Analyst praises ConMed decision to start paying a dividend

Get our email updates

Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.

Regional News

UTICA — ConMed Corporation’s news that it will begin paying a quarterly dividend to shareholders made at least one analyst happy. ConMed (NASDAQ: CNMD) announced

GateHouse Media sees fourth-quarter gains, net loss for the year

Regional News

GateHouse Media, Inc. saw revenue and income gains in the fourth quarter of 2011, but it wasn’t enough to offset a loss for the year for

Year-round planning benefits businesses at tax time

Regional News, Subscriber Only

UTICA — It’s tax time and there are a lot of things small business owners should keep in mind now and throughout the rest of the year so they are better prepared for the season. The first thing business owners should look at this year is expiring tax credits, says Jo Ann Golden, partner in

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

UTICA — It’s tax time and there are a lot of things small business owners should keep in mind now and throughout the rest of the year so they are better prepared for the season.

The first thing business owners should look at this year is expiring tax credits, says Jo Ann Golden, partner in charge of the Utica area at Dermody, Burke & Brown CPAs, LLC, which has offices in New Hartford. The firm is based in Syracuse.

A number of credits for alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, along with credits for Indian employment, and deductions for state and federal sales taxes all expire this year. Businesses need to make sure they take advantage of the credits they can before they’re gone, Golden says.

Companies also want to make sure they use ongoing tax credits and benefits, Golden adds.

The health-insurance tax credit, which began in 2010 and runs through 2014, can be a wonderful benefit for a small business owner, she says. Businesses with fewer than 25 low- to moderate-income employees may qualify for the credit, which goes directly to the employer to reduce income taxes, she says.

“If you pay $50,000 a year toward workers’ health care premiums – and if you qualify for a 15 percent credit, you save $7,500,” says Dianne Besunder, a media relations professional with the Internal Revenue Service. “If you save $7,500 a year from tax year 2010 through 2013, that’s total savings of $30,000.”

Small businesses can also benefit from changes in how they expense their assets. Once required to depreciate the assets over time, small businesses may now be able to claim the expense in a lump sum or over a shorter period, Golden says.

One thing to keep in mind is that federal and state regulations differ on the matter, so the assets may need to depreciate differently on each return, she notes.

New businesses just starting out should take the time to talk to an adviser now, Golden says. That way, the company is set up the right way from the start, which will make filing first-year taxes easier, she says.

“There are so many compliance rules,” she says.

Good recordkeeping is essential, Golden adds.

“The better your recordkeeping at tax time, that’s a savings right there,” she says.

Keeping orderly records means a company doesn’t have to pay a tax adviser to sort out their books for them. It also helps an adviser use those records to find tax credits and other savings.

Strong records benefit the business owner throughout the year by helping them stay on top of their companies, Golden says. Business owners should reconcile their accounts, review expenses, and study their revenue sources no less than on a monthly basis, she says.

Doing that will help a business owner notice and solve problems quickly, she adds.

Seasonal businesses, in particular, should keep a keen eye on their cash flow and how they manage it so they aren’t stuck borrowing money to meet expenses in the off season, Golden says.

Owners of new and existing businesses should also take a look at the advantages of starting an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or other retirement-savings plan, Golden says. An IRA can not only shelter an owner from paying taxes on that income, but also provides them with income in their retirement.

Finally, business owners shouldn’t be afraid to talk to professionals about any topics of concern, Golden says. They need to educate themselves, she adds.

“You’ve got to make yourself totally aware of what’s going on with your business,” she says. “Putting your head in the sand isn’t going to help you progress or be successful.”

Occupational fraud – It could happen to you

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

This article is part one of a three-part series. In this series, we will define occupational fraud, provide statistics of the incidence of fraud, identify red flags, and discuss types of fraud and the steps employers can take to help protect themselves against fraud. This first article in the series discusses facts of fraud and

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

• “Hospital employee stole $800,000 in cash from patients’ TV and phone payments, feds say,” John O’Brien, The Post-Standard, Oct. 20, 2011

• “Albany–area church treasurer charged in $143K theft,” Newport Television LLC, Jan. 31, 2011

• “Police: Employee steals over $250,000 from East Syracuse business,” Rae Fulkerson, CNYCentral.com, July 19, 2011

Have you seen headlines like these and thought “something like that could never happen to my company?” or “I trust all the employees who work for me. They would never do something like that.” Most business owners share those feelings until they discover one of their most trusted employees has been stealing money from them for years. The fact is, occupational fraud happens every day and can cost companies thousands and even millions of dollars. Unfortunately, it can happen at your business and may be happening now. The news headlines above depict recent cases here in Central New York. Most employers will ask how they can protect their companies from headlines like these. The first step is to understand what occupational fraud is and the red flags to watch.

