Costanzo's Bakery plans expansion, will add 20 jobs

Costanzo's will build a $1 million addition to its Cheektowaga bakery and add up to 20 jobs by the end of the year to make more rolls for Wal-Mart, Sysco and other national contracts. The privately owned business will add 20,000-square-feet to its plant on the corner of Innsbruck Drive and Union Road. The bakery produces about 180,000 rolls a day, primarily 12- and 8-inch sub rolls. The Cheektowaga business got a contract last year to supply Wal-Mart supercenters. Rolls are trucked by a common carrier to Gary, Ind., where Wal-Mart dispatches cases to its regional distribution centers. Company president Angelo Costanzo said he has enough manufacturing capacity to serve existing contracts, but wants to expand the plant to prepare for future growth. The bakery will add a third production shift, which will require more employees. "We're putting in the capacity so we can supply our customers as new orders come in. You can't tell your new customers that they'll have to wait 6 to 8 months for their rolls while you put in new equipment," said Costanzo, who took over the 70-year-old family bakery from his father in 1977. The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is expected to vote today on a $342,236 tax abatement package for the expansion. Costanzo's would receive a $290,986 property tax break, which applies only to the building addition, spread over 15 years, and $51,250 of sales tax and mortgage recording tax breaks. "These are the types of projects we are looking to nurture. I think this is where our growth opportunities are in Erie County, taking small businesses and nurturing them. We're not going to get the IBM's and the Dell's," Erie County Executive Joel Giambra said. Giambra was in full re-election campaign mode touring the bakery Tuesday, shaking hands with local customers who stopped in to purchase rolls and doughnuts. The county executive has focused more on business retention toward the end of his first term. Although Giambra said he remains behind the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise. The BNE has spent $3 million of county money on business attraction and marketing programs, but had little impact on the region's economy. The Buffalo-Niagara Falls metro area lost 12,600 jobs in the last three years, dropping from 561,400 in May 2000 to 548,800 jobs this May. "I think they've done a fairly dismal job," Dan Ward, the Democratic candidate for county executive, said about the BNE. "They set a lofty goal of 50,000 new jobs and we all bought into it. But I have yet to see anything that they've created." Ward said he is not prepared to call the amount of county money spent on the public-private business marketing program "inappropriate," but believes there should be more accountability for how the nonprofit group spends the money. "The Republicans are always saying you don't throw money at a problem. But this seems to be the same situation, they haven't held anybody accountable," Ward said. Giambra said the county needs to focus on retention as the BNE "re-brands" the region. He expects the BNE to have more success with business attraction as the national economy rebounds. "The economic conditions nationally require us to spend more time on existing businesses, because there are not a lot of companies out there nationally looking to expand or relocate," the county executive said. Costanzo's employs 55 people making about 20 different Italian bread and roll products. The company's annual sales are in the $12 to $15 million range. Costanzo's also makes a small amount of doughnuts which it sells to local customers from the front of its shop. The bulk of the businesses is roll production, which is highly automated. Flour moves on long conveyors through a baking and cooling process until being bagged and cased by employees. Costanzo said the company is known for quality. "If you go out on the national market, our prices are a little bit higher than everybody else," he said. "It's the quality, that's how we win contracts. When we went to Wal-Mart, we served them a roll that had been frozen for two months. And they thought it was fresh."