CEO Carleton Dufoe, left, and CFO Jim Dufoe. (Christine Carignan)
Three-Year Average Annual Growth: 124%
Rank on Private 100: 3
Headquarters: 107 Northeastern Blvd., Nashua
Product/Service: Sources, procures, and redistributes electronic components, computer products and peripherals
CEO and Founder: Carleton Dufoe
Founded: 2014
Total Number of Employees: 147
Website: newpowerww.com
Carleton Dufoe has come a long way from his early college days at the University of NH. His classmates probably would not have pegged him as the guy to lead a multi-billion-dollar company or to be named the 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year by the NH Tech Alliance.
Dufoe eventually graduated from Rivier University in Nashua and got a job in electronics distribution. He liked the fast pace and the relationship building involved and grew a
successful career.
However, Dufoe realized he wanted to run his own company as he saw many in the electronics distribution industry had grown complacent, fearing customers would turn to online markets piling on too much info, he says. “They had weathered storms but were not taking risks and investing
to grow.”
Dufoe thought otherwise. And he notes, while there has been a “massive amount” of consolidation in the industry during the past decade, his company, NewPower Worldwide, has thrived since he launched it in 2014 with his father, Jim, serving as CFO.
Banks were not interested in funding a new venture, and Dufoe and his family fronted the money. (The company is a family affair with Dufoe’s younger brother Aaron joining and serving as COO.) The business started slowly with $6 million in sales. However, NewPower continued to grow and once it reached more than $300 million in sales, the banks started to pay attention.
Dufoe says the company’s commitment to sourcing quality product and hiring smart, driven people have been key to its success. Another key differentiator, Dufoe adds, is that NewPower developed a proprietary trading platform, dubbed Empower, providing employees with real-time market information to react quickly to customer’s needs. “When customers send us a 50,000-long list of items, we can quickly process that and give information back instantaneously,” he says.
NewPower serves about 2,400 active customers, Dufoe says, and the company is forecasting it will end 2023 with more than $2 billion in sales again. “We’re poised for continued growth going forward,” he says. n
Current Issue - May 2024