Occupational fraud, simply put, is: “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment”

This can be through stealing money, misusing corporate assets, misrepresenting financial results, or stealing company property. Occupational fraud takes place every day and can range from an employee taking home supplies to an employee embezzling millions of dollars over an extended period. Occupational fraud cases not only have a negative impact on an organization’s bottom line, but also lead to a significant reduction in employee morale that can often permeate the entire organization.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ (ACFE) 2010 Report to the Nations presents an eye-opening summary of the impact that occupational fraud can have on all types of organizations. ACFE’s study was based on 1,843 occupational-fraud cases that occurred throughout the world from January 2008 to December 2009; the overall impact on the victim organizations studied was significant:

• The typical victim organization is estimated to lose 5 percent of its annual revenue to fraud.

• The median loss of fraud cases in the study was $160,000.

• The frauds studied lasted a median of 18 months before being detected.

While these figures apply primarily to larger organizations, keep in mind that ACFE’s study encompassed all types of organizations, ranging from small privately owned companies to large publicly traded companies. As it turns out, smaller organizations played a large role in the study:

• Of the 1,834 cases studied, 40 percent were privately-owned businesses.

• Sixteen percent of the frauds occurred at government agencies.

• Organizations with fewer than 100 employees accounted for more than 30 percent of the cases.

• Small organizations are disproportionately victimized by occupational fraud; these organizations typically lack the anti-fraud controls in place at larger organizations.

The first question to ask when trying to understand fraud is why people commit fraud. The “fraud triangle,” developed by criminologist Donald R. Cressey, presents three conditions that generally must be present for occupational fraud to occur: incentive, opportunity, and rationalization. All three conditions must be present for fraud to occur.

Incentive

Do you find it odd that your recently hired junior staff has been seen arriving at the office in a late model luxury sports coupe? With access to personal credit on the rise over the past decade, living beyond one’s means can provide the necessary incentive to commit occupational fraud. Incentive refers to what caused the employee, often an individual with no prior criminal history, to ultimately perpetrate the fraud. Today’s difficult economic times, accompanied by personal hardships, such as mounting credit card or medical bills, can be enough to push a historically ethical individual over the edge. Do you have employees who have recently requested hardship withdrawals from their 401(k) plan or consistently take loans from their retirement plan? Those can be indicators of personal economic distress.

Another common incentive is fear of losing your job due to poor job or company performance. While this type of incentive doesn’t involve stealing money directly from the organization, the historically high levels of unemployment throughout the region can add pressure on employees to meet or exceed their employer’s performance expectations. The added pressure can be enough to outweigh the consequences of falsifying documents or manipulating accounting records to falsely overstate their department’s performance benchmarks, such as sales figures. Upper management can also be under similar pressures to meet overall budget goals and outside pressure from owners or shareholders. In tough economic times, many companies could be at risk for violating bank debt covenants. They may provide management with incentive to misstate results. There are countless incentives for why employees decide to commit fraud.

Opportunity

It takes a considerable amount of time to falsify accounting documentation and records in order to cover up a fraud scheme. Every successful organization is built upon hard-working individuals. However, you may have a problem if you have employees who never take time off, and who constantly work odd hours to complete normal tasks. Many frauds are uncovered when the employee perpetrating the fraud is finally on vacation or unexpectedly off due to an illness.

Opportunities to commit fraud are greatly influenced by the organization’s “tone at the top.” The tone set by top-level management typically flows down to all levels of the organization. Does management place enough emphasis on anti-fraud controls, such as implementing consistent work schedules, mandating that vacation time be utilized each year, identifying significant risk areas within the organization, and implementing the necessary internal-control processes to help mitigate the risks identified? Employers should ask themselves who has access to funds such as cash registers, deposits or blank checks. Is the employee issuing checks also responsible for setting up vendors in the system? Is the employee who does the daily bank deposit also the one who reconciles the bank accounts at month end? Are duties sufficiently segregated so that one individual can’t both take money from the company and falsify the records to cover it up? As noted in ACFE study, smaller organizations are disproportionally victimized by occupational fraud because their budgets and staffing levels make it more difficult to implement such anti-fraud controls.

