Carroll County company wins new military uniform contract

<p>A Carroll County company has won a $72.6 million contract to supply new combat uniforms for the military, the company said Thursday.</p><p>Bremen Bowdon Investment Co. will make from 273,600 to 456,000 uniforms for the first three years and up to 2 million over the next five years, owner Elizabeth Plunkett Buttimer.</p><p>The company will hire at least 100 employees, bringing the total number of workers to about 480, she said.</p><p>The new military design can be used in woodland, desert or urban situations. The fatigues are part of a $3.4 billion Army-wide makeover being phased in over the next three years. Twenty-two total changes were made to the uniforms, most notably the new camouflage pattern.</p><p>Bremen Bowdon Investment has made dress uniforms for the military as well as other nonmilitary uniforms.</p><p>"This gives us growth in a new product direction that will enhance market demand and work flow, as this is arguably the most requested type of military uniform," Buttimer said.</p><p>Early last year, BBI merged with LaMar Manufacturing, another of Bowdon's oldest textile companies. LaMar, was founded in the mid-1950s, and BBI, formed around 1940, have weathered the storms that forced many local textile businesses to go out of business in the past 15 years. Buttimer attributed the company's staying power to its move to uniform manufacture.</p><p>___</p><p>Information from: Times-Georgian</p>