Caliente LLC, an innovative manufacturer of thermal targets, announced today their certification of the Small Business Administration (SBA) HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) designation. The HUBZone certification became effective on June 16th 2014.

“We see this as an incredible opportunity and important milestone in the thirteen year history of Caliente” said Mike Kelly, president of Caliente. “This certification highlights our ongoing commitment to operating in an economically disadvantaged area, and we hope it will allow us to employ even more people in the area, while bringing more business home to Indiana.”

A HUBZone certified business is a small business under SBA standards, who must be principally located within a HUBZone and have at least 35% of its employees residing in a HUBZone. According to the SBA website, the program encourages economic development in historically underutilized business zones –"HUBZones", and the federal government has a goal of awarding 3% of all dollars for federal prime contracts to HUBZone-certified small businesses.

The company's Director of Business Development, John Farfaglia, stated “Through our HUBZone and ISO 9001:2008 certifications, Caliente looks to add value to prime contractor project teams by leveraging our core capabilities in thermal targetry and component manufacturing.”

The HUBZone certification process takes months to complete, and includes a complete background check on the company’s background history, current employees and physical location.