Safe Ports wins military contract

A Charleston-based logistics company recently beat out seven bigger players to land a $30 million military contract in Afghanistan.

Safe Ports has won a five-year deal with the Defense Logistics Agency, the supply and distribution arm of the U.S. military, to operate a new center at Kandahar Air Field. That means Safe Ports employees will make deliveries to troops, including clothing, fuel and spare parts.

The contract began this week and runs through October 2015. Safe Ports President and Chief Executive Officer Lucy Duncan said the award marked the largest in her company’s history and is particularly significant because it was won over seven larger defense contractors.

“We’re a small and, I’m proud to say, woman-owned business, so it’s important that this is how we’re making our debut in the federal system,” she said.

The company, which moved its headquarters to Charleston in 2005, provides logistics, storage and manpower services to commercial businesses,

government organizations and relief agencies across the world.

“It’s very difficult to get things in and out of Afghanistan,” Duncan said of the new deal. “We need to be as close to where they need us as possible.”

Safe Ports’ business development team, including Charleston native Duncan, works out of Washington, D.C. Its technology team operates from Maryland, and Safe Ports maintains outposts around the Middle East. Locally, the company previously served Ladson-based Force Protection’s armored vehicle program.

Joe Dorsey, executive vice president for government solutions and chief technology officer, said the Afghanistan contract will begin small, with about 35 employees on the ground.

“I see this thing growing over the next five years,” Dorsey said. “The focus is to hire as many people as we can out of the Charleston market.”

Dorsey said he also expects the Defense Logistics Agency contract to mark the first of several bids heading Safe Ports’ way in the near future.