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Pueblo, CO: Where Entrepreneurs Excel

This city in Southern Colorado offers a great environment for startup successes.

By Amy Antonation on April 11, 2023

Now located in Pueblo, Boreas Campers is owned by Matt and Maggie Reichel, a husband-and-wife team.
Justin Baker/Boreas Campers

Pueblo, CO, is buzzing with all the best elements of an urban area – art, culture, food, history, entertainment, the list goes on and on. But part of what makes Pueblo such a unique and thriving community is its collection of local entrepreneurs and their must-have products and services.

Go Off the Grid with this Pueblo Entrepreneur

Pueblo is a bit of a trek from Breckenridge’s Boreas Pass, especially if you take a detour through Denver. But that’s the route founder Matt Reichel took when expanding Boreas Campers, which now designs and makes every one of its off-road, off-grid camper trailers in Pueblo.

Reichel, an outdoor enthusiast, left his engineering job in 2012 to travel the West. For the next three years, he hiked, biked, skied and RVed. During that time, he came up with the idea of a small camper trailer with off-road capabilities.

In 2015, Reichel built his first camper in his Breckenridge home’s one-car garage; he named his new venture after the mountain pass on which his property sat.

The next year, Reichel moved to Denver’s western suburbs with the intention of growing Boreas Campers. He sold his first unit that same year, and by 2021, spurred on by growth and the need for a larger production facility, began searching for a new space in Denver proper.

But he couldn’t find a suitable spot. The city was crowded and expensive, says Matt ’s wife, Maggie Reichel, marketing director at Boreas. So, Matt Reichel expanded his search to Pueblo and Colorado’s Western Slope. In April 2022, Boreas Campers relocated to Pueblo – and its owner couldn’t be happier with the move.

Matt and Maggie Reichel of Boreas Campers
Ryan Dearth

The Perks of Doing Business in Pueblo

“When we were looking for a new home for Boreas Campers, Pueblo caught us by surprise,” Matt says. “We have been impressed by this town’s community, infrastructure, access to the outdoors and warmth that everyone has greeted us with. It’s a great place to do business and a great place to live.”

Maggie Reichel says that for the business and personally, having access to a lower cost of living while maintaining access to the mountains was critical.

“And partnering with Pueblo Economic Development Corp. (PEDCO) was an extra boost, as their economic development program is the best that we’ve found,” she says.

Thanks to its increased purchasing power in Pueblo, Boreas was able to take over a former Coca-Cola distribution center that, at 17,000 square feet, was double the size of its Denver-area space. A bonus, says Maggie, is that the building layout makes it better suited to manufacturing than the previous factory, so Boreas is now able to turn out approximately 120 campers per year in two models.

“We have been impressed by this town’s community, infrastructure, access to the outdoors and warmth that everyone has greeted us with. It’s a great place to do business and a great place to live.”

Matt Reichel, Boreas Campers

Weekend Warriors’ Weekdays

The company quickly hired 20 employees, including purchasing manager Esparanca Vialpando. A Colorado Springs native, Vialpando attended college in Pueblo and had returned to her hometown, but buying a house there proved complicated.

“When we started looking for a home in the Springs, the market was already haywire,” she says. “We got more for our buck in Pueblo West.”

Vialpando moved to Pueblo with her family, where she was immediately attracted to Boreas Campers. “It was very appealing because I’m an outdoors person,” she says, “even though I didn’t know anything about campers.”

A lifelong tent camper and motorcyclist, she appreciates the simplicity of Boreas’ campers compared to an RV, and says they are especially beneficial when camping with small children. “Being able to see the [product] from start to finish, U.S.A. made, is pretty awesome,” she says.

She reserves her highest praise for Boreas’ work culture. “The best part is the atmosphere, all the way from Matt to the builders on the floor. Everyone is so relatable and kind and so willing to pitch in to help whenever they can,” she says. “I love coming to work every day.”

A welder at work at Boreas Campers
Ryan Dearth

Always Evolving

Boreas’ products are constantly improving. In 2018, the company eliminated wood from construction in favor of fiberglass, aluminum and composite materials; the change yielded a lighter, more durable camper and also eliminated the possibility of rot or warping.

In 2021, it became the first North American camper manufacturer to import Cruisemaster independent suspensions from Australia for installation on all units. And in 2022, Boreas introduced the 20-foot EOS-12 model, a step up from its 16-foot XT model. The former is equipped with the Garmin ONE system, which brings an unprecedented level of tech into the backcountry, allowing users to level the suspension, view battery gauge and water tank levels, and more via a tablet.

“Boreas Campers builds off-road, off-grid camper trailers that are designed to be the perfect adventure basecamp,” Matt says. “We have grown significantly the past few years and are proud to still say we manufacture all campers in Colorado.”

Thriving One Bite at a Time

A beloved local bakery in Pueblo called Bite Me Cake Co. is another example of a small business that is thriving in Pueblo. Nick Baca, who took ownership of the bakery in 2018 (it opened in 2011), largely credits its ongoing success to an extremely supportive community. “The community never gave up on us,” he says. “That’s been amazing.”

Baca says it was the support throughout the pandemic, in particular, that really made a difference, and its recent addition of a retro arcade bar in the bakery’s basement is meant to both satisfy a need within the community and express gratitude.

“The community really supported us (during that time), and opening the bar was meant to give back,” he says, noting that the bar has an array of pinball machines and space that can be rented for private events. “Pueblo has a great community,” Baca says. “We couldn’t have done this without it.”

Supporting Small Businesses in Pueblo

Helping Pueblo’s small businesses succeed is a highly supportive community and multiple resources. The Business & Technology Center (BTC), for example, provides an incubator space where startups and fledgling companies can find targeted resources and services for all stages of growth.

Even when a business is ready to move to its own space, the BTC offers leasing for private offices and suites as well as temporary workspaces for out-of-town businesses. A number of coworking spaces are also available should an individual or a small company need an area to work, such as The Ethos.

Claudia Sammer, owner of Blue Bison Soapery in Pueblo, CO
Blue Bison Soapery

Successful Soap Shop

For Blue Bison Soapery’s Claudia Sammer, she credits the shop’s success to the support of Pueblo’s other local businesses, available resources and her landlord.

Though Sammer and her boyfriend (who helps her run the business) weren’t Pueblo residents previously, a chance to get to know the area better arose when her boyfriend moved there for a business venture in September 2020.

“We were downtown, and I saw some magazines lying around about local businesses, especially on Union Avenue,” Sammer says. “It’s always been my dream to open a store, and I’ve been making soap for five years now, so we had a conversation with the owner of a space and were told there were a lot of opportunities here. Then we stopped at several other businesses and asked them about their experiences.”

Sammer did her research on Pueblo before “taking the leap” and launching Blue Bison Soapery in December of 2020. The pandemic, however, did bring challenges.

“I thought, ‘If we can make it through this, we can make it through anything,’” says Sammer, who also notes that having an experienced landlord helped facilitate the process of starting a business. “Our landlord has been in business for 10-20 years, and having her experience plus the insight from the boutiques all around us really helped. Plus, it’s more affordable to launch a business here than in Denver, so there is less risk.”

Don’t Sleep on This Growing Company

Local business Snooze Mattress Company, which hasn’t even hit its four-year mark of being in business, is growing exponentially, with shops popping up throughout Colorado as well as other states, like Arizona, Kentucky, Texas and California, with plans to open five locations in California alone on the horizon.

These are just a few examples of thriving companies in Pueblo, as the region boasts many others that have also benefited from the community’s resources and support.

– Erica Buehler contributed to this article.

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