Manufactured Right Here shows what province is made of

Alocal entrepreneur says the sky is the limit and Newfoundlanders seem to forget it.

Adam Bragg of Mount Pearl is the vice-president and one of the co-founders of his business Abbyshot.

Abbyshot was one of the many businesses to attend the 16th annual Manufactured Right Here exhibition Friday at the St. Johns ReMax Centre.

This is such an important show for people to see what Newfoundland does. Most people assume that there isnt anything being produced in Newfoundland, but if you walk around this show youre going to see an amazing variety of products, Bragg said.

Abbyshot was founded five years ago and has since been designing garments worldwide and selling through their website www.abbyshot.com.

The export oriented business of 10 people, exports clothing made to replicate popular movie and television shows such as the Matrix and Kill Bill.

Anyone who has an Internet connection and a desire to wear designer clothing can order from us, Bragg said.

The business has just recently launched their Juice line, a more local targeted line which sells dance suits for choir, theatre and dance performances.

Were supplying jobs here. Were bringing money into the province, its an opportunity to promote Newfoundland. People are buying from us and they go, wow, Ive never even heard of Newfoundland and now I am buying this really cool product from them, Bragg said.

Come see what were made of was the theme of the Manufactured Right Here exhibition this year.

The show reminds people of the importance of buying locally manufactured goods.

Bragg said he has been taking part in the manufactured right here exhibition since his business began operation.

One of the main reasons we come to this show is to show people, look sewing machine and fabric, you put it together you have a coat, he said. (Add a) Website and you can sell it to somebody in Tokyo, or Los Angeles.

During the opening ceremonies of the exhibition, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) partnered with the Random North Development Association to announce a new program Steps for Success: Starting from the Ground Up.

One of the real issues in Newfoundlands manufacturing sector is that of skilled shortages, said CME, Newfoundland and Labrador chairman Glenn Mifflin.

This funding is over a three-year period. Its $2.3 million and it will now allow us to hire six human resource representatives to go across the province. They will be centred in Labrador, the Northern Peninsula, west coast, central, east and St. Johns.

This will allow companies to have access to a human resource, in order to have someone help them create a skilled strategy and build human resource capacity within their own companies so that they can get that major business barrier, Mifflin said.

Mifflin said he hopes this will give small starting companies the same advantages as large corporations and help businesses like Abbyshot find sellers across the world.

We have a tremendous manufacturing group of entrepreneurs here in Newfoundland and we need to help support them because they create the exports that bring dollars into the province and create employment, said Bragg.



hhill@thetelegram.com