As the new $30 million Dot Foods distribution center is being built, Mohave Community College is pleased to assist the company with the college’s new Business Incubator.
MCC will be home to Dot, while the company’s distribution center is under construction. Dot management will be meeting with potential employees and conducting operations from MCC’s Business Incubator offices on the Bullhead City campus.
“The Business Incubator is critical, not only from a standpoint of cost savings, but also helping us get to know the community and focus our efforts on breaking ground here and hiring people,” said Dot Foods Western Region General Manager Rich Raham.
At the company’s groundbreaking event this week, Governor Doug Ducey commended MCC for its role in helping Dot with temporary office space and providing educated and well trained employees for Dot Foods and the community.
“This distribution center will bring career opportunities for truck drivers, mechanics, maintenance workers and office management, and thanks to training provided by Mohave Community College this community will be ready to fill many of those positions,” said Governor Ducey.
“We’re here to help provide an educated and well-trained workforce for local businesses, government agencies and non-profits,” said MCC President Dr. Michael Kearns. “We also want to help strengthen relationships and build partnerships that will boost economic development in our region, and the Business Incubator is a big way we can do that.”
MCC’s Business Incubator is a conduit through which the college can help create a win-win for the community, new companies coming to the region, along with start-up businesses.
“We’re providing a landing pad for those businesses complete with the space and network infrastructure needed for them to temporarily conduct business and hold meetings while they get established in the community,” said Dr. Kearns.
MCC along with regional municipal and county leaders have been working to find ways to boost economic development in the region and this is a perfect fit, said Shawn Bristle, dean of the MCC Bullhead City campus where Dot Foods offices will be temporarily located until the distribution center is built.
“The way individuals representing private interests, the city, the college, the county, and even federal organizations worked together to make our region attractive and competitive was inspiring,” said Bristle. “It serves as a reminder of what we can accomplish when we work together with the greater good in mind.”
“In this case, we are a perfect fit to help while Dot’s facility is under construction,” said Dr. Kearns, “and at the same time we can coordinate with them to provide a quality commercial truck driver training program at MCC that will benefit the entire tri- state region.”
Dot’s commercial truck drivers will earn more than $60,000 a year on average, according to the company Senior Vice President Jim Tracy.
MCC’s Small Business Development Center will be the first point of contact for new businesses that would like to work with the college.
“We have a lot of companies from the Phoenix area that come to our region to see if they might be a good fit and the Business Incubator will be perfect for them,” said Mark Retersdorf, MCC SBDC director. “Those businesses, as well as new start-ups, can use the incubator to temporarily set up shop and conduct business.”
New businesses looking for more information on MCC’s Business Incubator should call Retersdorf at 1-928-693-3087, or email him at mretersdorf@mohave.edu.