Rationalization

Surprisingly, fraud perpetrators often have little or no prior criminal history. The final condition that generally is present in occupational fraud is an employee’s rationalization to commit the act. Given the recent economic downturn, many businesses struggle to increase employee compensation annually, and many companies have even instituted pay cuts. An employee that hasn’t received a raise or bonus in years may convince himself that the amount stolen merely fills the gap between what he is paid and what he believes is owed him for his services. Some common rationalizations used by fraud perpetrators include: the amounts stolen from the organization will eventually be repaid, no one is being hurt by the fraud, or, the company owes me. Sometimes for individuals in economic distress, committing fraud to pay past-due bills may seem to be the lesser of two evils.

Understanding the consequences and causes of occupational fraud is just the first step in assessing your organization’s susceptibility to it. You also need to design methods to prevent and detect fraud in a timely manner. The next article in this three-part series will discuss the three types of occupational fraud: 1) transactional fraud, 2) corruption fraud, and 3) financial-reporting fraud, as well as detail how each type of fraud may be committed.

Linda Gabor, CPA, CFE is partner in charge of audit services at Green & Seifter Certified Public Accountants PLLC. Contact her at lgabor@greenseiftercpas.com. Christopher Alger CPA, CFE is a supervisor at Green & Seifter CPAs. Contact him at calger@greenseiftercpas.com.

BlueRock Energy forecasts 30 percent growth

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Small Business, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — “Our corporate strategy is to sustain a 30-percent, annual revenue growth,” says Philip R. Van Horne, president and CEO of BlueRock Energy, Inc. “This has been the historical record of the company since its inception.” Personally, Van Horne is convinced that BlueRock can reach triple-digit revenue growth in 2012. BlueRock Energy is a

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

SYRACUSE — “Our corporate strategy is to sustain a 30-percent, annual revenue growth,” says Philip R. Van Horne, president and CEO of BlueRock Energy, Inc.

“This has been the historical record of the company since its inception.” Personally, Van Horne is convinced that BlueRock can reach triple-digit revenue growth in 2012.

BlueRock Energy is a privately held, energy-services company (ESCO), licensed by the New York State Public Service Commission, that delivers electricity, natural gas, and green-energy products to all of New York State, except Long Island. The customer base is 10-percent residential and 90-percent commercial,” according to Van Horne, “ [and] sales are north of $50 million.”

BlueRock employs 35, with 21 located at corporate headquarters at 432 North Franklin St. in downtown Syracuse, where the company leases 6,700 feet of office space. The remaining staff is spread across the state in multiple offices.

Van Horne started BlueRock Energy in 2006 as a new corporate direction in the deregulated energy market. In 2003, he had launched New York Energy, Inc. with his personal funds, financial help from family and friends, and investments from two partners. New York Energy targeted large commercial and industrial companies. BlueRock shifted the focus to selling energy to small- and mid-sized business operations, including restaurants, small office buildings, nursing homes, multi-tenant apartments, manufacturers, car dealerships, and retail operations.

Van Horne’s strategy for growth is multifaceted. First, BlueRock has its sights set on expanding its geographical footprint. “The company has already applied to the state of Pennsylvania for an operating license and anticipates that the license will be granted either in late summer or in the fall,” notes Van Horne. When asked about further expansion, BlueRock’s CEO says “… we also have our eyes on Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey.”

Second, in addition to expanding geographically, BlueRock is moving toward a vertical-integration model, both upstream and downstream. Upstream, the company is in negotiations to buy a natural-gas well in New York State. Ownership of the well would obviate the need to incur credit charges, currently a major cost to the company. Van Horne adds, “BlueRock can also save on transportation cost.”

Downstream, BlueRock is pursuing the acquisition of consulting companies or partnering with others in order to offer its customers and prospects additional services such as engineering, project-management, and cost-analysis. When asked about his timetable for expanding downstream, Van Horne answered, “We’re looking this year.

Third, BlueRock says it is counting on the growth of natural-gas consumption in America. Just in the last decade, technology has enabled natural-gas companies to recover gas deposits that were previously unreachable or too costly for drilling. The available supply now makes America a world leader in energy output, a position it can maintain for decades. Natural gas is also the cleanest of the fossil fuels to burn and therefore more acceptable environmentally.

