National Geographic named Buffalo Niagara the third best food city in the entire world. But it’s not just our restaurants that deserve the acclaim – it’s also our food and beverage processing and agribusiness industries that are leading the way. Buffalo Niagara boasts the geographic location, support resources, and track record of success to support yourfood processing expansion.
The last few weeks have been quite busy throughout Western New York, and for our team at Invest Buffalo Niagara. Our team recently attended or participated in the 43North Finals, Retool WNY Conference, and New York State’s Innovation Summit. The Invest Buffalo Niagara team was at each event, rooting on the exciting new opportunities, companies, and innovations making their home right here. Here’s a few of the team’s takeaways from each event and why you don’t want to miss them next year!
On August 9, President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, investing more than $50 billion into research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the United States. Semiconductor chips are in, well, everything nowadays - computers, iPhones, medical devices, cars, and more. Currently, American companies only produce about 10% of the world’s semiconductor chips and none of the world’s most advanced, according to whitehouse.gov. The legislation is intended to spur and incentivize domestic manufacturing - and it could have an impact in Buffalo Niagara soon.
Launch NY’s Emerging Cleantech Opportunity (ECO) Incubator, one of New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) six designated incubators across the state, connects up-and-coming cleantech companies with Launch NY’s local Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR), a national network of industry experts, and NYSERDA’s statewide EIR program to help achieve key milestones and accelerate time to market for new innovations.
Since 1999, Invest Buffalo Niagara has assisted 414 businesses expand or startup in the region, attracting or retaining 45,528 jobs and $6.09 billion in capital investment. Here's a look at two of our 65 advanced business services past wins and where they are now.
Buffalo Niagara has a rich history of manufacturing success. As an important industry in our economy, manufacturing companies have a plethora of resources available in our region to help their manufacturing companies grow and evolve. The Shift program through Buffalo Manufacturing Works is one of those great programs.
Economic Gardening is an economic development program focused on helping Second Stage companies grow. Traditional economic development focuses on recruiting companies to come to town (economic hunting). This program focuses on growing local companies (economic gardening).
While travel over the Can-Am border remains restricted, the Toronto Blue Jays have decided to call downtown Buffalo their home for the time being. This new American headquarters for the Blue Jays allows for easier travel between cities and a home base for its players.
The first stage of business expansion planning we focus on with Canadians is what we call “cross border due diligence”. This consists of meeting with experts in various fields to discuss best practices and tips for setting up your U.S. facility. If you are still not able or comfortable traveling the border, that’s totally fine.Lots can be accomplished from your Canadian headquarters. Here’s a few things you can work on for your U.S. expansion from the comfort of your virtual office (you won’t even need to change out of your pajamas!)
Buffalo Niagara’s proximity to the Canadian border sometimes makes it easy to forget our communities are in separate countries as we visit, shop, and attend sporting events across the border with relative ease. However, as Canadian business owners consider Buffalo Niagara for U.S. expansion, it is important to remember there are many HR differences between our two countries. Understanding these differences is key to finding and retaining good talent and successfully running operations on both sides of the border. We cover many of these differences and other HR related topics in our Canadian Guide to Business Expansion Vol. 3: Workforce and Workplace but I thought I’d highlight a few of the major differences between HR in the U.S. and Canada below.
Frank Ralphs, a company out of Montreal, manufactures composite panels used predominantly in the rail industry as well as other industrial applications. Companies in the rail industry find that having a “Made in the U.S.A.” label can be beneficial to growing their business and sales in the U.S. There are many opportunities for U.S. government contracts for public transit projects. Frank Ralphs was interested in capturing more of this business and adding final assembly in the U.S. to their offerings.
Our region has a lot of things to boast about (like our 9-3 Buffalo Bills), but what you may not know about the region is that it is a great location for companies in the Agribusiness sector. I thought I would run through some of the things you may not know that makes Western New York (WNY) the right choice for your food processing company.
Wouldn’t it be nice to lower your cost of doing business? Wouldn’t it be even nicer if you didn’t have to do anything special to get these costs lowered?
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About Us
Founded in 1999, Invest Buffalo Niagara represents the eight counties of Western New York. We are the region’s nonprofit, privately funded economic development organization focused on job creation.
