Wielding print ads rather than ploughshares, Westchester County officials have turned to “economic gardening” to uncover entrepreneurs already operating within the county and connect them to resources and nonprofit partners that can help their small and mid-size businesses grow.
Launched by the county Office of Economic Development, the ad campaign follows the office”™s 18-month-old marketing campaign to promote the county”™s abundance of “intellectual capital” available to businesses locating here. That was followed by the county”™s regional collaborations in NY BioHud Valley, an effort to build a life sciences industry cluster in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley, and the recently launched Hudson Valley Food and Beverage Alliance.
Announcing the new campaign in the tasting room at Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. in the town of Greenburgh, Laurence Gottlieb, the county”™s economic development director, said the ads are aimed at “the people who are off our radar screens” within Westchester and do not join in the county”™s business groups and their events.
Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino pointed to the owner and brewmaster at Captain Lawrence Brewing Co., Scott Vaccaro, as an example of the entrepreneurship the county wants to cultivate. Vaccaro started his business 17 years ago with a five-gallon batch of beer brewed in his kitchen, “and now look at what you have: an empire,” said Astorino. Captain Lawrence has been ranked among the top 50 breweries in the U.S. by an online site dedicated to craft beers.
Vaccaro in 2011 more than doubled his brewery space and increased its brewing capacity fivefold when he moved the business from Pleasantville to vacant industrial space at 444 Saw Mill River Road in Elmsford.
The brewer will be among eight successful business leaders in the county featured in the ad campaign. Others include Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., the state”™s largest biotech employer, and Daniel E. Magnus, the area”™s franchise developer for the national Elevation Burger chain.
The campaign made its debut in Grow, a county supplement in the April issue of Westchester Magazine.