Van Horne’s growth strategy is also dependent on obtaining adequate financing. In 2006, BlueRock made a deal with the Shell Oil Co. to issue credit to the New York Independent System Operator, a nonprofit company that operates New York’s bulk electric grid and administers the state’s wholesale electric markets. In return, BlueRock bought its energy from Shell. In September 2007, the company closed a $1.1-million deal with Westminster Securities Corp., a private-equity company headquartered at 100 Wall St. in New York City. In February 2011, BlueRock established credit for more than $11 million through the Syracuse office of M&T Bank, allowing it to end its commitment to Shell and to find new suppliers and expand the company’s product line.

Van Horne stresses that his strategy is to “… brand BlueRock as an independent marketer, which reduces its customers’ energy costs through aggregate buying, guarantees a savings in writing, issues an annual “report card” to each customer highlighting the savings, buys its energy locally, and follows strict ethical business practices.”

The final piece to Van Horne’s strategy is to assemble a first-rate leadership team to direct the company. To this end, he announced in June 2011 a reorganization of BlueRock’s management team. Van Horne continues as the president and CEO. He brings 25 years of energy experience in trading, marketing, contract negotiations, wholesale back-office operations, power-systems planning, and systems development. In the early days of energy deregulation in New York State, Van Horne was the president and COO of Niagara-Mohawk Energy Marketing, Inc. He holds a B.S. and master’s degree in engineering from Clarkson University.

Jon M. Gipson serves as the BlueRock COO. Gipson has 25 years in the energy business and formerly was a founder and president of Shamrock Energy. He also was the vice president of business development and gas marketing for GeoMet, Inc., a public exploration and production company. Charles F. Hurley is the vice president of marketing and business development. Hurley spent 30 years in sales and marketing in the consumer-package industry, including stints with The Gillette Company and Procter & Gamble. Michael Young is a vice president and corporate controller. He has more than 15 years of experience in financial operations and management. Young, who holds an MBA degree from LeMoyne College, handles employee benefits and insurance in addition to his duties as controller.

The BlueRock leadership team also includes Jerry Schavone as the director of sales, Jim Nichols as the power-operations manager, Jon Collins as the gas-operations manager, and Tammy Maule as the executive administrator.

BlueRock is structured with BlueRock Holdings as the stock company. Under BlueRock Holdings, the table of organization includes four corporations: New York Energy, BlueRock Energy, BlueRock Energy Services, and Benchmark Energy. All are organized as “C-Corporations.” Twenty private investors own the stock company, with Van Horne as the largest stockholder.

Van Horne says, “BlueRock competes regularly with other energy marketers such as NYSEG Solutions, Hess, Hudson Energy, and Ambit.”

Van Horne is optimistic that, “New York State is out in front on [the subject of] energy deregulation.” He believes “… the utilities should be out of the commodity business in five years, and the layers of cross-subsidies should end.” He adds, “Let competition work.”

New owner of Atlas Fence plans expansion and growth

Subscriber Only

DeWITT –– Atlas Fence, Inc., a local fence construction company founded in 1979, has been acquired, and the new owner plans to make capital improvements and expand the business. The company’s new owner, 46-year-old Chris Polimino, says he had his eye on Atlas Fence for a while, and was fortunate enough to make a deal

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

DeWITT –– Atlas Fence, Inc., a local fence construction company founded in 1979, has been acquired, and the new owner plans to make capital improvements and expand the business.

The company’s new owner, 46-year-old Chris Polimino, says he had his eye on Atlas Fence for a while, and was fortunate enough to make a deal with John Czebiniak, 59, founder and ex-owner of Atlas Fence. Czebiniak continues to work for the company following the sale.

“I purchased the company because I knew it’s a longstanding, well-run, high-quality company,” says Polimino. “There’s absolutely potential for growth.”

The transaction closed on Feb. 15. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Atlas Fence, located at 6852 Manlius Center Road in the town of DeWitt, has been providing residential, commercial, and industrial fence products and services since 1979.

The business offers residential products including wood, chain link, ornamental iron and PVC fencing, lawn furniture, swing sets, tree-house play sets, and basketball hoops. It also sells commercial products such as guard rails, electric gates, gate operators, and cages.

After receiving the raw materials from its suppliers, Atlas Fence customizes the products based on the customers’ needs by using its own computerized router. The company also sells products it purchases from a wide variety of suppliers including Ameristar Fence Products, Master Halco, Backyard Adventures, Bison, and Douglas.

