Los Alamos Reporter

Avanyu And Golightly Cashmere Receive Business Awards At Annual REDI Summit

IMG_6139 (2).jpgHayleigh Palmer, owner of Golightly Cashmere, LLC, accepts an award Thursday from Regional Development Corporation board member Jack Jekowski at the annual REDI Summit. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

IMG_6144 (1).jpgAvanyu, LLC CEO Liana Sanchez, left, and COO Mateo Peixinho, right accept an award Thursday from Regional Development Corporation board member Dr. Cedric Page at the annual REDI Summit at Buffalo Thunder Resort. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Two Northern New Mexico companies, Avanya, LLC, and Golightly Cashmere, received awards at Thursday’s Regional Development Corporation honored at last Thursday’s REDI Summit at Buffalo Thunder Resort.

Accepting the award for Avanyu, LLC from RDC board member Dr. Cedric Page were CEO Liana Sanchez and COO Mateo Peixinho. Avanyu has been providing construction services throughout Northern New Mexico since 2004 and has completed projects in Texas and California. The company’s primary office is located in the Pueblo of San Ildefonso and a satellite construction office is located in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

Avanyu’s mission statement is,”To improve quality of life by practising sustainability”. The company, which specializes in adobe historic preservation, is Native and Woman owned – Sanchez is a Pueblo of San Ildefonse tribal member.  Page noted that Avanyu has 23 full-time and two part-time employees. The company is being awarded federal contracts and conservation projects and has completed projects for the Veterans Administration, the National Park Service, the California State Parks and Recreation and the US Forest Service. Avanyu has also built a $3.2 million project for the Ohkay Owingeh Tribal Administration building project and a completed a renovation project for Tsay Corporation for La Tierra Montessori School.

Page said the company also received a grant in a competitive process through the RDC’s Tribal Economic Diversity Fund in 2012. He said the company remains focused on utilizing local small business subcontractors and vendors in the community and hiring from Northern New Mexico tribal communities

RDC board member Jack Jekowski presented an award under RDC’s Technology and Manufacturing (TEAM) Fund to Haleigh Palmer, owner of GoLightly Cashmere, LLC.  The company which was established in 2007, is reviving the artisa craft of machine knitting with a line of cashmere knit products that are made in New Mexico and sold all over the world. 

Golightly Cashmere began as a mail-order business based in Taos and sells its products through two websites: www.golightlycashmere.com  and www.chocolatecashmere.com, as well as two stores in Santa Fe and Taos where they sell their own brand of cashmere knits, local chocolates and jewelry/gift items. They plan to start their own chocolate kitchen in Santa Fe shortly and a new store in Breckenridge, Colo., in the fall of 2020.

Jekowksi noted that the company’s projected income for 2019 is more than $2.1 million with the growth rate fo 2020 projected to be more than 10 percent. Employing 16 people, the company recently received funding approval from the State Jobs Incentive Training Program for eight new positions. 

Jekowski said Palmer will be purchasing a new knitting machine in order to make all the products in their lineup which will increase their creative capacity, reduce costs and bring all heir labor costs home to New Mexico.

Established in 2012, the original goal of the 20/20 Campaign was to identify and recognize 20 high-growth companies who are the job creators in the RDC’s seven county service region before the year 2020. To date, 46 businesses have been awarded under the campaign. To be considered a business must:

  • Be a for-profit business headquartered in the RDC’s seven-county service area
  • Have a finished product or service and at least two customers
  • Demonstrate financial stability and profitability
  • Demonstrate potential to double revenue and/or staffing over four years
  • Stay committed to Northern New Mexico
  • Have at least 50 percent of customer base located outside New Mexico

For more information on RDC programs, visit https://www.rdcnm.org/