Video: Minority, Women Business Owners & Yokohama Tire

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Yokohama Tire is coming to Northeast Mississippi and contractors are ready to do business with the major company.

Betty Yates owns a staffing company in Holly Springs. She came to the Mississippi Minority Business Alliance (MMBA) meeting for more information on how to do business with Yokohama Tire.

“I’ve been in business since 2006. We’re located in Holly Springs. We started with that office up there. We’re now servicing suppliers for Toyota. My aspiration really is to locate an office down here due to the Yokohama project,” says Yates.

The MMBA hopes to play a pivotal role in helping minority and women business owners like Yates have an opportunity to work with the tire company.

“It’s very important for the small businesses in the state of Mississippi that typically don’t have the mechanisms or the marketing ability as some of the major firms do, to be included in the sourcing decisions or they are on someone’s radar screen,” says Bob Covington wtih the Mississippi Development Authority .

Kelly Cluff of ITG Consulting and Cable Solutions in Meridian, says having an opportunity to work with Yokohama would be a major boost for his company.

“It would be tremendous not just for our business but for Mississippi as a whole. We have so many small businesses here in the state of Mississippi that are trying to develop a successful business model. It would be tremendous for not just for the state of Mississippi, for Mississippi State but also for Meridian, MS and for us minorities,” says Cluff.

The conference also included guest panelists Joe Higgins of the Golden Triangle Development Link and Don Buffum with MSU’s Director of Procurement and Contracts division.

Yokohama Tire plans to begin construction in September of this year.