Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.
Upstate consumer confidence falls in March
Consumer confidence dropped among upstate New Yorkers in March, breaking from rising sentiment in the rest of the state and country. Overall consumer confidence fell
Area unemployment rates show little progress in February
Regional unemployment rates mostly followed the same trend as the state in February, creeping up slightly or staying stagnant. Only the Binghamton region showed any
SRC wins $20 million contract from EPA
CICERO — SRC, Inc. won a $20 million contract from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test new chemicals entering the U.S. market. The five-year
February construction spending up from a year ago
Construction spending increased in February 2012 when compared to the same month last year as rising private construction spending outweighed a dip in public spending,
CXtec to pay $2 million in settlement with government
SALINA — CXtec will pay $2 million to settle claims it supplied government customers with products made in China. The Department of Justice said the
The president of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield will become CEO of the health insurer and its parent company at the beginning of next year, replacing retiring
Cedarville company plots growth for 2012
CEDARVILLE — Fermer Precision may be a small business in the hamlet of Cedarville, but the company has kicked off 2012 off in a big way with new equipment, new customers, and new affiliations with sister companies it gained when Fiber Instrument Sales (FIS) acquired Fermer in July 2011. In January, Fermer landed a contract
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CEDARVILLE — Fermer Precision may be a small business in the hamlet of Cedarville, but the company has kicked off 2012 off in a big way with new equipment, new customers, and new affiliations with sister companies it gained when Fiber Instrument Sales (FIS) acquired Fermer in July 2011.
In January, Fermer landed a contract with Wisconsin–based J.L. French, Inc. to produce multiple prototypes of a newly developed automotive component. The company began machining the components, which use high-pressure, aluminum die-casting technologies developed by J.L. French for its automotive, marine, lawn and garden, and industrial markets.
Being selected by J.L. French shows that Fermer Precision is doing quality work here in Central New York, defying the conventional wisdom that manufacturing is dead in the area, says Mark Cushman, executive vice president at Fermer Precision.
Manufacturing is, in fact, seeing a boom recently as more work is coming back to American soil after years of being outsourced to Asia and Mexico, he says. Where it was once very inexpensive to farm work out overseas, quality issues and the rising cost of fuel have caused some companies to reconsider and turn to American manufacturers instead, he says. Over the past four months, Fermer has grown from 49 to 60 employees due to increased work demand. “We are continually looking at growth,” Cushman says.
Couple that with changing technology and the market contraction the industry saw in 2009 and 2010 during the recession, and Fermer had a real opportunity for growth if it could distinguish itself from the competition, Cushman says.
The computer numerical control (CNC) machining company did that by further honing its expertise in its core markets of automotive (including power transmissions and emissions controls), firearms, commercial air compressors, and residential and commercial water pumps.
“We have developed specific competencies on machining castings,” Cushman says. Specifically, the company has become known for its ability to take hard-to-hold, unbalanced, or otherwise difficult-to-machine parts and has figured out ways to turn those rough parts into precision pieces for customers, he says.
Fermer has also been working to develop additional competencies to offer customers, such as leak testing, that add value to the product, he says.
“They’re looking for someone who can do more than just machining,” Cushman says of customers. Being able to offer those extra services has helped set the foundation for the growth he expects Fermer to see this year.
Fermer Precision generates annual revenue of about $20 million, and Cushman hopes to grow that by between 15 percent and 18 percent this year.
Fermer will also benefit this year and in future years from its new parent company FIS, Cushman says. When the Oriskany–based business acquired Fermer last year (terms of that deal were not disclosed), it placed Fermer firmly within FIS’s family of companies.
“We have that synergy,” Cushman says of all the businesses. FIS’s companies include Fiber Instrument Sales, Inc., which specializes in fiber optics; The Light Connection, which focuses on plastic extrusion; Molding Solutions, Inc. (MSi), which specializes in injection molding; FIS Blue, which focuses on broadcast and military cables; and Fermer, a CNC machining specialist.
Working with those sister companies is already paying off, Cushman says, as Fermer and MSi are already collaborating on a project that requires precision machining and over-molding.
The group of FSI companies jointly marketed their combined services as firearm-component manufacturing specialists at the 2012 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in January in Las Vegas. “It was very, very well received,” Cushman says of the marketing effort.
Along with working with new customers and its new sister companies, Fermer is also working with new equipment and newly expanded facilities, Cushman says.
The company, an ISO/TS 16949:2009-certified machining company, recently installed 12 more CNC machines and has plans to add four new machining centers in the coming months. Cushman declined to disclose the cost or financing details.
