In Which Steve Duin Praises JV Northwest

Steve Duin is a longtime political columnist for the Oregonian, and for some reason he went off script today to write about JV Northwest, a metal fabricator that made the switch from saw-blade manufacturers to brewery builders. The thrust of the story is one of those 'local company does good in a bad economy' pieces, but it's generally just a nice recap of one of the country's premier manufacturers of brewing equipment.

Microbrews continue to surge. As Jones said, "Once you're hooked on microbrew beers, no matter how bad the economy gets, you're not going back to Coors Light."

And JVNW continues to develop enough proprietary designs that Jones is sometimes forced to turn business away. When annual sales hit $25 million five years ago, the pace at the plant was a bit too intense, so JVNW scaled back to the $18 million range.

In this whirlpool of industrial noise, the whispers that Oregon is bad for business never break the surface.

Worth a look.