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STILWELL, OK - Cherokee Nation Industries has reached a $6.5 million agreement with a Tulsa-based defense contractor to manufacture generator parts for military use.

The contractor, Westwood/NMP, builds mobile power generating systems for the United States Army. CNI is currently supplying cable to Westwood/NMP for this project, and under the new contract the Cherokee Nation will manufacture the control boxes for the generators as well.

Cherokee Nation Industries is a tribally owned corporation of the Cherokee Nation.

"CNI is well known for it’s outstanding work in the defense industry", said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. “By expanding the services they provide their current client base, CNI should become even more profitable in the coming months."

"This is a natural area of growth for our business", said interim CNI president David Stewart. "It's basically systems integration. We already handle the cable aspect, now we're able to manufacture the control boxes the cables go into."

The new contract will bring in more than $3 million this year, which is more than 50% of last years' sales in CNI's cable and wire harness division.

Stewart says the deal is part of CNI's plan to expand the services it offers to existing customers.

"We are going to leverage our experience and skill sets into new value added services to existing customers", Stewart said. "Our customers already know we do good work. It only makes sense to try to broaden our working relationships with the people who know us best."

Cherokee Nation Industries is comprised of a distributorship, a medical services group, a telecommunications division and the cable and wire harness manufacturing facility. CNI posted record sales figures totaling nearly $70 million last year, but some divisions, including the cable shop, were not as profitable as expected.

"We are focused on making our existing businesses stronger, and this contract with Westwood/NMP gets us headed in the right direction", Stewart said. "Our next step is to make sure that our profitable divisions are diversified enough that a downturn in a single industry will not leave us vulnerable as a company."

Cherokee Nation Industries is headquartered in Stilwell and is a tribally owned corporation of the Cherokee Nation.