Fermer (www.fermerprecision.com) recently completed an 8,000-square-foot warehouse addition bringing its total square footage to nearly 60,000 at its 114 Johnson Road facility.
The FIS group of companies has annual sales exceeding $65 million, employs more than 350 people, and exports products to more than 110 companies.
CenterState’s Simpson discusses role of higher education in regional economy
HERKIMER — The Herkimer County College Foundation hosted several business, government, and campus leaders for an Executive Breakfast presentation at Herkimer County Community College (HCCC) on Thursday, March 1. The presenter was Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, executive director of the Central Upstate Regional Alliance and president of Syracuse’s business incubator, The
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HERKIMER — The Herkimer County College Foundation hosted several business, government, and campus leaders for an Executive Breakfast presentation at Herkimer County Community College (HCCC) on Thursday, March 1.
The presenter was Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, executive director of the Central Upstate Regional Alliance and president of Syracuse’s business incubator, The Tech Garden. He previously served as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York (MDA). Simpson was a driving force behind the creation of CenterState CEO, which resulted from the 2010 merger of the MDA and the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. At his appearance in Herkimer, Simpson discussed the importance of higher education, partnerships, and collaboration in promoting effective regional economic development.
Simpson said, “Put simply, higher education is as important as any industrial sector we have. It is, and will remain, one of the single most important drivers of growth in our region.”
The purpose of the Herkimer County College Foundation’s Executive Breakfast program is to bring together educational, business, government, and other community leaders for presentations and discussions on a variety of issues.
The Herkimer County College Foundation, Inc., was established in 1967 as a not-for-profit corporation. The foundation assists HCCC through the acquisition of private funds and real property. The foundation has developed more than 90 scholarship programs that award more than $150,000 annually to many deserving students. It has been instrumental in the acquisition of land for future campus expansion and the development of student housing adjacent to the campus. In conjunction with the HCCC Alumni Association, grants are awarded each year to faculty and staff for ongoing professional development and independent research. The foundation also invests in other college programs, such as instructional technology, graduation activities and awards events.
New program provides basic manufacturing training to boost work force
ONEIDA — As many as 50 people have a chance to gain basic job skills to help them obtain jobs in the manufacturing industry. That’s thanks to a new training program from the BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education (BCCE) and Working Solutions of the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties. The program
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ONEIDA — As many as 50 people have a chance to gain basic job skills to help them obtain jobs in the manufacturing industry. That’s thanks to a new training program from the BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education (BCCE) and Working Solutions of the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties.
The program will offer two free 15-week training sessions for unemployed residents of Madison County. The New York State Department of Labor is funding the program.
The idea for the program was born out of meetings between Lorraine Schmidtka, director of Madison County Employment and Training and the Oneida One-Stop Career Center, and manufacturing businesses looking for workers. From those meetings, Schmidtka says she got the idea to help create a program to develop a pipeline of talented, employable workers for manufacturing positions.
“To some extent, manufacturing is coming back onshore in one form or another,” she says. That means the area’s manufacturers are in need of workers, but those workers need to have skill sets beyond those required 50 years ago, she adds.
That need led to the collaboration with BCCE to create this training program, which will kick off its first session on April 16.
“What we wanted to do was support Lorraine’s concept of building a pipeline for these employers,” says Kathleen Rinaldo, director of adult and continuing education at BCCE.
The program is a real partnership, not only between Working Solutions and BCCE, but also with the companies in need of that skilled work force, Rinaldo says. Some of the companies participating in the program include Canastota N/C, Hartman Enterprises, Lakeside Innovative Technologies, Manth Brownell, Marquardt Switches, and Oneida Molded Plastics.
James Dowd, vice president and general manager at Tronser, Inc. in Cazenovia, said in a news release the program will help his company develop its future work force. “Tronser hopes to continue its growth, but can only do so with qualified employees,” he said.
The program will give participants training in career research, basic and industrial shop math, mechanical blueprint reading, measurement, geometric dimension and tolerance, basic computer operations, and OSHA training. Along with that, some participating employers will provide an opportunity for students to go on the shop floor and experience first-hand what employment at their company is like.
“They’re going to be better prepared when they do start a job,” Rinaldo says of the program experience.
The program does more than just give participants that experience, she adds. It also helps show that manufacturing is a viable career option in Central New York. “That’s really where we need to start,” Rinaldo says.
Schmidtka agrees. The old image of a manufacturing job is something dirty, dark, and hazy, she says. “It’s not so anymore,” she says. “The face of manufacturing has changed.”
