Companies in the News: Updates from Stihl, ReTree and more

Stihl sponsored the 56th anniversary of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree program.

Each year, a different national forest is selected to provide a tree to appear on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol building for the holiday season. This year, under the theme “Experience Your Nature,” the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, in partnership with nonprofit partner Choose Outdoors and Colorado Tourism, will bring this special gift from Colorado to Washington, D.C., for the 2020 holiday season.

“Stihl is proud to support this wonderful tradition that highlights the beauty of our national forests,” said Nick Jiannas, Stihl’s vice president of sales and marketing. “This magnificent tree will provide an opportunity for all Americans to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season as the tree makes its journey to our nation’s capital.”

With the support and expertise of Stihl and U.S. Forest Service sawyers, the 55-foot-tall Engelmann Spruce was harvested in the Uncompahgre National Forest on Nov. 6 and prepared for the nearly 2,000-mile expedition.

ReTree and its founder Dennise Vidosh, in collaboration with Ford Motor Co.’s commercial property group, FordLand, are on a shared sustainability mission, to preserve some of the mature heritage trees that have been growing at their World Headquarters campus for over 30 years.

ReTree has been planning and in talks with Ford for over a year about the Project to save mature specimen trees during Ford’s massive construction project rather than cut them down.

The project recently completed included six specimen gingko trees which were removed using pneumatic soil excavation and replaced in a new location on Ford’s Research and Engineering campus. The visual enhancement these new trees provide is a significant improvement to the corridor.

ReTree uses expertise and innovative technology to preserve and transplant mature trees. ReTree has the ability to transplant mature trees on-site as a service or repurpose them on its digital marketplace. These are just a few of the solutions to help preserve mature existing trees that may otherwise be destroyed.

Focal Pointe Outdoor Solutions was named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s list of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the region.

Joining just five other firms to be included on the “Fast 50” list for three years running, Focal Pointe ranked 43rd on the 2020 list. The Business Journal compiles revenue data for privately held companies in the St. Louis region that had sales of at least $1 million in 2017 and experienced a revenue increase between 2018 and 2019.

Focal Pointe had revenue of $17.8 million in 2019 and experienced 53.21 percent growth during the three-year period.