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LOCAL IDA: Local investors seek help taking over TAM

By Joyce Miles

The prospective new owner of TAM Ceramics in the Town of Niagara is seeking aid and tax incentives from Niagara County to complete its acquisition.

Tam Ceramics Group of NY LLC, is bidding to take over the manufacturing facility from All American Holdings, which bought it a couple years ago and has since decided its products don’t fit All American’s core business.

If All American doesn’t have a buyer, it likely will shut down the plant and put 55 people out of work, TAM Ceramics Group President George Bilkey said.

Instead, Bilkey and his partners, Alfonse Muto and Jerome Williams, both of Lewiston, see an opportunity to grow TAM’s existing business and branch out into renewable energy materials production.

Already, Bilkey said, TAM has contracts with several universities, the U.S. military, NATO and several European governments to research and develop ceramic materials for use in bridge building, space heating, solar and wind power delivery and fuel cells.

TAM Ceramics Group is asking the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency for a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement providing sales, mortgage and property tax exemptions; the property’s current assessed value is $1.5 million.

The group also is seeking a $400,000 loan from the IDA-controlled Niagara County Development Corp. and, separately, transfer of an existing hydroelectric power allocation from New York Power Authority.

The PILOT application indicates the group will purchase the buildings and machinery/equipment for $4 million and invest $1 million working capital in the facility to increase product sales.

All American Holdings and Bilkey, a ceramic engineer, got the more-than-100-year-old business turned around after prior owner Ferro “(ran it) into the ground” and closed it in 2007, Bilkey said. TAM’s business doubled in 2008, and in 2009, it invented “fiber free” potassium titanate, a material used in brake pads that replaces an asbestos-based form.

TAM’s existing products, zirconia, zircon and titantes, end up in golf clubs, Glock pistols, Bosch tools, airplane turbines and Corning manufacturing equipment, Bilkey said. Meanwhile, it’s researching and developing renewable energy materials and nanomaterials (blast-proof cements and solders). Current green energy-related pursuits include conversion of waste heat to electricity; developing supercapacitor materials to hold wind and solar power on a grid; hydrogen generation for fuel cells; and developing high-efficiency micro furnaces.

“We’re talking big, big dollars, huge, huge opportunities for the facility,” Bilkey said.

The PILOT application forecasts TAM will add 25 new manufacturing and engineering jobs within three years. To handle existing business, Bilkey said, it’s looking to add eight jobs within 30 days.

TAM already has a PILOT agreement with Niagara County, transferred from Ferro, that’s good for another two years, according to IDA assistant director Lawrence Witul. A hearing on the request will be held at 4 p.m. March 8 at Niagara Town Hall.

We are honored to announce that TAM Ceramics is being awarded 2011 Business of the Year from The Niagara USA Chamber.

VISIT FIBER-FREE POTASSIUM TITANATE (FR) PAGE
DOWNLOAD FIBER-FREE POTASSIUM TITANATE (FR) BROCHURE

Please contact customer.service@tamceramics.com if you have any questions about this, or any, product.

Original Buffalo News article HERE

By Matt Glynn
Published:July 31, 2010, 12:00 AM
Updated: August 1, 2010, 08:42 AM
NEWS BUSINESS REPORTER

After completing a deal that put the company in the hands of local ownership, TAM Ceramics in the Town of Niagara is working on plans to add jobs.

Local investors secured financial support from various sources, including a $400,000 grant from Empire State Development Corp., to acquire TAM’s assets from All- American Holdings in Atlanta. The total value of the deal was estimated at $6 million.

Empire State Development said that grant, plus another one the agency recently awarded to a fire truck plant reopening in Hamburg, reflect its push to bolster manufacturing jobs.

“Both are desirable in that sense,” said Katie Krawczyk, upstate direct of public affairs for Empire State Development. “Both have a history here.”

Empire State Development said TAM, a maker of ceramic powders, was considered at risk of shutting down under its previous owner. The grant helped the new ownership team acquire TAM’s assets and secure the plant’s 50 jobs, Krawczyk said. The company plans to add 25 jobs by 2013, with average pay of $45,000 a year.

In addition to the $400,000 grant, TAM’s new owners covered the acquisition costs through personal assets and a term loan and line of credit from First Niagara Bank, along with a loan of $400,000 from the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency.

TAM has operated on Hyde Park Boulevard since 1906 and has undergone ownership changes over time. The new owners plan to allow companies in the renewable energy industry to use excess building space and equipment, forming a renewable energy incubator complex, according to Empire State Development. The company will also fund new product research at Clarkson University, University at Buffalo and Alfred University.

Empire State Development recently provided a grant for another local venture in a situation similar to TAM’s. The agency gave $400,000 to help reopen a Hamburg fire truck manufacturing plant, now called E-One, that had closed under American LaFrance’s ownership.

The fire truck plant was revived under the direction of one of the founders of the R. D. Murray fire truck company that eventually was acquired by American LaFrance. It has hired about 15 employees and expects the total to grow to between 20 to 25 employees.

The state agency is keen on supporting manufacturing ventures that meet its criteria to shore up the state’s job base in that sector, Krawczyk said. Manufacturing jobs tend to be higher paying, creating more of a payoff when they are retained or added.

But it is also a sector that has suffered extensive losses. Buffalo Niagara had 47,700 manufacturing jobs in June, down 43 percent from 10 years earlier, according to the state Department of Labor. The annual average total of manufacturing jobs has fallen each year since 1995.

Before awarding its grants, Empire State Development scrutinizes a project’s financials, taking into account what other sources the owner is drawing upon, how much of the owner’s own funds are going into the project, and the outlook for job creation, Krawczyk said. The amount of the grants vary depending on the factors.

Empire State Development also provided financial support to Globe Specialty Metals when it revived a silicon plant in Niagara Falls, Krawczyk said.