For immediate release:
April 17, 2008

For more information contact:
Tom Lacock
Senior Marketing and Public Relations Specialist
Wyoming Business Council
Office: 307.777.2834
Email: tom.lacock@wybusiness.org

Mariann Foster
Big Horn Mountain Alpacas
Parkman, WY
Phone: 307.655.9176
Email: fmariann69@hotmail.com
Web site: www.bhmalpacas.com

Big Horn Mountain Alpacas nets SBIR award

CHEYENNE – For the past three years, Mariann Foster of Parkman has been sending western-style hats around the globe made from alpaca fiber grown in Wyoming. Now, her curiosity for the process has netted her a $5,000 award to find a better process for preparing the fiber as well as new uses for it.

Foster’s company, Big Horn Mountain Alpacas, received a $5,000 Phase 0 award in March through the Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer Initiative (WSSI) and the Wyoming Business Council. The SBIR Phase 0 Program helps Wyoming companies develop competitive proposals for the federal SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The WSSI receives funding from the Wyoming Business Council and gives out $120,000 in Phase 0 awards each year.

Foster will use the money to do a feasibility study for having finished products made from larger micron alpaca fiber, often from middle aged and older alpacas, with a focus on the potential market for the automated processing of larger micron alpaca fiber, which is often thrown away. Foster believes all stages of alpacas and the fibers they produce have a purpose.

“I’m hoping to show a bigger market for larger micron alpaca, which because of the nature of the larger micron fibers are often better suited for felted items as opposed to the finer, softer and smaller micron fibers which are more suited for yarn and knit items that are worn next to the skin,” said Foster.

Hand Processing the alpaca fiber is a time-consuming process which Foster thinks can be sped up with the use of machinery – something she thinks could be a bi-product of her study.

“Parts of the felted hat process will always need to be hand-finished, but there are stages in the process that could be automated,” Foster said.

Foster believes her study could have a positive impact on the U.S. alpaca industry.

The federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs make up the WSSI alliance and provide more than $2 billion annually in Research and Development (R&D) awards and contracts to qualified small businesses.

Eleven federal agencies are required by law to provide these funds by setting aside 2.5 percent of their annual extra-mural R&D budgets for use exclusively by U.S. small businesses for new product R&D. Hence, these programs provide a unique source of start-up and seed capital for small businesses to develop new innovative product concepts.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

- 30 -