Albuquerque's Sandia National Laboratories saw its spending with businesses based in New Mexico grow across the board in 2023 as compared to 2022, according to numbers released in a recent economic impact report.
Sandia Labs' 2023 Economic Impact Report shows Sandia paid $592 million in total subcontract payments to businesses in New Mexico, a $110 million growth over that same figure in 2022. Small business spending in New Mexico increased for the Labs in 2023, too, hitting $481 million in total, an approximate $61 million jump over 2022's number.
Spending with small disadvantaged businesses, small women-owned businesses, small veteran-owned businesses, small service-disabled-veteran-owned businesses and HUBZone businesses — a U.S. Small Business Administration underutilized business category — all grew in New Mexico in 2023. Subcontract-related payments to small businesses that don't fall into one of those five categories grew the most, however, jumping to $156 million in 2023 from $127 million in 2022.
Any company that has a contract over $750,000 with the federal government is required to have a small business subcontracting plan, Zach Mikelson, Sandia Labs' small business program manager, said during a Thursday press conference on the economic impact report. Sandia's own federal contract is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, Mikelson said, meaning Sandia Labs is contractually obligated to spend subcontracting dollars on small businesses.
"Aside from that, I think we do it because it's the right thing to do," Mikelson said about spending lab dollars on small businesses, as opposed to larger companies. "Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. It's important that we spend taxpayer dollars with our small businesses to help our communities and small businesses thrive.
"And frankly, some of our small businesses have capabilities that the large businesses don't, that we need for our critical mission work," he added.
The majority — 67% — of all Sandia Labs suppliers are small businesses, according to the 2023 impact report, and the Labs added 506 small businesses to its procurement numbers in 2023, the report shows.
The Labs' total procurement impact in New Mexico totaled $600 million in fiscal year 2023, an over $100 million increase from 2022. That number includes the $592 million in total subcontract payments, as well as nearly $8.9 million worth of procurement card payments, per the impact report.
In terms of employment figures, Sandia Labs' employee count in New Mexico rose to 13,361 people — about more 800 people than the figure reported in the Labs' 2022 Economic Impact Report. Sandia paid out $1.4 billion in employee payroll to those New Mexico-based workers in 2023, Mikelson said during the Thursday press conference.
That employee figure includes over 1,500 hires in New Mexico, per the 2023 report, which accounts for replacements for employees who left the Labs over the past fiscal year as well as the creation of new roles. Sandia Labs moved to a fully hybrid work approach in the middle of last year, a move that leaders at the Labs said won't significantly impact Sandia's employment in New Mexico.
Sandia's 2023 economic impact report, besides including further details on totalexpenditures and economic impact in California, where it has a site in Livermore, also details the Labs' Mentor-Protegé Program, which, according to the report, is "designed to help small, disadvantaged businesses develop and build solid foundations when competing for [U.S. Department of Energy] and other federal agency opportunities."
There are five companies in the mentor-protegé program currently after two — Franklin, Tennessee-based Dynamic Structures and Materials and Monroeville, Pennsylvania-based Compunetics Inc. — joined in May 2023. Albuquerque's Pluma Construction, Perryville, Missouri-based CeLeen and Kingsburg, California-based Strategic Industry Inc. are also part of the program.
