“We’re 100 percent committed to the community, of staying here and being here. The economy is tough, and it’s going to remain tough.  But we have a small and loyal following. We can leverage the benefits of being in Vermont.…The company has no plans to leave or scale back production in Vermont,” Solheim said – adding that producing ice cream in Vermont is profitable. …”The Vermont brand is a large part of selling the high-end ice cream,” he said, adding, “People are buying a little piece of Vermont all over the world.”

The timing of Mr. Solheim’s remarks could not be better, coming as they do on the heels of more Vermont-bashing rhetoric from the Douglas administration after Burton’s recent announcement that they will no longer produce any product in Vermont.  Mindless of the damage his persistently negative comments do to Vermont’s broader business interests, Douglas cannot resist any opportunity to score political points, imagined or otherwise, for his pet interests. He was all over the Burton withdrawal; and if that language is the only take-away  a company has when considering Vermont as a location for business, it’s doubtful they would think much past the governor’s remarks.  Sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of response, if any, Mr. Solheim’s glowing endorsement of Vermont will elicit from the man who should be its number-one booster.