Lake Opechee Inn & Spa Named Family Business of the Year

 Michelle DuPont of Lake Opechee Inn & Spa, left, accepts the 2016 Family Business of the Year award from Joy LeBlanc of LeBlanc Heating, the 2015 winner.  

Lake Opechee Inn & Spa in Laconia was named the Family Business of the Year by the University of NH Center for Family Business at the center’s annual award dinner at the Manchester Country Club on May 25. The winner of the award is chosen based on business success, multi-generational involvement of family members, involvement with and support of UNH, and contributions to community and industry innovative business practices.

Lake Opechee Inn and Spa is owned and managed by the DuPont and Boissoneau families. In 1998 the family purchased the lakeside complex that now houses the inn, spa and restaurant. The Boissoneau family businesses began in 1976 when Raymond Boissoneau and his father, Russell, started with $1,000 and a handful of employees in a rented space with the old barracks of the Manchester Airport. Their first business, Electropac Co. Inc., manufactured printed circuit boards and over the next 20 years grew to five locations in three countries, with more than 400 employees and annual sales of $55 million.

Lifetime achievement awards were  presented to Stephen Fawcett of Bode Equipment Co. and Evan Welch of Welch Fluorocarbon Inc. in recognition of years of commitment to excellence in being a family business. Bode Equipment in Derry was founded in 1975 to provide material handling solutions to manufacturing and distribution companies in northern New England. In 1985 the Fawcett family purchased the company and expanded the scope of services offered to the customers along with expanding their area of service throughout New England. Welch founded Welch Fluorocarbon, Inc. in Dover 31 years ago as a family business. It includes his wife Louise and other family members. The company provides research, development and manufacturing of medical components to Boston Scientific, Medtronic and St. Jude Medical, among others.

Keynote speaker for the evening was Howie Wemyss, general manager of the Mount Washington Summit Road Co., a family-owned business for 155 years.

The Center for Family Business, part of UNH’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, is a membership program to provide owners and mangers of entrepreneurial business with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges and solutions.