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Several Companies have chosen Elmira for back office operations/customer service centers

By George Miner
STEG
New York Real Estate Journal
February 29-March 13, 2000

Elmira has proven to be fertile ground for back office operations. Because of Chemung County's inexpensive office space and an abundant skilled workforce, several companies have chosen Elmira as the home for their customer service centers. For example, company officials at Travelers Insurance, Exotrope Internet Services, Orthstar Inc. and World Kitchen, Inc., have stated that Elmira exceeded their expectations in recruiting, training, and retaining workers, and for being a low-cost area for establishing a service center.

Travelers Insurance provides a wide range of support to independent insurance agencies. When they located their new service center in Elmira, they recruited 200 employees who provide insurance policy renewal processing, customer service billing, and endorsement insurance. Because of the high level of skills and technical training required, Mary Swan, director of the Service Center, expected employee attrition to be 20-30 percent. Instead, the company found it to be below 10 percent.

The Elmira community helped the company to secure training grants from New York’s Empire State Development Corporation, as well as utility discounts and tax credits through the Elmira Economic Development Zone (EDZ). The City of Elmira charged a below-market sum to rent newly renovated office space, along with discounted parking in an adjacent city-owned garage.

World Kitchen Inc., formerly Corning Consumer Products Company, selected the Airport Corporate Park in Big Flats/Elmira as the home for its new corporate headquarters. Severing the business from Corning Incorporated required the new company to replace 100 administrative and support personnel; they found these job applicants readily available in the Elmira area. Peter Campanella, president and CEO said, "This site was chosen over competing sites because of its accessibility to employees and customers and because it offers room for expansion."

World Kitchen posted $800 million in sales in 1999, and acquired two major house wares companies, EKCO and General House Wares. The company’s headquarters and service center has swelled to more than 300 employees from the original 150. World Kitchen received a $500,000 capital grant from Empire State Development to relocate and expand in Big Flats, as well as extensive EDZ tax credits. Chemung County provided an aggressive 15-year property tax abatement program, and donated 15 acres of land in the Airport Corporate Park.

Recognizing Elmira’s low-cost business environment and available labor pool, Exotrope Internet Services selected Elmira as the home for its corporate headquarters. Exotrope has developed a pornography filtering system, which is sold to schools, governments and families internationally. Exotrope has several new search engine products coming out in 2000, including EdNet and FaithNet, which protect individuals from unwanted internet information. The company currently employs 100 workers. Michael Stephani, president & CEO, said, "We expect 100 percent growth in our staff every six months. That goal should be easy to meet."

To provide space for businesses like Exotrope, Elmira banks and public programs provided a local developer with low cost funds and grants to redevelop a 40,000-square-foot, four-story vacant department store into "Class A" office space. Rent ($10 per square foot, all-inclusive) is a fraction of rents in other communities. The community also assisted Exotrope in securing a substantial grant from New York State to help capitalize this fledgling company’s capital requirements.

Still, Elmira is ready for more back office operations! The community has more than 200,000 square feet of office space available at rents from $5.00 per square foot to $10.00 per square foot. In addition, recent closings and layoffs at four companies released more than 2,000 workers into the labor market in 1999-2000, 900 of whom were directly employed in customer service jobs.

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