STIHL, Inc. hosted Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank, who announced a $40 million multi-agency competition, the Make it in America Challenge, to accelerate the trend of insourcing, where companies are bringing jobs back and making additional investments here in America.
The competition, which is being funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST-MEP) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), will build upon the administration’s bottom-up approach to strengthening the economy and creating jobs by partnering with state, regional and local economies.
Acting Secretary Blank pointed out that more businesses are choosing to invest, create jobs and make things here in America, and that the new initiative was designed to promote that trend.
Virginia Beach-based STIHL, one of several manufacturing facilities in the STIHL Group, is the headquarters for U.S. operations and embodies the American built mentality. The company has steadily increased its investments in America since its founding in 1974. Starting with 50 employees that assembled only one model of chain saw, today, the company employs approximately 2,100 people nationwide, with 1,900 in Virginia Beach, Va., and manufactures more than 270 model variations of chain saws and power tools for sale in the U.S. and around the world. The majority of STIHL products sold in America are also built in America* and STIHL not only exports products to more than 90 countries but produces the majority of STIHL units for the world market.
The national competition will help provide the critical infrastructure, strategic planning, capacity building, technical assistance and workforce skills training necessary for American communities to be the desired home for more businesses. More details are available here.
