Business First of Buffalo articles from January 1999

Business First of Buffalo archives from January 1999

Dresser-Rand strengthens WNY plans.(Western New York)
January 25, 1999... Organizational restructuring at Dresser-Rand Co. will consolidate management of worldwide manufacturing into one Western New York trait. The move will help the company expand service operations in the petroleum and natural gas industries,...

Small size of labor pool concerns info-tech companies.
January 25, 1999... More than three-quarters of the information technology companies in Western New York expect to add jobs in the next two years, and 56 percent say they will expand during the period. Most are wondering, however, just where to find the...

Bon-Ton hopes to capture sweet smell of success.(Bon-Ton Stores Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 25, 1999... Efforts by the Bon-Ton Stores Inc. to carry two popular lines of cosmetics and fragrances has the smell of a retailing war among some of the area's department store chains. Starting in March, Bon-Ton will be carrying the Clinque and...

Boilermaker's grandsons unite Dunkirk, Utica firms.(Dunkirk Radiator Corp. and The Utica Cos.)(Brief Article)
January 25, 1999... Dunkirk Radiator Corp. and The Utica Cos. plan to merge this spring to create the third-largest boiler manufacturer and distributor in North America. Both companies were founded separately in 1928 by Earle Reed. They are coming together...

WNY manufacturers receive greater share of SBA loans.(Western New York; Small Business Administration)(Brief Article)
January 25, 1999... All the statistics say manufacturing is declining in Western New York, but companies in the sector are doing their best to grow with help from area lenders. Twelve of the largest loans that closed with Small Business Administration...

From now on it's Kaleida Health.(merger between Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo General Health System and Millard Fillmore Health System)(Brief Article)
January 25, 1999... You've heard the last of the CGF Health System. From this day forward, the marriage of Children's Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo General Health System and Millard Fillmore Health System will be known as Kaleida Health. The new identity was...

Opening doors to the Internet: NexServer helps small business cut costs online.(Small Business Profile)(Syrinex Communications Corp.)(Company Profile)
January 25, 1999... Small Business Profile Syrinex Communications Corp. 110 W. Tupper St. Buffalo, N.Y. 14201-2142 Phone: 853-7470; fax 853-7472 Internet: www.syrinex.com What's going on: Syrinex Communications Corp. builds a server unit called...

Jamestown Savings Bank chooses Olean for branch.(New York)(Brief Article)
January 25, 1999... OLEAN - Jamestown Savings Bank had always kept a watchful eye eastward for a possible branch office in Olean, where retail development has particularly boomed the past few years. Now, the 3-year-old bank has its fourth location right in...

Area insurance exec helps make sense out of jargon.(Special Report: Insurance & Employee Benefits)(Brown & Stromecki Agency Inc.'s Henry Kaye)
January 25, 1999... To folks who consider themselves insurance illiterates, a good insurance representative is one who can guide them through the maze of jargon and interpret the terminology. In effect, then, veteran Western New York insurance executive...

WNY insurance agency reorganizes.(Special Report: Insurance & Employee Benefits)(Lawley Service Inc.)(Company Profile)
January 25, 1999... A new generation of founding family members has officially taken over ownership and operation of Western New York's largest property and casualty insurance agency, Lawley Service Inc. As of Jan. 1, two grandsons of the founders, Ray and...

Retrofitting stadium builds new trend.(Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, New York)
January 18, 1999... The renovation of Ralph Wilson Stadium runs contrary to a National Football League trend that has a growing number of franchises planning moves to high-priced new stadiums. The Orchard Park football stadium is undergoing a modernization,...

Service sector jobs post biggest gains.(survey of several sectors' annual pay per worker)
January 18, 1999... The good news first. Eight different types of local companies paid average salaries of more than $40,000 in 1996, according to a new Business First computer analysis of payroll statistics. The eight top-paying industry groups...

Banker's career defies tradition.(Fleet Bank executive vice president and market manager Juanita Petty)
January 18, 1999... Juanita Petty began her career the way many top-level bank executives do, as a teller cashing cheeks. But little else is typical about Fleet Bank's recently named executive vice president and market manager of upstate branch banking....

Waterfront out for Sinclair's downtown headquarters.(Buffalo, New York; Sinclair Radio of Buffalo Inc.)
January 18, 1999... For the third time in a year, Sinclair Radio of Buffalo Inc., the parent company for six area radio stations and two TV stations, is back scouting downtown locations for new headquarters. Sinclair has backed away from plans announced last...

January snowstorms chill WNY business activities.(1999; Western New York)
January 18, 1999... Western New Yorkers are a resilient group, slowed by serious snow, but never stopped. With more than 50 inches in the first two weeks of the year - the January record is 68 inches in 1977 - Buffalonians continue to forge ahead. Business...

Bryant & Stratton CEO returns to school.(C. Angela Bontempo)
January 18, 1999... Dennis McCarthy recalls administrative life at Sisters Hospital when C. Angela Bontempo was president and CEO from 1987-92. "We used to fondly call the administration here under Angela the A-Team," said McCarthy, director of public...

