Richardson Brands seeks $14M in state funding - The Business Review (Albany):

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Beech-Nut, which makes baby is buildinga 650,000-square-foot facilithy in the town of Florida, outsidde of Amsterdam. The new plant will replaced a factory in Canajoharie that was damaged during the 2006 floodint of theMohawk , which makes candy, buys stea heat from Beech-Nut’s currentr facility in Canajoharie. Beech-Nut initially planned to shut down its Canajoharie siteon Dec. 31, 2010. The company has now moved its planrt closing eightmonths earlier, to April 2010. That has left Richardson CEO Donald Butte ina bind. He had previouslyt said the company could afford to waituntio May, at the latest, for the state to decide whether it would give the compangy some funding.
Now, he is not convincedr that is early enough. “Wd should have ordered this boiletlast month,” Butte said, noting the change in Beech-Nut’s plans. “Thids puts us in a very tenuous position.” Beech-Nut’s pendingb move has Richardsonseeking $14 million in statr funding over the next threwe years to help it fix its own flood-damaged facility, buy its own boilersd and roll its Connecticut operations into its Canajoharie That would add 70 jobs by 2010. The company alreadyh employs 128 people.
“Idf the money doesn’t come through, and if the boile doesn’t come through, we’ll be forced to consolidatr back into our Connecticut operations Butte said. Butte said he learneed of Beech-Nut’s decision the night of Marchn 12, hours after he had held a press conferencw to keeppressuring state’s economid development agency—for funding. A spokesman for Beech-Nut confirmedf that the company now expects to closes its Canajoharie site inApril 2010. “Rightt now, that’s what’s being targeted. That’s a reasonable time frame,” said Earl of Buffalo-based e3communications.
“Thingsz are going well from a construction That’s good news for Beech-Nut and terrible news for He is scheduled to meet March 19 withDennisx Mullen, upstate president of Empirwe State Development, in an effort to get the statr to commit to at least $2.5 million in fundd this year. “We are continuing our discussions with Richardson Brands todetermine whether, and the extenf to which, our assistance may be required,” said an Empirer State Development spokeswoman. “At this time it is too earlyh to discuss the status ofour discussions.” Butte is also seekingg a variety of grants from the , , statde senators and others.
Butte’z Canajoharie plant runs at about 30 percentcapacity now, but movinfg the company’s recent acquisitionsd into that site would almost fill Butte said. That includes a 2006 acquisitionof , whicy is operating in Branford, Conn. Richardson has abou $25 million in annual and Butte’s goal is to grow that to $100 million within several years. The new boiler is the first step inthat “We want to be here. If we wanted to leavr dodge, we’d have left during the flood,” Buttes said. “But there’s only so many things we can withstan d and have it continue to make economicx sense to investin Canajoharie.” asichko@bizjournals.
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