As the silent partner in a deal heralded by President Donald Trump, Grainger got $7.96 per coverall from U.S. after buying them from DuPont for $4 apiece
For W.W. Grainger Inc., a big industrial supply company, that meant quickly doubling the price of coveralls in a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is worth as much as $35.8 million. The short of it: Grainger, acting as the silent partner in a deal between the federal government and two other companies, bought coveralls at $4 apiece from DuPont and then sold them to Uncle Sam for $7.96 apiece.
Under the deal, the U.S. government paid Federal Express to fly Tyvek, a synthetic material, from a DuPont facility in Richmond, Virginia, to Vietnam, where it was sewn into coveralls at a factory that DuPont uses. DuPont first told NBC News that it sold the suits to the federal government, which paid FedEx to fly the finished product back to the U.S.
President Donald Trump, the HHS Department, DuPont and FedEx all heralded the agreement last week. They praised each other, but none of them mentioned Grainger. Later, a DuPont spokesman told NBC News that his company had actually sold the suits to an intermediary but refused to name the company. Story continuesThough Grainger has a nationwide distribution network, its contract with the HHS department is only for the purchase of the coveralls and the associated paperwork that cleared the way for FedEx to leave Vietnam with the goods and land in the U.S., according to the HHS department spokesperson.
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