Lansing-based HRU Inc. Technical Resources has won one of 14 U. S. Army contracts equaling $430 million. HRU will recruit and staff the Army’s Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. HRU is the only Capital region business included in the five-year contract.
The number of employees to be hired, or the potential income is unknown, as the contracts are for “indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity.”
It is because of contracts like this one and many others that HRU is having its best year financially since it opened its doors 30 years ago, says Tim Sackett, vice-president, and son of the company's founder, Judy Daniels. The firm now employs 20 people locally, 500 nationwide, and seeks more employees in the Lansing office as well as across the country.
“Time was when we would hire four people a month. Now we hire four to eight people a week,” he says.
HRU is seeking engineers, machinists, NC programmers, and Information Technology professionals for the Army and other defense suppliers.
Sackett attributes the private company’s success to its ability to adapt as economic conditions changed from a growing auto industry to a growing defense industry. The industry now is seeking ways to take the human element out of war.
“We’re trying to learn how to blow up machines rather than people,” he says. That means heavy emphasis on technology.
Source: Tim Sackett, HRU Inc. Technical Resources
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
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