Wilken's Manufacturing selected for state Economic Gardening program
February 11, 2011

Wilken's Manufacturing of Stockton has been accepted into the Kansas Economic Gardening pilot program designed to provide significant sophisticated technical assistance to identified second-stage companies that have the intent and capacity to grow their business. The Kansas pilot program will provide economic gardening assistance at no charge to 35-40 Kansas businesses in rural communities statewide. These selected businesses will interact with an experienced national economic gardening team who will deliver economic gardening services tailored to each business's particular situation.

The program will provide Wilkens with the tools and help to identify sales leads, map geographical areas to assist them in hitting certain markets, as well as helping them to reach more customers with their website. 

NetWork Kansas, the facilitator of the program, has relied solely on their NetWork Kansas partners to identify candidates, communicate the benefits of the program, and refer them to the online application.  Rooks County Economic Development was the local resource partner for Wilkens.  Director Roger Hrabe, and Kansas Department of Commerce Field Representative Dan Steffen, met with Steve Wilkens and Rebecca Creighton to discuss the possibilities associated with Economic Gardening and encouraging them to apply.

Wilken's is truly honored to have been chosen for this program and it looks forward to working to grow their small town business.