New Hampshire greenhouse firm grows its business ... in Alaska

From The New Hampshire Union Leader:

While grim jokes abound about the New England winter, a Hooksett greenhouse company has found a surprising market much in need of growing solutions in a snowy, unforgiving climate: Alaska.

"When I started my company 19 years ago, if you had told me I'd be shipping greenhouses to Alaska, I would laughed at you," said Bob Rimol, owner and founder of Rimol Greenhouses.

Rimol Greenhouses shipped 15 high-tunnel greenhouses to Alaska in April as a part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant program. Since breaking into the Alaska market, the company has shipped more than 100 high tunnels to the state, all beginning with a phone call from an Alaskan with New England ties, Rupert Scribner.

"About three years ago, USDA came out with grants to get high tunnels, and people started calling us, Rimol said. "Then one gentleman in particular, he's a pretty savvy guy, he just totally figured it out, how to ship it out and make it competitive and affordable for everybody."

After traveling on shipping containers to Seattle, the tunnels go by sea to their distributors, Kenai Feed & Supply, and its owners, Scribner and his wife, Sarah Donchi, in Alaska. The two consolidate orders for large- and small-scale agriculturalists across Alaska, particularly in the communities on the Kenai Peninsula, on the south coast of the state.

Read the rest of the story here.