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Home > About BNE > Press Room > Current Articles > September > BNE Reports Successful Year

BNE works through economic challenges

Business First of Buffalo - by James Fink Business First



Despite a weakened national economy and a general slowdown in private-sector investment, the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise reported 20 economic development “wins” in the past year.

The wins — when a company decides to expand or open new, local operations — resulted in more than $70 million in private sector investment while creating or retaining 1,920 jobs for the region.

“In the face of the formidable challenges today’s economy present, I’m very pleased with our results,” said David Smith, BNE chairman and National Fuel Gas Co. president and CEO.

Smith is completing his first year as chairman of the region’s primary economic development marketing and outreach agency.

This year’s included decisions by Morgan Stanley Private Equity, the new owners of Tops Markets, to keep the supermarket chain’s headquarters in Amherst and, at the same time, bring back 140 jobs that had previously been shifted to Carlisle, Pa., but the store’s former owners, Royal Ahold. Another coup was the expansion by Center One, a debt collection agency, to add 365 jobs in Buffalo.

By comparison, last year the BNE reported 21 wins that resulted in $1.8 billion in private sector investment and the creation or retention of 2,389 jobs.

The lower numbers are the result of several factors, said Thomas Kucharski, BNE president and CEO.

The global economy played a role as did a more focused effort by the BNE to revert back to its most basic mission - pure marketing of the region to site selectors and corporate decision-makers.

Kucharski said 16 of this year’s wins were the result of “pure attraction” efforts by his agency. And, nine of the wins were projects that were completed within one year of the BNE’s initial contact with the company or its representatives.

“You have to be very prepared,” Kucharski said. “You may only get one shot at these companies.”

Among the companies that moved to the region in the past is Compact Mold Ltd., a Toronto-based firm that has manufacturing operations in Chesapeake, Va. Compact Mold produces industrial strength plastic parts for commercial uses.

The company is moving its U.S. operations from Virginia to the Vantage Industrial Park in Niagara County. The firm is looking to hire at least 22 workers.

Paul Fumo, Compact Mold general manager, said an aggressive pitch from the BNE and the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency did the trick.

“Business was definitely one reason we moved,” Fumo said. “But, what also brought us here was much more personal.”

Being so close to Toronto was also a key factor, Fumo added.

Compact Mold is typical of the companies the BNE hopes to bring to the region. Canada remains one of its primary targets for focused marketing efforts. Southern Ontario is an obvious choice for the BNE’s efforts, but so is the Province of Quebec, Kucharski said.

Quebec has thriving life sciences industry that Kucharski said plays into some of the region’s strengths.

“We have this immediate common thread,” he said. “We’re both in the north and we both love our hockey.