Thursday, June 14, 2012

SBA Recognizes SteelMaster Buildings

RICHMOND, VA. – The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Richmond District Office honors SteelMaster Buildings as its 2012 Virginia Small Business Exporter of the Year before the local Virginia Beach business community at a press conference on Wednesday, June 13, 2012.

Emma Granada and Rob Poellnitz of SteelMaster Buildings

Mayor William D. Sessoms, Jr., joins SBA and company officials in celebrating the Virginia Beach small business’ success at the 11:00 a.m. press conference at the Princess Anne Country Club.

“Across America small businesses are growing their businesses by expanding into international markets,” said Jayne Armstrong, district director of SBA’s Richmond District Office. “SteelMaster Buildings is a great role model as a business that took advantage of export programs offered by the SBA, the Department of Commerce and the Commonwealth of Virginia to support its expansion needs.”

SteelMaster Buildings designs, manufactures and distributes prefabricated steel structures for a broad range of residential and commercial building applications. Since establishing its International Division in 2006, it has expanded into 50 countries and doubled its international revenue each year for the past six years.

“It is hard to believe that six years have passed so quickly since we began to systematically expand our business abroad,” said Rob Poellnitz, SteelMaster vice president responsible for international sales. “What started out as more of a novelty has grown into a core competency that now represents over 20 percent of our total business.”

SBA’s award follows SteelMaster Buildings previous recognition, including the UPS Growth through Global Trade Award, the Hampton Roads Chamber’s Top 10 Companies to Watch in Hampton Roads, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Compass Award, Inside Business’ The Roaring 20 award and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Fantastic 50 award.

Poellnitz and Emma Granada, international business development manager, received the SBA’s Virginia Small Business Exporter of the Year award at the Virginia Small Business Awards Luncheon in Richmond last month. They were also honored during SBA’s National Small Business Week observance in Washington, D.C., May 20-22 for winning the national SBA/VISA Export Video Contest promoting the advantages of small business exporting.

A reception hosted by SteelMaster Building follows the press conference. For more information, contact the SBA at (804) 771-2400, ext. 149.

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