Lockport hospital's losses mount as officials consider making cuts.(Lockport Memorial Hospital)
January 18, 1999... Financial problems plaguing Lockport Memorial Hospital are a function of operating in a managed care environment with decreasing reimbursement from insurers. So says George Muscato, the Lockport attorney and hospital board chairman who...

Delay sets back opening of Delaware Ave. mansion.(Buffalo, New York)
January 18, 1999... A Delaware Avenue mansion that was once home to the Victor Hugo restaurant will open this summer as an upscale bed-and-breakfast and banquet facility. That's the promise from the building's owner, Dennis Murphy, president of the...

Macaroni by hand: old world machinery stuffs family business with pasta products.(Small Business Handbook)(Gondola Macaroni Products Inc.)
January 18, 1999... What's up: Gondola makes pasta the old world way by hand. Durum flour, water and eggs are blended together and put through a homemade extruder to form one-quarter inch thick sheets of pasta spun onto seven-inch wide rolls. The pasta...

Safe in the office: designing a safe office isn't an accident.(Special Report: Total Office)
January 18, 1999... Can working in an office be hazardous to your health or long-term physical well-being? Many may scoff at the question, claiming that an office is infinitely safer than most other workplaces, and that they have a better chance of getting...

Worker helps call the shots at professional organization.(Special Report: Total Office)(International Union of Operating Engineers' administrative assistant Suzanne Schott)
January 18, 1999... How does someone without a four-year college degree rise to the top of a 240-member professional association? Through lots of hard work. For Suzanne Schott, an administrative assistant with the International Union of Operating Engineers,...

Experts say stymie hackers by using several safeguards.(Special Report: Total Office)
January 18, 1999... If your company has a computer, a computer system or a series of computer networks with online Internet access, then it's vulnerable to "hackers" and "crackers." How do you safeguard a computer system? Firewalls are the most common...

Government vs. business.(results on the poll conducted by the Business First-Goldhaber Research Associates on the opinion of adults on the dubious manner the New York state government regulates businesses)
January 11, 1999... The business community's litany of complaints about state taxes and regulations appears to be having an impact. A new Business First-Goldhaber Research Associates Poll shows that two out of every three Western New Yorkers believe...

Delphi stands alone as GM era ends.(independent operation of Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. from its former parent company, General Motors Corp.)
January 11, 1999... The General Motors era ended at midnight Dec. 31 for Delphi Automotive Systems and the 6,100 area employees at its Lockport-based Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems unit. On Jan. 1, Delphi Automotive began running as a stand-alone, Pontiac,...

Beat goes on for ECMC cardiac unit.(hospital cardiac mortality rates of Erie County Medical Center and other hospitals in New York State)
January 11, 1999... Western New York once again was home to one of the strongest heart surgery programs in the state in 1996, according to the state Department of Health. Erie County Medical Center had among the lowest risk-adjusted death rates statewide at...

WNY-based capital fund targets high-tech start-ups.(Western New York Business Development Fund)
January 11, 1999... High-tech entrepreneurs will have access to a new source of funding with the introduction of the Western New York Business Development Fund. The $750,000 fund, a pilot program created by investments from a group of local and state...

WNY women's directory opens more doors to capital.(Western New York; 'Women Entrepreneurs: Access to Capital and Educational Services')
January 11, 1999... One of the biggest complaints from women business owners is the difficulty they have gaining access to capital. A new resource directory, which will be introduced later this month, should help women business owners see their businesses...

Customs brokers cash in on cross-border trading.(customs brokers in Western New York)
January 11, 1999... Niagara Frontier geography ensures two things: lake effect snow and a crossroads for international trade. "Western New York is not geographically correct for many things, but for trade with Canada it is definitely geographically...

Expanding Ingram Micro likes what its sees in WNY.(Western New York)
January 4, 1999... The Ingram Micro facilities in Amherst seem more like a college campus than a typical Western New York company. Nearly 2,000 employees arrive daily on Wehrle Drive for assignments in four buildings totaling 375,000 square feet. ...

Region's dominant HMO sets health care standard.(health maintenance organization, Independent Health Association, based in Western New York)
January 4, 1999... When Independent Health makes a move, hospitals, doctors and nearly a half-million Western New Yorkers take notice. So it goes with the HMO and its 400,000 members, representing the largest base of business among the local managed-care...

Bell Atlantic opens lines for worldwide communication.(Bell Atlantic Corp.)
January 4, 1999... Imagine no telephone, not one in Western New York. Work, leisure, commerce and communications as we know it would virtually come to a standstill. Now imagine owning the majority of local telephone access lines in the region, about...

Paul Snyder's touch puts a new spin on development.(head of the Olympic Management Systems)
January 4, 1999... When Paul Snyder Sr. looks into his crystal ball, he sees a bright picture. And with good reason. Snyder, through his investments or Olympic Management Systems company, has a hand on some of the area's key hospitality, travel or tourism...

Anchor Bar still hot and plans to stay that way.(restaurant in Buffalo, New York)
January 4, 1999... When compiling a Top 100 list, some say it's just as well to be No. 100 as it is, say No. 65 (apologies to WGRZ-TV at No. 65). Why? Because readers are just as likely to remember who holds down the final spot as they are the first. And...