LEWISTON — Recruiter Danielle Tardif at Adecco had 70 job openings, temporary positions that can become full time.

Mindy Gervais at Boston Brands of Maine was hoping to hire for three third-shift positions.

At the Walmart Distribution Center, it was 25 jobs.

“We have a hiring deficit just like everybody else,” said General Manager Rich Bourget.

The first LA Metro Marketplace on Thursday at the Bates Mill Atrium was part chance to show off the wide variety of work being done locally, part hope that you might catch someone’s eye.

Hundreds of local high school students poured through in the morning.

“I had to pull it out of them to see if they had summer jobs,” said Wendy Brown, assistant manager at the Poland Spring Resort, who was hiring dishwashers.

Six teens took applications.

Job-seekers came later in the day and the general public in the afternoon. The event was the chamber’s rebranded version of the longstanding Maine B2B trade show, with booths spread across three floors of the mill.

“We are growing like crazy,” said Gervais, a human resources business partner at Boston Brands of Maine.

Her mission was threefold: Find a few future employees, relay that “you don’t have to go outside of Lewiston to find a good job” and gently get word out that they are not White Rock Distilleries anymore.

Boston Brands of Maine bought the bottling company in 2014.

“We’re trying to spread the word that we are here, this is what we do and we are growing, so we’d like people to know that we are here,” Gervais said.

Rich Veilleux, vice president and general manager of Floor Systems, said he, too, was hoping to raise his company’s profile in the community.

“Trying to get the name out for what we do,” he said. “We have the largest rug selection north of Boston. Most people don’t know that.”

He is seeing a lot of new, construction-related business, but not so much remodeling work.

“I think that’s because there aren’t a lot of people to do it,” Veilleux said.

Jeffrey Parisi, owner and president of Obrien Consolidated Industries, a precision machine shop in Lewiston, said he would like to expand his 10-person company to 12 by the end of the year.

Walmart’s Bourget said the local distribution center employs about 600, and serves 140 stores from Presque Isle to New Haven, Connecticut. It operates seven days a week, three shifts a day.

His pitch to work there stressed the opportunity for growth.

“The majority of our salaried managers started as hourly associates,” Bourget said.

kskelton@sunjournal.com

Shelley Kruszewski of the Androscoggin Land Trust chats Thursday with Amanda Methot, right, Christine Mumau, bottom, and Sheri Buck, all with the city of Auburn, during the LA Metro Marketplace in the Bates Mill Atrium in Lewiston. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

Christine Bosse of Bangor Savings Bank chats Thursday with Mike Mathieu of Neokraft Signs, during the LA Metro Marketplace in the Bates Mill Atrium in Lewiston. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)

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