Advocacy Acrow Corporation

The Company

Acrow Corporation, located in Parsippany, NJ, has been serving the transportation and construction industries for more than 60 years. With a wide range of modular steel bridging solutions for permanent, temporary, military, and emergency use, Acrow’s extensive international presence includes leadership in the development and implementation of bridge infrastructure projects in over 150 countries. acrow.com

The Challenge

In November 2020, Acrow reached out to the U.S. Commercial Service with concerns about a potential bridge tender to fulfill emergency reconstruction needs in Honduras after the region was devastated by multiple catastrophic hurricanes. The Commercial Services referred Acrow to the International Trade Administration’s Advocacy Center, to elevate the company’s concerns through the most appropriate government-to-government strategy.

The Solution

Throughout the government procurement process, the Advocacy Center team counseled and guided Acrow Corporation towards solutions that best suited the Honduras procurement environment. Acrow was notified in January 2021 that it was one of three top bidders that presented the best offers. The other two bidders were foreign companies. In March, Acrow was informed that they were awarded the contract. Throughout the contract signing period, the Advocacy Center and U.S. Commercial Service continued to provide support to Acrow - assisting them with coordinating several calls with the Honduran firm.

The Result

In April 2021, Acrow Corporation secured a contract with Honduras Inversión Estratégica de Honduras (INVEST-H) to provide 12 prefabricated modular steel bridges. The bridges will help with reopening roads after many bridges collapsed due to winds and rain from hurricanes The multi-million dollar contract is 100% U.S. export content.

“The Acrow team’s experience with the Advocacy support provided by the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa and its Washington-based colleagues at the Advocacy Center was extraordinarily positive and essential to the success of the project. Projects of this size require significant collaboration among a range of stakeholders in order to constructively manage challenging technical, commercial, financial, and administrative issues. The USG team’s advocacy helped us understand the local political and economic landscape, connect appropriately with the right stakeholders, and guide our team toward solutions that best suited the local procurement environment. We cannot thank the Advocacy team enough, and their efforts have helped deliver high-quality bridging infrastructure critical to the recovery efforts in Honduras.”
~Paul Sullivan, President, International Business