By Richard Bammer/ RBammer@TheReporter.com
Posted: 01/30/2009
Jay Adair, Copart president, shared his story with local business leaders Thursday. (Courtesy photo)
Despite the thrum of adverse economic news, some Solano success stories can still be told, as the area has largely avoided the worst ravages of the ongoing recession, a county business leader said Thursday.
"Looking back at 2008, it's not all that bad," said Michael Ammann, president of the Solano Economic Development Corporation.
Speaking at the 26th annual EDC meeting in Fairfield, he said interest in wind-energy development and the presence of major biotech concerns, among them Genentech, Novartis and ALZA, employing thousands of workers and boasting multimillion dollar payrolls, will help nurture the local business climate beyond the economic downturn.
Additionally, the county is poised to grow well into the future, for the next 20 years, with an updated general plan, Ammann noted in his remarks to some 250 people, mostly business owners but including a smattering of elected officials.
Ammann -- as head of an organization that promotes growth and economic vitality -- then went through a laundry list of decidedly upbeat news and information about the county's seven cities, most of it centered on growth or development in business parks, major construction under way and planned, and infrastructure improvements.
In his remarks about Vacaville, Ammann noted the $1 billion Leisure Town corridor along Interstate 80, the newly built State Compensation Insurance Fund building, which derives some of its electricity needs from solar panels, and the new Kaiser Hospital, now slated to open in the fall.
Of the EDC, he said its vision is to have its newborns "grow up and be educated, find a partner in life and have a career" in Solano County.
"We have to have those young people" for the county to thrive in future, Ammann added just before introducing the keynote speaker, Jay Adair, president of Fairfield-based Copart, which has become a worldwide leader in the selling of wreck and used cars through its online auction services, to the tune of $3 billion in annual sales.
Adair noted that Forbes magazine recently ranked Copart among the best small companies in America. Its Fairfield headquarters boasts 400 employees.
He said his top priority was "protecting our balance sheet," but did not sound any fiscal alarm bells.
"We are a company that has no debt," he said, then quipped, "I'm in the car business -- things are not that good right now, but I've got no debt."
Hard work and luck figure into the success equation for any business, said Adair.
He said it was important for business owners to "take care of the employees -- they take care of the company."
