Department Of Defense Seminar Held
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Staff Report-
KEDCo President George Robertson opened the session attended by 15 representatives from county manufacturing companies. Robertson noted that Kosciusko County companies receive only about $8 million in DOD purchases in 2011.
He compared that with Whitley County companies at $93 million, Elkhart County companies at $15 million, and Allen County companies at $505 million. “If we can increase DOD contracts by just one million dollars we will create 50 new jobs in our county,” Robertson stated.
Bruce Stach, a partner in the consulting group Business Development Zone (BDZ) indicated that proposed cuts to the defense budget will merely bring it back to normal. Normal is a projected to be over $500 billion budget for the next five years. “A huge potential customer you cannot ignore,” Stach said. Robertson observed that one of the motivation of putting on the seminar was to give this county’s parts, processing and machining manufacturers’ an opportunity to diversify their customer base.
The seminar focused on how to identify a match between what a manufacturer produces and what the Department of Defense buys. The next steps outlined by Stach and the other BDZ partners, Sharon Sallot and David Melton, is to focus efforts on who exactly buys each item, how to process the paperwork effectively, and how to bid competitively.
Jim Tinkey, Chair of KEDCo’s Business Retention Committee noted that this seminar was the type of programs KEDCo is pursuing to help our existing businesses get more business and grow. He indicated that if there was interest by other companies KEDCo would hold the seminar again.[[In-content Ad]]
Latest News
E-Editions
KEDCo President George Robertson opened the session attended by 15 representatives from county manufacturing companies. Robertson noted that Kosciusko County companies receive only about $8 million in DOD purchases in 2011.
He compared that with Whitley County companies at $93 million, Elkhart County companies at $15 million, and Allen County companies at $505 million. “If we can increase DOD contracts by just one million dollars we will create 50 new jobs in our county,” Robertson stated.
Bruce Stach, a partner in the consulting group Business Development Zone (BDZ) indicated that proposed cuts to the defense budget will merely bring it back to normal. Normal is a projected to be over $500 billion budget for the next five years. “A huge potential customer you cannot ignore,” Stach said. Robertson observed that one of the motivation of putting on the seminar was to give this county’s parts, processing and machining manufacturers’ an opportunity to diversify their customer base.
The seminar focused on how to identify a match between what a manufacturer produces and what the Department of Defense buys. The next steps outlined by Stach and the other BDZ partners, Sharon Sallot and David Melton, is to focus efforts on who exactly buys each item, how to process the paperwork effectively, and how to bid competitively.
Jim Tinkey, Chair of KEDCo’s Business Retention Committee noted that this seminar was the type of programs KEDCo is pursuing to help our existing businesses get more business and grow. He indicated that if there was interest by other companies KEDCo would hold the seminar again.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092