Atlas Fence now has customers all over New York State, and some in Pennsylvania as well. The company carries $5 million in personal and product liability insurance, according to Polimino.

New owner

Before buying Atlas Fence, Polimino worked at Tracey Road Equipment, Inc., a construction-equipment dealership, as the company’s CFO and COO for three years. Prior to that, he was the president and CEO of OP-TECH Environmental Services, Inc., a provider of environmental, industrial, and mechanical construction services, for 10 years.

Polimino and Czebiniak met about a year ago through Grenell Consulting Group, a Liverpool–based company that helps business owners with succession planning, training, and improving the performance of their key contributors. Grenell was advising Czebiniak, and connected him with Polimino, who says he decided to buy Atlas Fence from Czebiniak after their first meeting.

“I’ve known Atlas Fence for a long time … and they have a great reputation in the residential and commercial municipal markets,” says Polimino. “It was a good opportunity and it matched my background of being in the construction-related industries for pretty much my whole career since college.”

He says he finished his due diligence, and was able to obtain financing from Alliance Bank, N.A., prior to the closing of the asset purchase. The acquisition includes the name of the company, the customer list, 20 employees, 30 service vehicles, and other business equipment.

The sale did not include the property. Polimino signed a five-year lease with Czebiniak, owner of the 7,000-square-foot building that Atlas Fence occupies. Polimino will have an option to buy the building when the current lease ends, says Czebiniak.

Czebiniak will remain on staff with Atlas Fence for a minimum of three years, serving as the vice president of sales and marketing. He says that at this point he does not have any plans for what he will do after that.

Polimino’s plans

Last year, Atlas Fence’s revenue increased by 11 percent from 2010. However, Polimino says that was not the main factor in his decision to acquire the company.

“Certainly it helps –– it’s better to buy a company that’s growing rather than shrinking –– but that wasn’t the main reason,” he says. “That didn’t have as much an impact on my decision to purchase as the reputation of the company and the way the company was being run.”

Polimino says he will follow the company’s existing game plan, which includes providing a high level of customer service, quality materials, and quality installation for its clients, as well as providing a safe and productive work environment for its employees.

“A lot of our employees have been either with the company or in the fencing industry for more than 20 years,” he says.

Polimino believes that the depth of experience of the company’s personnel makes it stand out from its competitors. To keep the solid foundation of Atlas Fence intact, he is keeping all 20 full-time employees, including three in the company’s accounting department, three in administration, four in sales and customer service, and 10 project superintendents.

He says he expects the Atlas Fence work force to swell to 45 employees when it has its full installation crew back as the peak construction season starts in early April.

Atlas Fence is looking for individuals with sales experience and a contracting background as it expands its sales force this year, says Polimino.

He says the company will also add more service vehicles to its existing fleet of trucks and trailers, and continue to upgrade its construction equipment.

“We’ll probably spend about $150,000 in capital improvements over the next 12 months,” Polimino says. “Our expectation for this year is to continue to grow our revenue about the same that we did last year.”

Challenges

When asked about challenges, Polimino identifies rising gas prices as the biggest concern for Atlas Fence.

“Certainly fuel prices are going to have a big effect on our business because we do have 30 vehicles in our fleet that we run on a daily basis,” he says. “So I see the fuel as being a challenge, and that’s probably going to be the biggest challenge … ”

Polimino also notes that the residential side of the business depends on improvement in the housing market, which the company is seeing. Since the life of a fence is typically long, people generally do not need new ones unless they are buying new houses, he explains.

“When the housing market is strong, we have a lot more demand for fences … ” he says, “We’ve seen some improved activity this year which has been encouraging.”

Last year, about 35 percent of Atlas Fence’s revenue came from its residential business.

Atlas Fence is now working on a number of residential projects, as well as projects for commercial customers including a major retailer, a trucking company, and an engineering firm. It is also taking part in the Onondaga Lake cleanup project.

Polimino says Atlas Fence is expecting more projects to come as April approaches, including in the health and education sectors.

“We are seeing quite a few opportunities on school-related projects right now, and we are seeing a lot of opportunities in the health-care-related industry,” he says. “Hospitals are making improvements and spending money, so we see opportunities there.”

