GSA Blog

GSA Uses HUBZone Small Business for Faster Delivery

The GSA Global Supply program recently expanded how it supports customers located outside the continental United States (OCONUS) by working with a HUBZone small business program partner, M80.

HUBZone, or Historically Underutilized Business Zone, is a Small Business Administration (SBA) managed program. SBA encourages federal agencies, including GSA, to foster economic development by partnering with businesses in economically distressed areas, whether rural or urban. A business must be headquartered in a defined HUBZone and a substantial portion of its workforce must live there.

To address the challenge of shipping goods to the middle of the Pacific Ocean on behalf of our biggest customer, the U.S. Department of Defense, GSA opened four forward supply points in the Pacific: Guam, South Korea, Japan, and Hawaii, two of which are managed by M80.

The forward supply points have significantly improved our ability to  deliver hundreds of items such as office and cleaning supplies, tools, and more in three to five days — a 90% improvement over previous methods!

Through our HUBZone program partner, GSA now provides select, high-demand items faster in Guam and Hawaii.

• In Fall 2020, M80 opened a small distribution center in Guam. It stores and delivers approximately 350 high-demand products.
• In March 2021, M80’s larger Hawaiian facility began operations, delivering roughly 650 items to a variety of military and civilian customers in Hawaii.

As of mid-August 2021, M80 has shipped approximately 5,600 orders (total value $5.5 million) to customers in Guam and Hawaii.

HUBZone Resources

For more information on how to qualify as a HUBZone business:

• Find a GSA Small Business Utilization contact near you
• Check out SBA HUBZone program page
• Review SBA Top Tips for HUBZone Certification.

Learn More

Find out more about the opening of the four forward supply points in our regional newsroom: GSA prepositions high-demand supplies to support DoD mission.