Idaho has good stories to tell about business growth and expansion as the state lumbers out of a squishy economy, says Jeffery Sayer, Gov. Butch Otter’s commerce director.

He plans to tell a few of them when he speaks at the Idaho Private 75 luncheon Thursday, Oct. 4, in Boise. The luncheon honors the year’s top private companies.

Small Idaho communities are fighting the economic downturn with everything they have, and they’re finding innovative ways to survive, Sayer says.

He says Idaho’s little-noticed aerospace industry is showing signs of life, too. The sector includes companies that make airplanes and firms that make parts to go in them. The industry stretches from North Idaho to the Boise Airport.

And across the state, Idaho’s so-called rec-tech (recreational technology) industry is growing. Makers of ammunition, outdoor clothes and firearms are putting jobs back into the state’s beleaguered manufacturing column, Sayer says.

“So much of what Idaho is going through is under the radar screen,” he says.

But Idaho is doing more than getting new businesses. It is holding on to some that had flirted with leaving. “People really are choosing to stay in Idaho,” Sayer says.

“Our teams are out there,” he says. “They are able to jump in and find companies on the fence and get them to stay.”

The annual Idaho Private 75 list is sponsored by the Idaho Statesman, the Holland & Hart law firm, KeyBank and the KPMG accounting firm. KPMG compiles the list, which is based on revenues.

Last year, WinCo Foods topped the list, followed by the J.R. Simplot Co. and Boise Cascade LLC. Find out who’s on this year’s list in a special advertising section that will distributed at the luncheon and inside Sunday’s Statesman.

Bill Roberts 377-6408