Captioning sponsored by wpbt this is n. B. R. Mike from paint to pet food, hats to barbecue. As a nation, we make millions of products every year. But have you ever wondered just how those things are made and what drives those companies . Tonight in this n. B. R. Special edition made in america we go to towns small and large to meet unique businesses building jobs and profits. That and more tonight on n. B. R. Good evening, im mike hegedus with an n. B. R. Special edition, made in america. Walking down kentucky street in downtown petaluma, california, but it could be anywhere, u. S. A. This is where Small Businesses live. Small businesses that create two out of every three new jobs in the u. S. Tonight youre going to meet some of the people behind those businesses and find out how they plan to keep building those businesses. We begin with the housing market, ground zero for the recession. From construction to appliance makers, when it collapsed it took a lot of very Good Companies down with it. But heres one that has managed to learn how to paint over the rough spots. You can brush it on, you can roll it on, you can get it on your pants. Paint. The kelly moore plant in san carlos, california, turns out nearly 40,000 gallons a day. Its one of the largest employeeowned paint operations in the u. S. Part of a 13 billion industry domestically. 140 workers in the 15 acre san carlos facility, 1,500 world wide, including 150 retail outlets in seven states. We own currently 58 of the stock and the rest of the stock is owned by the moore family. Mike you like white . Ey got it. U li they got that, too. Still seeing a lot of reds. That teal is slipping into it. Teal and turquoise. Green still kind of there still. Yellows, yellow influence, neutrals are still there. But the teals and the reds and oranges. Oranges are just really popular right now, too. I started off with. Mike steve devoe is chairman and c. E. O. Of the 66yearold company. He does not paint a pretty picture of what they and every other paint manufacturer has been through over the last couple years. What he does do is point out why kelly moore fared better than most. First, history. They have it. Started in 1946 by bill kelly and william e. Moore, the goal was simple make a quality paint that professionals would be proud to use. And second, understand that those professionals are not only your customers but your partners. What a concept quality and loyalty trump chasing the market down. What we stay focused on was number one what were known for, which is quality. We know who our customers are and we never took our eyes off that. We became a real Strong Partner with them over the couple years that the downturn hurt us all. Reporter kelly moore even set up classes, tutorials for Small Business owners, customers, to teach them how to survive tough times and it looked for bigger markets. A western regional player in the u. S. , kelly moore now ships paint to china, japan, cambodia, vietnam. The driver . Quality product for one and the second factor is that its made if the u. S. Thats what they seek. Thats what they want. Its that quality. Mike what kelly moore seeks is the next great break through in paint. Odorless, longer lasting, environmentally friendly. Strides have been made in almost every area except one. It cant apply itself. Thats something people always want it to do. Mike laughs its a lot of it lately is about ease of application and saving time and time is money. Mike the color of money. Always a good choice. Mike farming is a very difficult business and while technology and large corporate farms have made american agriculture some of the most productive in the world, small family farms are having a very difficult time surviving. Unless they become very creative. How much passion, persistence, and profitability can you squeeze into a 15pound block of cheese . At the Petaluma Creamery in petaluma, california, not quite enough of the last. Why did you buy it . I wanted to saving a which you are in sonoma county. Mike thats a tall order. Anybody ever told you you were nuts . Oh, yes. Many a times. Mike larry peter bought the 99yearold Petaluma Creamery in 2004. It was idle, about to be torn down. A dairyman, peter owns 300 head of jersey milking cows, they roam free on his ranch in two rock, organic to nth degree. A firstgeneration farmer, peter cobbled together a living from the land, milk, a Pumpkin Patch in the fall, farmers markets. But after nearly two decades, he needed to do something to increase revenue. I figured if i could cut out the middleman, grow the feed, milk the cow, make the cheese and sell the product to the customer i would be able to help pay my mortgage better. Mike so he bought the creamery, bringing in milk for more than 30 dairies in Northern California, saving them the transportation cost to creameries three and four hours away and giving him the milk necessary to make 300,000 pounds of highquality specialty cheese a week. 22 varieties under his spring hill jersey cheese brand name. It was milk and it turns into curds and whey. Mike larry peter is a small curd in a 27 billion plus market. Uil chipotle seen that i was like an american dream. Mike he was discovered by the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain. Its marketing slogan is food with integrity. Larry peter has both and his cheese is in their restaurants. Theyre looking for people with passion. They want to go back and they want to buy a product the way it was 45, 50 years ago where cows are just on grass, they werent pushed. Mike its the slow food, sustainable farming, buy local organic quality Food Movement that has pushed artesian cheese into cheese sold. And larry peter has found the sweet spot. Now the artists of the world, the chefs, are taking these cheeses and developing them in their recipes and its a real plus. People look for acid in cheese. People look for the bite of the cheese. People try to take cheese and judge it like they judge wine. For an example, the dryer the cheese, the