Bystronic President Speaks Out On Leaving Hauppauge

Bystronic Inc., a manufacturing services and software provider, is relocating its North American headquarters from Hauppauge to the Chicago area. 

Bystronic announced it has broken ground on at new 48,300 square-foot facility in the greater Chicago area of Elgin, Ill. in late January. President Robert St. Aubin said the move is based on the company providing better service to its customers, and not in any way on Long Island's business environment. 

"In a recent analysis of sales, we found 50 percent of our customer base is within a 500-mile radius of the city of Chicago," St. Aubin said.  

Bystronic, a Swiss company that provides application-oriented and services for laser and waterjet cutting, began its North American operations in Hauppauge nearly 20 years ago, the president said. 

"It’s very difficult for Long Island to compete with a big section of the country. It’s not the [manufacturing] base has come or gone, frankly it was never there," St. Aubin said. 

The company quickly outgrew its first home, and moved into its second and current location at 185 Commerce Drive in the Hauppauge industrial park. It currently employs approximately 30 employees, largely in sales department, as St. Aubin said the North American facilities do not manufacture any machines within, but imports for its clientele. 

"We’ve been very happy in Hauppauge, the business climate has been good. Everything about it has been very good," the president said. 

The company's new Illinois facilities will be build-to-suit building complete with a 10,000 square-foot office, a 14,000 square-foot show room and a 24,300 square-foot spare parts and logistics area.  The new building will be the marketing, sales and training headquarters for North America, consolidating its current Chicago technical support center.  St. Aubin said its expected to be completed within 6-8 months with a grand opening scheduled for October 2010. 

For Bystronic's Hauppauge employees, those in management positions, or approximately 20 percent, are expected to relocated out to Chicago.  The secretarial and office staff will be forced to look for new jobs. 

"We’re not moving away form anything, we’re moving to something," said St. Aubin.