Author: KMF Infotech

Lakeshore Advantage finished the first quarter of 2026 with a strong start to the year. The organization translated strategy into measurable impact across business growth, talent, and entrepreneurship. In the first quarter, the team supported four business expansions totaling nearly $654 million in private investment and 630 new and retained jobs, while continuing to advance 18 additional projects in the pipeline.

 

One standout example is fairlife’s expansion in Coopersville, a $650 million investment creating 150 jobs. Just a year ago, this project was likely headed out of state. Through coordinated effort with local partners, state agencies, and elected officials, the team helped secure a transformational win that strengthens the region’s agribusiness cluster and reinforces the Lakeshore’s competitiveness.

 

Beyond business attraction and expansion, Lakeshore Advantage supported 37 startups, helping generate $1.3 million in startup capital, and continued advancing workforce housing solutions, with 19 projects in progress and ongoing employer engagement. This work reflects a balanced approach supporting immediate growth while addressing the long-term factors that sustain a thriving regional economy.

 

Insights from recent business retention visits also provide an important pulse on the region’s employers. Over the past six months, 67 companies were engaged, with 33% indicating plans to expand in the next three years . At the same time, talent continues to be a key pressure point, with 40% reporting ongoing recruitment challenges. Encouragingly, innovation remains a focus—59% of companies have introduced new products in the past three years—though only 15% report R&D investment levels that meet national best practice benchmarks. Taken together, these insights highlight both the resilience of the region’s business base and the need to continue addressing workforce and innovation capacity to sustain a thriving regional economy.

 

The first quarter results underscore a clear theme: progress is happening, and it’s powered by collaboration, persistence, and a shared vision for the Lakeshore’s future.

Beyond the Blooms: (April 30, 2026) The Holland business building the systems behind the products in your shopping cart 

 

It started with a need from Ford Motor Company. Fifty years ago, Ford was looking for a better way to handle plastic pellets, the tiny raw materials used to make countless products. When the opportunity wasn’t a fit for one West Michigan business, an entrepreneurial leader found their opening for a new business. 

 

Joseph M. Reed founded National Bulk Equipment (NBE) in Holland, Michigan, and got to work on solving Ford’s problem. Over the next five decades, the company would grow from a focused plastics solution into a global engineering partner whose systems now touch products in nearly every shopping cart. From food and beverage to household goods to industrial materials. NBE’s work quietly powers our everyday lives.  

 

From One Problem to Everyday Solutions 

In the early days, NBE focused on one thing: moving and storing plastic pellets better than anyone else. But solving that problem opened the door to something bigger. Customers didn’t just need equipment. They needed systems. Today, NBE designs and builds fully integrated, engineered-to-order solutions that handle everything from dry ingredients to liquids across industries like food, chemicals, and advanced manufacturing.  

 

Many of those projects are one-of-a-kind. Customers bring complex challenges without clear answers, and NBE builds something entirely new to solve them. 

 

A Family Business That Builds Differently 

Now 50 years in, NBE is still family owned, and still in Holland. 

 

Ryan Rose, grandson of the founder, is part of the next generation carrying that legacy forward, he explains that the philosophy hasn’t changed: start with the customer’s challenge, then solve the problem. That mindset shows up in everything they do. Long-tenured employees bring decades of expertise. Customers are treated like partners. Every system is designed not just to perform, but to make work safer, easier, and more efficient. 

 

It’s also why NBE keeps everything close to home—engineering, design, fabrication, and testing—all happening right here in Holland.  

 

The Work You Never See  

If you’ve never heard of NBE, you’re not alone. But their work has likely touched your life. 

 

Rose explains it like this: Imagine making 10,000 chocolate chip cookies every minute. You’d need systems to move thousands of pounds of ingredients, measure them precisely, and keep everything running without pause. That’s the kind of challenge NBE solves every day.  

 

In doing so, they’re eliminating the difficult, repetitive manual labor that once defined manufacturing—transforming how products are made and how people experience the work. 

 

One Company. A Much Bigger Story. 

NBE is one company—but it’s part of something much larger. 

 

Manufacturing makes up roughly 40% of the Lakeshore region (Ottawa and Allegan County)’s economy, a concentration far higher than most places in the U.S. And within that, a powerful smart manufacturing and automation sector continues to grow: 

 

• $4.4 billion in annual output  
• More than 27,000 jobs  
• Average earnings over $95,000  
• A workforce where nearly 9 in 10 roles are skilled positions  

 

This is one of the most concentrated advanced manufacturing corridors in the Midwest. Companies don’t just use automation, they design it, build it, tweak it, and push it forward.  

 

Built Here. Built for What’s Next. 

There’s a reason companies like NBE grow here and stay here. 

 

This region is built on people who take on hard problems and figure them out. The Lakeshore region is uniquely collaborative with a culture of strong craftsmanship and continuous learning and improvement.  

 

Fifty years after that first opportunity, NBE is still doing exactly what it set out to do. 

 

Solving problems others pass on, and building systems most people never see

 

They are shaping the future of how things are made, one solution at a time.