dryer the wine. Mike the Petaluma Creamery, its cows roam free and its owner has a vision. If you love what you do and you believe in yourself and put passion in anything you can do, you can make anything happen. Mike when you talk about creating jobs, the role of immigration can be a real hot button issue and nowhere do the two come in more direct contact with each other than in the Central Valley of california. Now, youre about to see how taylor farms is using technology to help bridge that gap. It is the sound of technology making up for policy. It is where a machine fills the void left by a declining work force. A romaine field outside salinas, california, High Pressure water jets cutting heads of lettuce, an efficient eliminator of stoop labor, better for the workers that remain and better for the company that has seen its labor pool drained by foggy immigration rules. The purpose of the machine is to reduce our dependency on foreign labor. And numbers in the field in general. All of our fields prior to harvest are microtested where theyre coming in and theres random samples taken throughout the field. And before we can bring our equipment in and harvest, those samples have been sent to a lab and the field has been deemed clear. Mike this one of two automated harvesters built and designed by taylor farms, a 1. 6 billion a year player in the produce business. Contracting with hundreds of farmers throughout california and arizona. Taylor farms, a 17yearold company, has a 65 share of the food service market, providing lettuce to some very wellknown names. Subway, mcdonalds, burger king, taco bell and if you go to a local restaurant it would be red lobsters, olive gardens, outback steak house. This is our loading dock. We have 23 dock doors, we start loading trucks around 7 00 in the morning and load all night. Mike 13. 5 Million Pounds of finished product, from romaine to iceberg and carrots and cabbage flow through the plant in salinas. Taylor farms has a 20 share of the retail produce sector. Were all about getting it in and out as quick as possible because it is perishable. So we will turn this entire warehouse in one day. Mike so everything i see here is gone in one day and the place is filled again . Filled again, yup. Mike while staggering to think about, nothing compares to this the entire plant, everything except the walls, is moved to yuma, arizona, in november and then back to salinas in the spring. The whole plant follows the growing season. If its moving, its going to yuma. Mike watch the 1,000 or so plant workers migrate as well with about a 95 retention rate. The same not true for field workers. Thus the automated harvesters, making sure the lettuce is picked when and how it needs to be. Were looking for a nice upright tight hearted starting to close in head. Mike they are the lifeblood of the u. S. Economy small and mediumsize businesses. And the fastestgrowing segment are those Small Businesses owned and operated by women. Lets meet some women now who are tipping their hat, both to history and to future growth. It has been going on at pauls hat works in san franciscos Richmond District since 1918, the making of hats. Lineage that runs from its peruvian founder over 94 years to four young women from the neighborhood. We were kind of an odd bunch before, didnt plan to be hatters, as most people probably dont, and stumbled on it, really did. Stumbled on it. And the story and the ambience and thats what took us. Mike the story is a familiar one in 2009, battered by the down economy, the owner needed to sell, no one would buy. So the option was to shut it down, walk away, hat in hand. Except in walked a preschool preschool teacher, two costumers and a bookkeeper, saviors in bright colors, with passion. We did it because, a, this place was going to evaporate if we didnt. Nobody else was going to do it. The four of us are makers of things. We love the craft and we love old crafts and this was something that you can only learn how to be a hatter by apprenticing. So this is a skill that theyre not teaching in school. See, thiss kind of a taller crown. Mike what they will teach in school is how to run a business. Classes they found and took to learn about price points, niche markets, branding, sourcing, business plans. Business is a different language, you know . So i had to learn the language. Mike the language theyre speaking now is of success and expansion. One of only a handful of hat makers anywhere working in the hand made custom fit on average 650 per hat market, they get their straw blends from ecuador, the resurgence in mens hats were which were practical and iconic in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s,s hats are on the heads of president s and a young generation. So pauls hat works is headed to the big apple. More people; more money; more style in new york. Mike the language of the custom hat business. Mike most Silicon Valley startups have one common goal to be the next breakout company. Next, three brothers who are on that path. Millions already know their product and their growth is nothing to c tom at. So this is the pitch. Mike meet the brothers smith, nate, ben, and tom. And if the Smith Brothers has a certain ring to it, well, its because they are related to those other ones of ahem cough drop and elixir fame. But what these Smith Brothers are known for are video games. Cordy, cordy sky and sleepy jack, three of the most popular game apps in the digital universe. Millions, multimillions of downloads across all platforms. Mobile phones, tablets, p. C. , television, set top boxes and trying to have kind of fluid experiences across all those different types of streams. Mike the ability to go from here to there yup. Mike to there to the t. V. Mike is a huge deal. Yes. Yeah. And thats the thing i think were ahead of the curve there in terms of our designs working that way. Mike they are the principals in eightyearold silvertree media. A couple dozen folks in a Downtown Historic palo alto, california, building. They