The decision was not an easy one – pack up your family, including some horses, and your business and relocate thousands of miles away.
And while that decision came with some struggles, Dustin and Liene Coleman said life couldn’t be better.
The couple who started Cole-TAC, LLC, a tactical accessory manufacturing company, out of their New Hampshire home in 2015, said after just one year in Rapid City they have expanded both their team and production.
“July 19 of last year was our first day of production (in Rapid City),” said Dustin. “It has been great. We knew it would be tough, but by January of this year we already had more people here than what we had in New Hampshire after 6 years. And by May we had more production happening out of this facility then out of New Hampshire.”
The Colemans have added a full-time engineer and two interns from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, a project manager, marketing director, and several local Native American quilters and beaders whose meticulous attention to detail have been a huge asset to the sewing team.
Cole-TAC was also just honored with the 2022 Elevate Rapid City Emerging Business Award. “I was shocked,” Dustin said of the award. “It was an emotional event for us. This last year we have poured so much into making this happen and the award kind of validated that we are doing OK, and people are noticing that work we are doing here. That is a big reason why we like Rapid City is that community feel.”
The couple began thinking about relocating several years ago. They loved their home in Unity, New Hampshire, a small town of 1,100, but knew they needed a larger community to grow their business. They went back and forth for years, but with the help of Elevate Rapid City’s Economic Development Director Matt Brunner and the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development they finally said yes to moving their lives from the East Coast to South Dakota.
While the headquarters for Cole-TAC is in Rapid City, the couple maintains their initial manufacturing facility in New Hampshire along with one in Latvia, the home country of Liene, which produces everything for the European market.
Cole-TAC started off as a hobby business in the spare room of the couple’s home. Liene sewed the first suppressor cover after one that Dustin purchased at a hefty price fell apart the first use. “I asked her to fix it and after finding out how much I spent on it she basically commented that she could have made something much better and for less.”
So, she did.
She made one for Dustin and then for several of his buddies.
“It was so well received that we said maybe we should start a website,” Liene said.
The business that started in the spare bedroom grew to the basement then to the garage and eventually the hobby turned into a full-time business. The goal when they started was to simply make enough to take a yearly family trip to Latvia.
They have achieved that goal and more.
“I would never have thought that we would end up at this level. We had one little home sewing machine in the spare bedroom, now we have 90 industrial machines.”
Dustin and Liene are excited for the future growth of their business and their new community that will help them achieve those goals.