BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) – Business leaders want Gov. James Douglas and his administration not to give up on keeping C&S Wholesale Grocers from moving its headquarters from Vermont to New Hampshire.

Leaders of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. met with Douglas Thursday and told him that the grocery company, the largest grocery wholesaler in the Northeast, is still growing exponentially.

Now C&S has its corporate headquarters in Brattleboro. Last year the company announced that it was moving those headquarters and about 300 well paying jobs to Keene, N.H., about 20 miles away.

But so far, the new headquarters haven’t been built, and some New Hampshire neighbors have filed suit against the project.

Hugh Barber, an employee of engineering firm SVE, urged the governor to keep in contact with Richard Cohen, the owner of C&S.

“I’m hoping to do that,” Douglas said, adding that Kevin Dorn, secretary of the Agency of Commerce, had been in contact with C&S.

After the meeting, the governor said he would be willing to make personal contact with C&S in an effort to keep or attract jobs in the Brattleboro area.

“I know they’ve made the big decision, but I think part of the company could be saved,” Barber said after the meeting with the governor.

“I think they’re growing so fast, it seems to me such a big company, that some components of the best jobs could be saved here,” said Barber.

C&S still has a large food warehouse in Brattleboro, where about 800 people are employed.

But the past 18 months have brought a lot of bad economic news to town, including the C&S corporate move. Northeast Cooperatives, which employed about 250 people, closed its new food warehouse in Brattleboro and consolidated its operations with United Foods in Chesterfield, N.H. Additionally, SCA Tissue, a paper company in Brattleboro, closed as well, putting about 180 out of work.

AP-ES-04-05-03 1302EST