are Virtual World creators and storytellers. When you consider there are hundreds of millions of devices upon which their games will play, there is nothing sleepy about that, jack. We always try to think of ourselves as the pixar of the mobile industry. So we try to make things that kids will like it but their parents will like it as well. If we go at these characters with that there is a life and a heart to each of the characters that were working on that we show to the world that people will pick up on that over time. Mike this is how they got their start, creating a fairy world for disney, which led to tron and work for Electronic Arts and microsoft. In 2009 they decided to launch their own stuff but how did they get there . Where does one start on this journey into virtual fame and fortune . Try pittsburgh. Half of them are computer scientists or engineers and the other half are artists. Mike both ben and tom are graduates of Carnegie Mellons unique Entertainment Technology center masters program, a combination of computer sciences, engineering and art that has given birth to perhaps more game makers and changers than any other place in the real world and was the home of find the best in everybody. Mike professor randy palm whose last lecture became a phenomenon. It was a viral inspiration to millions but he was an inspiration to the smiths long before that. From the beginning of us starting this company he said you guys really have something here. You have something unique. And keep developing that. Keep making a make the best company you can possibly make and shoot for the stars. Mike shooting for the stars. They can do that. It will take you a long time to design a square head on this guy. Yeah. Mike its no secret that the new media both the internet and digital devices has taken a large bite out of the newspaper and magazine businesses. But there are some notable exceptions. Well take you now to one company that is determined not to let the sun set on old media. It is doing more than just scratching for chicken feed in the media barnyard. It is planting the seeds of new business and adding to the stew of profitability. It is sunset magazine. Prints not going to go away. That our readers love having that thing they hold in their hands. And the important thing is for us to understand why they are taking a print publication. I probably need to talk to kathy right away. Mike they have been putting together sunset magazine since 1898, started as a means of drawing tourists west by the southern pacific railroad. Its the largest lifestyle publication this side of the rockies. We have 1. 25 million subscribers and our total audience is about 4. 7 million. Mike based in menlo park, its sevenacre campus is home to a test kitchen. Every recipe vetted here. Sunset has the best testing system ive ever seen. Mike and working gardens. It if grows in the west or doesnt they know about it first. Youre carrying the bible. I am carrying the bible. Mike this is and its heavy mike this is the bible. Sunsets garden book having sold over six million copies, the latest version the best selling book of its kind this year. Both food and gardening are bedrock under the sun Se Foundation but magazine bedrock has been crumbling so how has the sunset brand a division of time warner managed to say strong, relevant, desirable . By throwing a party. This one of several events that sunset puts on yearly. Its called bringing the brand to life. 20,000 people over two days. And nobody likes it more than one very important group. We have Celebrity Chefs and we have gardening experts and we have home experts and our editors are talking, theres a lot of sampling. Its a really fun event and that actually is of great interest to our advertisers right now to be able to bring the brand to life and to be able to introduce consumers directly to the brand. Audiences today expect that its a dialogue, not a oneway street. And thats actually challenge for print. You can not simply be the authority. Mike along with events, sunset engages in a multipronged business strategy. A million unique viewers on its web page. An ipad application, licensing, custom publishing, sunset does book for pillsbury and weber grills and is now branding and selling its own line of plants. Sunset editors selected these from a lot of new offerings working with the Plant Development company. Mike sunset magazine sewing the seeds of new business in the shifting soil of modern media. Do you suppose thats chicken stew . Mike the Restaurant Business is one of the toughest the world. More close than open every yea and of those that stay open, very short expected life span. Just about two years. So how do you explain one Northern California family owned and operated Restaurant Business that keeps expanding . In this case, the secret really is in the sauce. It is that allamerican recipe for success hard work, quality product, loyal customers and one special secret ingredient. Its the sauce. It really is. My grandmother told me never, ever, ever give the recipe out or youre kicked out the famy. Mike laughs if the sauce is the key, what it has opened the is the door to success for everett and jones, arguably the best known barbecue restaurant chain in Northern California. Five outlets with this, the Jack London Square location in oakland, the largest. Those are homemade sausages. Mike its owned and operated by dorothy king jurnigan and her children, four daughters and two sons. Business acumen passed generation to generation. Consistency. Thats the key to having a successful business. Knowing the history and where my grandmother went through to hit this business it just made me work harder and just love it. I love it. Mike its a history that stretches back to a shoeless family in rural alabama, one that moved to oakland in the 50s and one that saw dorothy everett, a single mother of eight, open her first restaurant with that sauce in 1973. It provided a good living and created a desire for something more. My mom