There is room in the program for up to 25 students for each 15-week session, with the second session staring in August. The program is currently open to unemployed residents of Madison County, but organizers are also accepting applications from unemployed residents of Oneida County. Schmidtka says there is a chance, with state approval, that organizers can add Oneida County residents if the program doesn’t fill up with Madison County residents. So far, about a dozen people have expressed interest in attending the training.
For more information about registering for the program, contact the Madison County Career Center in Oneida at (315) 363-2400.
The BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education is a partnership between Madison-Oneida BOCES and Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES that provides education and job-training. BCCE offers more than 200 programs to adults in 21 school districts.
Working Solutions is a collaborative effort to assist job seekers, workers, and businesses in Herkimer, Madison, and Oneida counties by connecting businesses and job seekers.
Reed cozies up to the microphone to launch new career
WHITESBORO — When he found himself out of a job after his position in the media-relations department at the Oneida Indian Nation was eliminated at the end of 2011, Jerry Reed decided to follow that old adage of turning lemons into lemonade by focusing on his love of voice work. The result is Jerry Reed
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WHITESBORO — When he found himself out of a job after his position in the media-relations department at the Oneida Indian Nation was eliminated at the end of 2011, Jerry Reed decided to follow that old adage of turning lemons into lemonade by focusing on his love of voice work.
The result is Jerry Reed Voice Talent, his new full-time venture that capitalizes on his 23 years of broadcasting experience as well as his life experience in general.
The business takes voice-over work from a part-time hobby and turns it into a new career, Reed says.
“I was doing voice-over work on the side when people would ask me,” he says. He was the voice of New Hartford Plumbing’s advertising in 1990s and completed projects like corporate-video narration.
However, it was the New York Department of Labor and its Self Employment Assistance Program (SEAP) that gave Reed the push to start a full-time business. The program gives qualified people — typically those who are likely to exhaust their unemployment benefits while looking for work — a chance to start their own business while still collecting unemployment. As part of the program, Reed must take the required business-education courses and work with the Mohawk Valley Small Business Development Center on efforts like crafting his business plan.
Participating in the SEAP program has really helped Reed hit the ground running, and as a result, his business is already taking off, he says.
Reed already completed his first job doing voice work for a political candidate in Louisiana. Reed jokes that he must have done a good job since the candidate ended up winning the election.
He also recently finished a job for a Dutch advertising agency that had him reading children’s stories.
Much of Reed’s experience in voice work comes from his years in the broadcasting industry, which had him on the air from 1964 to 1987. At the end of his broadcasting career, Reed continued with a farm and rural community radio show that aired on 43 stations, including on WIBX (950 AM) in Utica for three years in the mid-1980s.
While that broadcasting background has helped, Reed says, so has the work he has done since his broadcasting days. That work includes a stint as the executive director of the New York Beef Industry Council and director of communications for the New York State Farm Bureau from 1999 to early 2001. In 2001, Reed joined the Oneida Nation, where he focused his public-relations skills on promoting the entertainment, dining, and cultural offerings of the nation, primarily at its Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona.
Throw all that together with a bunch of hobbies, and it gives him a pretty broad base of experience to draw upon when voicing a project, Reed says. “Those life experiences help you take on a role,” he says.
Reed does work with a voice coach in Boston and says the focus of his work with her is to make sure he’s able to sound like the “guy next door” and not just an announcer when voicing projects. He is also working with the coach to put together a demo he can share with prospective clients when auditioning for projects.
Reed, who is a member of the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists, will be heading to New York City in the coming weeks to read for some high-profile talent agents, but also wants to spread the word about his services in the Mohawk Valley. He wants businesses in the area to know there is a new voice option in town for the myriad projects for which they may need a voice actor. Those projects can include radio or TV commercials, corporate narration, and even less obvious things such as phone answering systems, in-store announcements, or even video games.
The scope of voice work is huge, Reed says, and it was a $12.6 billion industry in 2010.
“It’s a big industry,” he says. “I just want a little piece of it.”
In between auditioning for roles, Reed is busy meeting with local radio and television stations, promoting his work on his website www.jerryreed.com, and building up his social-media base on sites such as Facebook, where he had 19 followers as of press time, and Twitter, where he had 71 followers.
Looking ahead, after landing some local accounts, Reed has his eye on making his mark nationally. “I’d like to be able to do some bigger national-type accounts,” he says. “That would be the big goal.”
In the meantime, he’s having fun forging a second career doing something he loves.
“This is a perfect opportunity for me to get out and do something I’ve dreamed of doing and hopefully make some money doing it,” he says.
Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.