The 2025 Business Guide we’re working on is a significant one — it marks the end of the very first quarter of the 21st. century (or the beginning of the second quarter).
It was not too long ago — actually it was about 25 years ago — that we were all concerned with the Y2K crisis, that the Euro was introduced as the common currency to the many European countries and that the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton was coming to a conclusion — not to mention the fever of the dotcom bubble, which dominated the news for several years until it “burst” in 2001-2002.
At the time, some of the largest employers in Oswego County were Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (listed in the 2000 Business Guide as having 1,300 full time employees, the county’s largest private employer), Alcan Aluminum Corp. (with 750 employees), Sealright (650), Nestle Chocolate Confections (600) and Metal Transportation Systems (423).
Also on the list were A. L. Lee Memorial Hospital (with 383 employees), Oswego Wire (378), Owens Brockway (275), and Agrilink (formerly known as Birds Eye), which had 240 employees at the time.
A few other companies listed in the 2000 Business Guide included:
• Crysteel Manufacturing (80 employees)
• Sithe Northeast Independent State (63)
• Oswego Wire (133)
• International Paper Co.
• The Fulton Newspapers (37)
Most of these companies are no longer here or have changed hands or names. Alcan is now Novelis, and Sithe Energy is Luminant Independent Power Plant, for example. Some just went out of business (A. L. Lee Memorial Hospital, Oswego Wire, for example) or decided not to do business in the region (Crysteel Manufacturing and Nestle Chocolate, among others).
One of the nice things about the Business Guide, which we’re now publishing for the 31st straight year, is that it provides a photograph of the region at a particular time — it shows what companies are doing business locally, what they do and who are behind them.
It’s a great project and we’re proud to publish such a great resource material
The 2025 Business Guide is coming along pretty well — like in the past, it will bring detailed information of nearly 300 of the largest employers in the region — Oswego, Onondaga, Cayuga and Jefferson counties.
Most of the names are familiar — Oswego Health, Burritt Motors, Fulton Tool, Felix Schoeller North America, Fulton Savings Bank and others. However, there is a long list of companies that are fairly new to the local scene. I estimate that about 20% to 30% of the businesses listed this year were not on the 2000 list . Some of them:
• Think Variant Inc.
• Daldrop SBB
• EJ Co, Inc.
• Elemental Management
• Mackenzie-Childs
• Irby
• Teti Bakery
• Fresh Food Group
The list goes on and on.
Putting the Business Guide together takes a lot of work. We literally touch base with hundreds of businesses in the region. We check employment figures, names of principals, details abut what they do and many other details. But it’s a rewarding project. It shows a slice of the local economy in a given time.
We welcome companies to place advertisements in the publication. It’s a bargain (literally) and we even do the design work at no charge. Having an ad is a great way to showcase their products, services and their presence in the region.
We have a large readership , estimated at 20,000. We distribute the guide widely and Operation Oswego County includes it in its packet of information it sends to prospective companies contemplating moving to the region.
Wagner Dotto is the editor and publisher of Oswego County Business Magazine.
