Entrepreneurs Choose Vermont To Launch New Consumer Products Business

Janice Shade and a couple of her former colleagues from Seventh Generation envisioned a new product that will be a welcome addition to supermarket shelves: a 100% natural traditional bar soap at a price point comparable to soaps like Dial and Ivory and on the same grocery shelf. There’s nothing like it on the market. The fact that the soap will be a one-of-a-kind consumer product manufactured in Vermont by a private label manufacturer is exciting news. With an MBA from Yale, Ms. Shade gained brand management experience at Proctor & Gamble, Welch's and a small natural products company before she joined Seventh Generation as senior marketing manager. The new product idea developed out of synergy with an established private label soap manufacturer in Vermont. This new business is a perfect example of a consumer products company that could locate anywhere and chose Vermont. Seventh Generation brought together three individuals with common interests who later left Seventh Generation for other opportunities and regrouped to create a new company in Vermont. They joined with an innovative Vermont manufacturer to introduce a new product to the national market. They plan to grow carefully, adding employees as needed and generating production for the local manufacturer and its workforce. This is part of a knowledge-based economy in the consumer products industry in Vermont. Vermont is attracting and retaining a critical mass of consumer products professionals who can collaborate, innovate and develop new ventures as entrepreneurs in their industry while living where they want to live. This is exactly what the Vermont economy needs, and it’s already happening.