrepreneurs who turned their businesses into major corporations. Detroit was the Silicon Valley of its day, as Henry Ford and dozens of his competitors put America on wheels in the early 20th century. Dr. William Upjohn founded the […]
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Dow and Midland: It's just good chemistry
Midland’s key ingredient to its long-term economic success can be summed up in one word: Dow. The Dow Chemical Co. has had an outsized impact on this handsome, prosperous mid-Michigan community of about 42,000 since Canadian immigrant Herbert Henry Dow arrived in 1890 and started manufacturing bleach. Dow Chemical’s influence can be seen throughout the […]
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Battle Creek merger kept Kellogg popping
Battle Creek is unequivocally the “Cereal City.” But relations between the city and Kellogg Co. — its largest employer — haven’t always been as sweet as a bowl of Froot Loops. In the early 1980s, Kellogg threatened to pack up its cereal boxes and leave town unless the city and Battle Creek Township merged. didn’t […]
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Motor City rolls on to tech, health care
Detroit has long been known as the Motor City. Don’t trying telling city officials that it isn’t anymore. Much of the city’s automotive production left long ago, as manufacturers and suppliers moved operations to lower-cost southern states. But Detroit officials will quickly remind you of significant auto operations that are still here — and are, […]
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Dutch titans left their mark on West Michigan
Rich DeVos and the late Jay Van Andel were known as the “gold dust twins” as they built Amway, the direct-selling consumer products giant they founded in 1959 near Grand Rapids. They spread a lot of that gold around West Michigan to support the construction of hospitals, sports and entertainment facilities, research institutions and many […]
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Savior of Jazz Festival sees better times for Detroit
Gretchen Valade is known in Detroit cultural circles as the philanthropist whose intercession — $15 million worth and counting — saved the city’s Labor Day weekend jazz festival in 2005. Fewer know that Valade, heiress to the Carhartt clothing fortune, is as busy in her ninth decade as she’s ever been, playing a role in […]
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Forecasting a slower, pricier car industry
Cars might cost $50,000 on average by 2025. Vehicle sales in the United States may never bounce back to the levels of a decade ago. And electric vehicles aren’t likely to catch on with consumers for years, if at all. So says Sean McAlinden, executive vice president of research and chief economist at the Center […]