BrandYourself plans next steps

Subscriber Only, Technology

SYRACUSE — BrandYourself.com has been using $1.2 million in new funding to refine its product, which publicly launched March 8. The company, based in the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, closed the financing round last May and spent the next several months working on its Web-based platform. The product allows users to manage their own

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

SYRACUSE — BrandYourself.com has been using $1.2 million in new funding to refine its product, which publicly launched March 8.

The company, based in the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, closed the financing round last May and spent the next several months working on its Web-based platform. The product allows users to manage their own search results.

Investors in the financing round include Zelkova Ventures of New York City, which has invested in startups like Klout and Foodspotting; Barney Pell, former head search strategist at Microsoft; and Carl Shramm, former CEO of the Kauffman Foundation.

Earlier versions of the BrandYourself product focused on numerous aspects of online reputation management, although search results were always a key component. The tighter focus emerged as company leaders discussed users’ biggest needs and where they saw the best opportunities, CEO Patrick Ambron says.

Everyone is being searched and what shows up matters, Ambron notes. Potential employers can be easily scared off by negative or incorrect information.

Pete Kistler, co-founder of BrandYourself, had the idea for the company when he was mistaken in search results for a drug dealer with the same name.

BrandYourself also sees the chance to take market share from existing reputation-management firms by offering its basic product for free, Ambron says. A service like Reputation.com, for example, can cost hundreds, or even thousands, per year.

BrandYourself has also focused on allowing users to manage their results themselves, Ambron says. Other services, he says, manage the process for users.

The BrandYourself product guides individuals through building a simple website, adding content, improving profiles on social networks like Facebook, and cross-linking to improve visibility in search engines. The idea, Ambron says, is for a user to create positive content and push it higher in search results.

The basic product allows a user to build a simple website and submit three links, like a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, news article, or blog post, for tracking and boosting. The free product also provides a search score and monitoring of the first page of a
user’s Google search results.

“For more people, that’s enough,” Ambron says.

Premium users can pay more to track and boost unlimited content. Those users also get other side benefits like improved
intelligence and the ability to track results on other search engines.

Premium packages start at $4 a month, Ambron says. The company expects most users to stick with the basic product, he adds.

Its goal is to convert 2 percent of its users to paying customers.

“This product is meant to be a high-volume product,” Ambron says.

The company is expecting thousands, perhaps millions, of users in the coming years, he adds. Firm leaders saw high demand while testing earlier versions of their platform.

“A lot of people want this ability,” Ambron says. “We can scale this.”

BrandYourself incubated in the Tech Garden as part of the Student Sandbox program in 2009 and is now a regular tenant. The
firm won the $200,000 grand prize in the 2011 Creative Core Emerging Business Competition.

The company employs 10 people full time and expects to add two to five more this year.

The time the firm spent refining its product should start paying off in the next few months, Ambron notes.

“The focus is the really important thing,” he says. “The hyper focus on solving that one problem and solving that problem very easily and simply.”

O’Brien & Gere relocates growing manufacturing unit

Subscriber Only

CLAY — O’Brien & Gere may be best known locally as an engineering firm, but the company’s manufacturing operations account for 10 percent of its revenue and sales in that business are growing. O’Brien & Gere produces industrial furnaces and other heat-treating systems used in industries like aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, and health care. The

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

CLAY — O’Brien & Gere may be best known locally as an engineering firm, but the company’s manufacturing operations account for 10 percent of its revenue and sales in that business are growing.

O’Brien & Gere produces industrial furnaces and other heat-treating systems used in industries like aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, and health care. The firm relocated its manufacturing unit from a site in Fayetteville to a 160,000-square-foot location in the town of Clay late last year.

The new space is actually slightly smaller than the old building, but the floor plan is wide open and flexible. O’Brien & Gere also added overhead cranes, a paint booth, and other upgrades that will allow it to handle the growth it sees ahead in manufacturing, says Stephen Palin, senior vice president for O’Brien & Gere’s Denton TSI brand of furnace and heat treating-systems.

Manufacturing sales rose 40 percent in 2011 and are projected to jump 50 percent this year, Palin says. O’Brien & Gere spent about $3 million of its own money on upgrading the new manufacturing space, he adds, and received no government incentives or other aid for the project.

The Clay site is a better location for much of the facility’s work force, Palin says. Many of the employees in the manufacturing unit come from the North Country, so it’s an easier drive than Fayetteville. About 80 people work at the Clay plant, which is located on Morgan Road and formerly was the home of Rollway Bearing.

