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PCB Piezotronics Set to Expand in Depew

By David Robinson

December 2, 2010
 
 PCB Piezotronics plans to expand operations at its Depew headquarters by acquiring the building next door and shifting work that the sensor and instrument manufacturer now does in Lackawanna to the enlarged site.

The $3.67 million project is expected to add 50 new jobs to the company’s 513-member work force in the Buffalo Niagara region. The company Wednesday received a $500,000 grant from Empire State Development Corp. to help finance the project.

The grant was one of seven incentive packages that the state economic-development agency approved for Western New York companies, providing loans and grants of $5.7 million to those firms for projects that are expected to create a combined 329 jobs in the region.

PCB plans to buy a 50,000- square-foot building next to its Walden Avenue headquarters and factory. The company plans to consolidate machine operations now split between the ex-

isting Depew site and its 24,000-square-foot Lackawanna facility in an effort to improve efficiency and free up 15,000 square feet of space at its Depew factory.

PCB executives said the Depew factory is at full capacity and has no room for expansion.

The state agency also awarded Praxair a $1 million grant to offset some of the costs associated with a $24.7 million project to improve the transportation logistics system at its Town of Tonawanda facility.

The project will create a transportation logistics center that will coordinate operations at three North American sites in Tonawanda, Canada and Mexico. The project is not expected to create any jobs, but it will help retain the 700 positions now in Tonawanda, state officials said.

Empire State Development also awarded a $2.5 million grant to Steuben Foods to assist its $52 million project to add a new aseptic bottling and packaging line at its Elma plant. The project, which is expected to add 150 jobs to the company’s 426-member work force, will allow the company to boost its capacity by about 50 percent.

The 70,000-square-foot expansion, which already has received property tax breaks through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and an allocation of low-cost electricity from the New York Power Authority, would increase the ability to produce aseptic and extended shelf-life food and beverages.

Metaullics Systems was granted a $650,000 loan for its $22.7 million project to build a 93,000-square-foot facility in Sanborn that is expected to create 57 jobs, roughly doubling the size of its current work force.

The carbon and graphite manufacturer will put 12 high-temperature heat treatment electric furnaces and other processing and handling equipment in the new facility to make anode materials for lithium batteries, mainly for use in electric and hybrid automobiles.

Empire Genomics was awarded a $400,000 grant for a $2.85 million project for the Buffalo genetic services testing firm to open a new headquarters in the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The company, which currently has eight employees, hopes to add 31 positions over three years.

Audubon Machinery Corp. will receive a $300,000 loan with a reduced interest rate for its $1.4 million project to expand manufacturing at its North Tonawanda factory to include a larger micro wind turbine. The manufacturer of renewable- energy products said the expansion will add 32 jobs to its 44-member work force.

SolEpoxy was awarded a $400,000 grant for its $5.35 million project to buy the former Henkel Loctite factory in Olean, where it plans to continue making three of Henkel Loctite’s specialty products, as well as another Henkel product line through the end of next year.

Henkel’s current 40 full-time employees will be retained by SolEpoxy, which will add nine more positions. The company also will retain 18 contract employees until the end of 2011, when the Henkel product line they work on will be shifted to South Carolina.

drobinson@buffnews.com