By Sarah Hall
Editor
One hundred jobs will be coming to Van Buren in the next year when Tessy Plastics completes a 250,000-square-foot addition to its facility.
At a press conferenct, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, along with Tessy officials, announced July 21 that the company will add 50 employees now and another 50 once construction is complete, which is expected to be in March of 2017.
The total cost of the project, estimated at $31 million, is being supported by $10 million from a state grant and $3.5 in tax credits.
“When our businesses need us, we will answer that call for help because we need you here,” Hochul said. “It’s not just the jobs you create. It’s the family you support with those jobs. It’s well-spent taxpayer dollars.”
The state funding helped Tessy, which makes plastic components for medical devices and consumer products, decide to keep its facility in New York rather than moving to South Carolina. The southern state had also offered generous incentives, the details of which Tessy President Roland Beck did not provide, for the business to build a new factory in the state. There, Tessy could make several components for underarm deodorant containers, which makes up about half the company’s business. The company then ships the containers — about 3,000 truckloads a year — to North and South Carolina, where the deodorant itself is added before being sold.
However, Tessy ultimately decided to stay in New York, thanks to the help from the state as well as its long history here; Beck’s father, Henry, founded the company in Elbridge in 1973.
“This was not just their home base,” Hochul said. “This was the home where their heart was, and they were working really hard to find a way to work with the state government to make it work out. … That’s why there are jobs that are being saved.”
Hochul said Tessy’s expansion won’t just help the company and its employees, but Central New York as a whole.
“There’s a ripple effect when you make the decision to stay,” she said. “There’s a whole economy and ecosystem that benefits from that.”
