Uniforms: Public Sector Bid Requests in the Hundreds!

Clothing, Textiles, and Uniforms • Oct 07, 2015

The uniform industry took a hit as unemployment numbers increased and businesses scaled back or closed. Those days have changed. With the increase in employment and more favorable economic indicators, everything from business to food service, healthcare, and hospitality provide more of a demand for uniform service. In addition, government needs for uniform solutions continue and are on the rise in some areas.

As we looked at all levels of government in the United States and Canada, it became apparent that U.S. state, local, and education agencies are submitting a significant majority of the bid requests for uniforms. In fact, over the past twelve months, SLED have represented 451 of the 497 specific requests for “uniforms”.

Here is a brief review of our findings.

United States

The majority of the bid requests have come from: State of California (CA) 13, City of Columbus (OH) 10, Central Auction House (LA) 10, State of Tennessee (TN) 9, and Broward County (FL) 7.

As far as U.S. regions go, the following should be a focus for uniform providers: New York (48), Florida (45), Virginia (44), Texas (42), and California (34).

The most active U.S. Federal Agencies:

Department of Labor (7), Department of the Army (5), Other Defense Agencies (5), Department of the Air Force (4), and Department of the Treasury (4).

Canada

The most active Canadian Agencies:

Province of Saskatchewan (2), Province of New Brunswick (2), Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (1), Ontario Public Buyers Association (1), and Health Shared Services BC (formerly BCHASSO) (1).