NY rehab organization for visually impaired people receives $1.2 million contract

From PressConnects:

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- The Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Employment Inc. announced July 7 it has received its largest order in its 83-year history.

AVRE, on Court Street, is filling a $1.2 million contract to supply the U.S. Census Bureau with nearly 18 million manila file folders by Sept. 28. The Bureau will use the folders as it prepares for the 2010 census.

"This is far and above any single order we've ever received," said AVRE President and Chief Executive officer Robert Hanye, who couldn't immediately recall what AVRE's second largest order was. "This is a tremendous boost for us."

AVRE expects about $6 million in sales this year, giving an idea of what a $1.2 million order means to the organization, Hanye said.

AVRE is running extended shifts in the morning and afternoon and paying workers overtime to meet delivery requirements, he said. The extra work totals about half a work shift and affects multiple levels of the organization, such as manufacturing, administration and accounting.

About 60 percent of AVRE's roughly 50 employees are legally blind or have severe vision impairments, he said. The organization's mission is to create jobs for people with such conditions.

"It was a legally blind person who did all the negotiations and actually obtained the contract," Hanye noted.

AVRE said it became aware of the potential work after reading an article in the Press & Sun-Bulletin about the Census Bureau opening offices around the nation for the upcoming 10-year census.

AVRE's manufacturing division produces different types of file folders and paper, including multiuse copy paper and pin-fed computer paper.