O’Brien & Gere employs another 320 people at its headquarters in downtown Syracuse. The firm, which generated

$200 million in revenue in 2011, has 850 employees at 30 offices nationwide.

“We see this as one of the fastest growing parts of our business,” O’Brien & Gere CEO James Fox says of manufacturing. “It’s a differentiator for us.”

That’s because O’Brien & Gere provides the electronics that control its furnaces and material-handling technologies that load
them as well. The company gives its customers a complete system, rather than just pieces, Fox notes.

Much of the work involves crafting highly customized equipment to deal with specific metals at high temperatures, he adds.

The firm’s customers use its equipment to manufacture items like bearings, wind- turbine blades, and even replacement hips. The manufacturing unit also produces air quality products and the new facility includes a lab for testing wastewater treatment technologies.

Manufacturing projects range in size from $300,000 to $10 million, Palin says.

O’Brien & Gere’s manufacturing business has traditionally been focused on the Northeast, but that’s changed with the addition of a national sales manager, Palin says. O’Brien & Gere is now pushing its products into Texas, the Pacific Northwest, and California.

And the industries the company serves are here for the long haul, Fox adds. High-value work in sectors like aerospace seems to be returning to the U.S., he says.

Customers for the manufacturing unit include firms like GE and Pratt & Whitney.

O’Brien & Gere’s manufacturing business began in 1994 when it acquired Denton Refractory.

The company relocated its headquarters to downtown Syracuse from suburban DeWitt in 2010. It occupies three floors of the six-story Washington Station building at 333 W. Washington St.

Mohawk Global adds to Buffalo presence

Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Mohawk Global Logistics is expanding its Buffalo sales office into a full-service branch. The shipping-logistics firm has added four new employees to the location with the expansion. Previously, Mohawk Global had two salespeople in that office. The site will now offer local import and export businesses a complete set of logistics services, including

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

SYRACUSE — Mohawk Global Logistics is expanding its Buffalo sales office into a full-service branch.

The shipping-logistics firm has added four new employees to the location with the expansion. Previously, Mohawk Global had two salespeople in that office.

The site will now offer local import and export businesses a complete set of logistics services, including customs brokerage, international and domestic transportation, warehousing and distribution, and trade consulting. Mohawk Global, based in Syracuse, has additional offices in the Rochester, Albany, and Chicago areas.

The company employs more than 85 people, including 55 in Syracuse.

Demand from clients drove the expansion to a full Buffalo branch, says Sherie Cuddy, the regional manager for Mohawk Global who is overseeing that location. The company sees strong growth potential in the Buffalo market and expects to add more people to the office in the future, she adds.

In addition to the sales office, the company has been offering free global trade seminars in Buffalo for the past three years to help educate the business community on issues related to import and export compliance.

Mohawk Global opened its Buffalo sales office in 2008. It already had a customer base in the market, even before opening there.

The market was a good one for the firm since it is close to Toronto, a major gateway for international shipping, according to the company.

Buffalo was the final piece to Mohawk Global’s upstate New York footprint. The firm began expanding outside New York last year with the opening of a Chicago office.

The company already had clients outside the region, but Chicago was its first physical location outside the state. The city is a strategic gateway to the Midwest, according to Mohawk Global.

Major rail connections run through Chicago and it’s a hub for air freight as well. The location will allow Mohawk Global to reach further into cities like Milwaukee and Minneapolis as well, according to the company.

Mohawk Global relocated to a new headquarters at 123 Air Cargo Road earlier this year. The firm is now located in the former US Air reservation center on the Syracuse Hancock International Airport property.

The company had been based in 10,000 square feet of space at 152 Air Cargo Road. Mohawk Global currently occupies about 60 percent of the new building’s 26,000 square feet of space.

The city of Syracuse acquired the building after US Airways shut down its reservation center in Syracuse after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The center was one of several the airline closed nationwide after the attacks.

Mohawk Global announced a lease-to-own agreement with the city on the building in January 2011.

Manufacturers’ business conditions continue upswing in March

Manufacturing & Engineering

General business conditions improved for New York manufacturers for the fifth straight month in March, according to a survey released this morning by the Federal

Get our email updates

Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.

Get our email updates

What's New

Upcoming Events

CNYSME Professional Development Series Session Four: Emotional Intelligence Fundamentals

2025 CenterState CEO Annual Meeting

Whitman Day 2025

CNYBJ Job Board

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get our email updates