April 4, 2006

Media Briefing

New prospect activity strong

Since January 1, Vermilion Advantage has responded to 9 new prospects, hosted 8 prospect tours with four different companies and responded to 5 formal RFP (Requests for Proposals) we are currently working on a sixth RFP due later this month.

The 9 new projects have included 7 manufacturing and 2 distribution projects. All 4 projects that have toured came to us directly from the start rather than through the State or other intermediary. Two of those companies have been here twice, one has toured three times and one has just made its initial visit. In total since July 1, we have a new prospect log of 20 projects. Half of those have been initiated in the last three months.

Renewable energy and/or associated activities are a driver in some of this activity level but are not the exclusive project profile. None of our new activity has been associated with the automotive industry.

Today, we have given you a release for a new location project that began looking at our area in September of last year. See the attached release.

Available sites and facilities continue to be our challenge and focus. To date since July 1, the average existing building size request has been right at 100,000 – with a low of 5,0000 and a high of 450,000.

The average site request for new development, Greenfield projects has increased to 252 acres per project as an average with 100+ being the norm.

Cluster projections

Demands cover the gambit from professional and technical positions to specialized hourly functions. So far a total of 1383 positions including 988 replacements and 395 newly created positions are on the radar screen from January 2006 to January 2008.

Distribution is a key area of need. To address this ongoing and growing demand, DACC will soon be offering a Certified Warehousing and Distribution Specialist program. This will be an outstanding addition and compliment to the training opportunities they offer in Advanced Manufacturing and Allied Health Services.

Special projects
 

Preparing for the April 20 Honor Student Banquet and scholarship recipient selection.
Collecting Annual Wage & Benefit data.
Investigating new technology driven curriculum for our cluster support portfolio.
Working on the new web page launch.
Working on the virtual building option.

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