Bluetrack, Inc. Creates New Revenue Streams and Boosts Business Through NJMEP Collaboration
Background
Bluetrack, Inc manufactures promotional products for major brands like Netflix, Nike, and so many more. The business was created as a response to September 11th, raising money for first responders’ and their families. It quickly grew into a leader in the wholesale promotional product space. Bluetrack’s leadership still prides itself on wanting to do good by their community and the COVID-19 pandemic allowed them to give back once again.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced local governments all over the United States to begin mandating businesses that are deemed ‘non-essential’ to shut down. Many state governments oversaw the selection of which manufacturing companies should be considered essential. This proved disastrous. All manufacturing is essential, especially in the case of a pandemic. Closing a manufacturing plant that a government official deemed ‘non-essential’ would cause a domino effect that impacts an untold number of other manufacturers up and downstream.
Challenge
At the very beginning of the pandemic, factual information was difficult to come by. Business leaders were being bombarded by executive order after executive order. Oftentimes, these executive orders seemed to contradict themselves or provided sets of guidelines without any specific details.
Fear and uncertainty surrounding the manufacturing industry during the first couple weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic created a challenging business landscape
for Bluetrack, Inc. They were fearful that their business would close, and they couldn’t find the information on the executive orders that were being released each day.
Bluetrack Inc.’s core business is branded stress balls
for promotional events. Once all the tradeshows and promotional events got canceled, most of their business was eliminated. Stress ball sales dropped over 90% nearly overnight. This New Jersey manufacturer needed to develop new products to drive revenue and keep business moving.
Solutions
Immediately upon discovering that businesses were going to be shut down by state government, NJMEP sprang into action. NJMEP is not a lobbying group, but advocacy is a large portion of the business’s efforts. By bringing together the New Jersey manufacturing community to highlight
the importance of keeping all manufacturing open in the state, the Governor ultimately allowed these businesses to continue operating.
To address the misinformation that was prevalent during the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, NJMEP made it a mission to examine, review, and summarize the governor’s executive orders. These summaries were reviewed by NJMEP affiliate attorneys then shared with every manufacturer NJMEP could reach. Only the facts were provided.
NJMEP’s Ben Domingez worked with Bluetrack to identify the right person that can help them acquire temporary permission to manufacture N95 and Surgical Masks. Bluetrack Inc. used their experience and knowledge of machinery to acquire equipment that would be able to produce this critical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
Results
Bluetrack Inc. was able to benefit in the following ways by collaborating with NJMEP:
- RETAINED EMPLOYEES: 14
- NEW SALES: $1,700,000
- OPENED A NEW REVENUE STREAM
- OFFSET MASSIVE LOSS OF CORE BUSINESS
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