URI Economic Impact Report - Autumn 2020

When looking at the Northeast region of MEP centers as a whole, Rhode Island’s Polaris MEP is outpacing the entire combined region (when normalized by funding) in terms of new sales, retained sales, jobs created and retained, cost savings, manufacturing clients served, and new manufacturing clients served.

Other partnership accomplishments in FY19 include: 84 Clients. Polaris MEP initiated a record high 109 total projects across 84 unique client companies. Rhode Island ranks in the bottom 20 percent (40 out of 50) in terms of raw number of manufacturing establishments. However, Polaris MEP has the sixth highest market penetration in the NIST MEP Network, based on FY19 clients and census data.

$15.9 Million in Total New Investments. Polaris MEP facilitated the injection of $15.9 million in new investment capital into its client base to fund operations and support growth through the successful implementation of competitive business improvement projects. $32.3 Million Total Sales. Polaris MEP clients reported $32.3 million in new sales. $12.1 Million Total Cost Savings. Polaris MEP clients reported $12.1 million in reduced operating costs. 925 Total Jobs. Polaris MEP clients reported the creation of 170 new jobs and 755 retained jobs for a total of 925 jobs. $2.5 Million Total Expenditures. Polaris MEP spent a total of $2.5 million to run its operations. For every dollar of organizational expenditure, Polaris MEP is returning $24.12 in manufacturing capital.

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26 The University of Rhode Island