MINORITY BUSINESSES

A Growing Industry

Many of the country's largest corporations are increasingly committed to working with minority-owned businesses. According to the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), Fortune 500 companies buy more than $80 billion a year in goods and services from minority-owned suppliers, and this volume is expected to increase exponentially in the future. This is due to the changing demographics of the country.

Minorities are the fasting growing segment of the population, and as a result many large companies are including diversity in their workforce and their procurement. Many of these companies have well defined minority spending programs, which strive to have a percentage of their procurement contracts go to certified minority-owned suppliers.

SIZE AND EXPERIENCE

CIRI received its Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certification from the Northwest Minority Business Council on Aug. 9, 2007. The Northwest Minority Business Council is a regional affiliate of the NMSDC, a national business member organization that works to increase procurement and business opportunities for minority businesses.

CIRI is working to identify services and products utilized by large corporations that have diversity procurement goals and looking for opportunities to participate in businesses that can supply those services and products to the market.

With almost $700 million in total assets and excellent liquidity and portfolio diversification, CIRI's size and experience give it a competitive advantage in the minority procurement market.