On Tuesday, May 22, the Averell Harriman International Trade Awards will be presented to 10 Hudson Valley companies that have brought international business to our region. In this last of a three-part series, we profile the final four honorees:
* SP Industries, Gardiner, Ulster County, and J&J Log & Lumber Corporation, Dover Plains, Dutchess County, were selected as co-recipients of theExporter of the Year award (under $10 million in sales).
* Nokia, whose White Plains, Westchester County, facility represents a major investment by a foreign company in the Hudson Valley, will be recognized as Foreign Direct Investment Company of the Year.
* Symbio Technologies of New Rochelle, Westchester County, is the recipient of the “New to International” award.
The winners will be honored at Abigail Kirsch”™s Tappan House in Tarrytown. The evening begins with a trade show and networking event, followed by dinner and the awards presentation. For information, call Amy Allen at (914) 948-1168 or visit www.Westchester.org.
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SP INDUSTRIES, Gardiner
SP Industries has been manufacturing specialty glassware and equipment for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, education and industrial markets since 1953. Products are sold under well-known, leading brand names.
VirTis was the first product the company manufactured and is known throughout the world. It is a configure-to-order laboratory, research and production scale freeze-drying system.
SP says its VirTis system is a world leader in freeze-drying technology. The company continues to enhance its most-recognized product to advance the application of lyophilization when the need to separate, concentrate, dry and process materials is demanded.
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Other products produced by SP Industries include:
Wilmed LabGlass: branded glass products for laboratory glassware, sample tubes and accessories, spectroscopy supplies and custom glassware.    FTS System: products include freeze-dryers from benchtop to state-of-the-art research and development systems.
Hotpack: under-counter and floor model glassware washers, glassware dryers, tissue culture incubators, vacuum ovens, stability chambers and autoclaves.
Hull freeze-drying systems (lyophilizers): engineered and manufactured to pharmaceutical cGMP standards.
SP Industries has been exporting lyophilizers, homogenizers, fermenters and other life-science-related equipment for more than 40 years. The company has a large installed base of research, pilot and production equipment on all continents, even shipping units for use in Antarctica and in space.
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NOKIA, White Plains
Nokia”™s decision to establish a presence in the New York metropolitan area began in 2004.
After purchasing the 7-acre site in Harrison on Corporate Park Drive, Nokia embraced the opportunity to redesign the 102,000-square-foot building from the ground up, seeking to manifest the company”™s innovation and culture through the physical space. The working areas are designed to be transparent and open, enhancing collaboration and bringing the many working teams together. Aesthetically, the interior design embraces the surrounding nature and seeks to highlight natural elements and materials. Architecturally, the reflective glass building mirrors the surrounding natural setting.
Nokia reused many of the building materials (such as steel and concrete) from the previous structure on the site, which needed to be completely renovated due to the presence of asbestos. The resulting building is energy efficient and uses many natural materials to create a vibrant and productive work environment.
There are currently 230 people employed in White Plains, with plans to grow to more than 350 workers by the end of 2007. A current expansion of the work spaces in the building is under way to accommodate this new growth.
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Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, was appointed president and CEO in June 2006. Kallasvuo has been with Nokia since 1980, first acting in the capacity of corporate counsel.
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SYMBIO TECHNOLOGIES, New Rochelle
Remember the days when computers were giant mainframes housed in garage-sized rooms at big companies? There may be a lesson in that model ”“ certainly a market, as Symbio Technologies has discovered. Going against the grain of “high-tech,” Symbio looked backward to solve a problem experienced by many companies: the expense and hassle of servicing their employees”™ personal computers. Symbio”™s solution: diskless “thin clients,” terminal-like replacements for PCs that link to a central server.
“We are developers and specialists in stateless computing,” said company CFO Lewis Tischler. “The PC gave the power to the individual. This is a way to allow central administrators to control the network in a more efficient manner. If an upgrade is needed, it”™s loaded once.” Besides saving on administrative and maintenance costs, the thin clients also are a green alternative, using a fraction of the electricity of a PC ”“ 5 watts as compared to 175 watts for a PC
The 5-year-old company was the brainchild of founders Gideon Romm and Roger del Russo, who, in the course of researching alternatives to the PC, came across the old mainframe concept, which is still used in the medical sector. The company”™s business took off when it introduced its star product, the symbient boot appliance. This device replaces the PC”™s internal boot with an external source that boots up a thin client and directs it to the proper server.
The company began selling its “Symbient Solution” ”“ the boot appliance along with a terminal (whose manufacture is outsourced) ”“ overseas three years ago and has hit gold, with 30 percent to 35 percent of its sales now outside the U.S., said Tischler.
While a few of its clients are small operations, the product is designed for companies with 10 or more computer users and “scales up into the thousands,” said Tischler, noting that the firm is currently talking with the federal government. He said that the savings on hardware costs alone are covered within a year after purchasing a Symbient system.
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J&J LOG AND LUMBER CORP., Dover Plains
Owned by Randolph Williams, son of James and Joan Williams, who founded the company in 1968, J&J Log and Lumber Corp. is a family-owned business in Dover Plains that ships out more than 25 million board feet of lumber a year to furniture, flooring and cabinetry makers around the world. The manufacturer of North American hardwood lumber is among the country”™s top 20 exporters of such products. It purchases most of its timber from private landowners, who are all within a 100-mile radius of Dover Plains. The logs are sawed at the company”™s enormous mill and dried in the many kilns at the facility.
Quality, however, is more important than quantity. “Hands-on” quality control is present at every stage of the process, from downing the standing timber, cutting the logs into lumber at the saw mill, drying it in the kiln, inspecting the finished product, to shipping it. Its customer base may span the globe, but that doesn”™t change the reliance on the old-fashioned values of quality, integrity and long-term relationships as the building blocks of success. Because each board is processed at the facility, the company, which has 75 employees, can guarantee a high level of quality. It also utilizes a second mill in Pine Plains, which is designed to cut the boards into smaller, more specialized pieces.
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J&J Log and Lumber started out exporting lumber to Europe, but the rise of the global economy and the breakneck pace of economic growth in China in particular have caused its market to expand to the Far East, where there is huge demand. Being able to deliver on large volumes is yet another ingredient in the company”™s success: “It”™s a pretty guaranteed commodity,” said employee Christine Franks, who is also the owner”™s niece. “A large furniture company in Italy can depend on us for 20 containers of white oak in a year.”
The supply reflects the fact that there”™s a lot more hardwood forest in the Northeast than there was a century ago.
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