UTICA — BGM Supply in Utica was recently honored as the New York State Small Business Development Center Procurement Business of the Year, capping off a year that saw the business fighting to regain its certificate as a minority and women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) while also settling into a new, larger location.
It was about a year ago when BGM owner Mary Shepherd reached out to the Mohawk Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for help when her application to recertify as an MWBE was rejected. Nothing had changed at the plumbing, heating, and cooling supply business, which Shepherd has owned since Dec. 31, 2015, but the way certifications are looked at has changed, says Gina Hayduk, government contracting coordinator at the SBDC.
Long story short, Shepherd appealed the rejection and was able to regain her MWBE certification.
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While all this was going on, BGM was settling into a new location.
“I sold two warehouses that totaled about 12,000 square feet,” Shepherd notes. With that, BGM moved from 610 Eagle St. in Utica to the 52,000-square-foot former Pepsi bottling plant at 1400 Broad St.
“We had to clean it up and pressure wash it,” Shepherd says. “We had to do a lot of work.”
Along with providing much needed room to grow, the new space allows BGM to buy better and organize better, Shepherd says. She is also investing in an inventory management system that adds the ability to scan codes on inventory, making things more efficient.
“We added more tools to our line,” she notes. BGM now carries both DeWalt and Milwaukee brand tools, which means the company also added more commodity codes to its listing as an MWBE.
New York requires 30 percent utilization of MWBEs in all state contracting, according to Empire State Development. That means contractors working on state projects are required to do business with MWBEs with the appropriate commodity codes to meet that threshold.
That’s why it was so important for Shepherd to regain BGM’s certification, especially because other MWBE businesses in her field were facing the same situation she did, losing their certification. However, many of those businesses chose not to appeal. Now Shepherd has picked up many of their customers.
BGM has been a supplier for several area projects including the Syracuse STEAM school as well as buildings at SUNY Polytechnic Institute and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The list also includes the new Highmark Stadium being constructed for the Buffalo Bills.
Along with growing her project and customer list, Shepherd has steadily been boosting employment at BGM since she bought the business.
“When I bought it, we had three [employees],” she recalls. Today, BGM has 11 employees, and that number is still growing.
When the annual call came out this year for the annual SBDC awards, Hayduk says BGM was the first thought she had.
“All the centers vie for it,” she says of the awards, which span 10 categories. Hayduk even helped Shepherd with the application for the award. “She doesn’t promote herself. I wanted to make sure she promoted herself,” Hayduk quipped.
The result was BGM winning the procurement award, which was presented during a ceremony at BGM on July 30. It coincided with a ribbon-cutting event with the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce for the new location.
The business is legally known as Shepherd Group, LLC, and does business as BGM Supply.
