Technology Development Center Helps Hudson Valley Firm Take Step Forward
“With the experience we gained from working with HVTDC, we are confident our future is bright.”
Tim Flanagan
Vice President
Hudson Baylor was founded in 1983, with the advent of New York State’s bottle redemption laws. The company, which is privately held and does not reveal financial results, grew steadily, expanding its efforts to paper and municipal recycling. It has plants in Arizona, Connecticut & Massachusetts in addition to New York.
In ice hockey it’s called the hat trick- three goals in one game.
For Hudson
Baylor, a recycling firm headquartered in Newburgh, N.Y., the hat trick
consisted of: 1) improving its ability to help the environment; 2) strengthening
its competitive posture; 3) adding employees to its payroll and helping
the local economy.
The catalyst: a New York State Environmental Management Investment Grant
(EMIG), which it obtained in cooperation with the Hudson Valley Technology
Development Center (HVTDC).
The company was poised for further growth, which meant additional
equipment, which meant large capital outlays. The obvious answer was to
apply for an EMIG grant. So in late 1998 the company turned to the HVTDC
to assist with the grant application.
Says Scott Tenney, Hudson Baylor’s president, “We had gone
to a seminar sponsored by HVTDC and were very impressed with the quality
of the people and the value of information they gave us. When we asked
them to help us, Bob Winrow and Mike Smith came to our headquarters and
began leading us down the road. We established a strong relationship with
them.”
Winrow and Smith worked hand-in-glove with Hudson Baylor’s management
to help them fulfill the requirements for an EMIG grant. An applicant
must be able to demonstrate that the company is in full compliance with
Federal and state environmental policies and laws. It must have a clearly
defined plan showing how the grant will be used and what the end-result
will be.
In the case of Hudson Baylor, the company wanted to buy equipment that
would enable it to increase its recovery of PET plastics from 2,000 tons
to 5,000 tons a year. Total costs were estimated at close to $400,000.
“Because of our strong relationship with HVTDC, we were able to
work very closely with the state,” says Tim Flanagan, vice president.
“We submitted the application to the New York State Economic Development
Agency in the spring of 1999, and by the end of the year we were awarded
$186,722, a large proportion of what we had asked for. We are receiving
the money in installments.”
“After we received the grant, Bob Winrow continued to work with
us to help us meet our performance objectives, file the required report
with the state and generally make sure that we were staying on the right
track.”
Hudson Baylor is filling a niche in the highly competitive recycling
industry by concentrating on granulating plastics, which, among other
uses, are then converted into fibers which are used by the clothing industry
for cold-weather lining for garments and the like.
The EMIG grant enabled Hudson Baylor to add three employees to its 50-plus-member workforce. “We submitted a second application for an EMIG grant to allow us to increase our recycled paper processing enterprise.” says Flanagan.