New York Pension Fund Invests in Local Printer Manufacturer

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New York Pension Fund Invests in Local Printer Manufacturer

CognitiveTPG receives $2.5 million from program

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, left, gets a demonstration of a dual mode printer from Kyle Turner, the chief executive officer of CognitiveTPG, and Project Engineer Bill Schmid, right, Tuesday morning in Ithaca. Dinapoli announced that the state pension fund is investing $2.5 million in the company that makes point-of-sale printers

ITHACA — State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was in Tompkins County on Tuesday to announce the state pension fund has invested $2.5 million in CognitiveTPG, an Ithaca-based maker of receipt and barcode printers.

DiNapoli, who oversees the $150.6 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, made the announcement at the company’s headquarters at the South Hill Business Campus on Danby Road.

The investment was made through DeltaPoint Capital Management, a Rochester investment firm, which has become the controlling owner of CognitiveTPG. ATSI Holdings is the former owner.

The move comes as part of the comptroller’s In-State Private Equity Program, which invests a small portion of its funds in New York companies. More than $1 billion has been committed to the program since it began in 2001, with $615 million invested in 224 companies. DiNapoli said $19 million has been invested in four companies in Tompkins County since he took office in 2007. Statewide, the investments have generated 3,000 jobs, he said.

The comptroller’s office relies on private investment companies such as DeltaPoint to screen prospective companies, DiNapoli said. Cognitive is a “good bet,” with a track record and a clear business plan, and a commitment to New York, he added.

Cognitive will now be able to create more product lines, President and Chief Executive Officer Kyle Turner said. It also will add to its financial staff and make Ithaca its official corporate headquarters.
Born in Tompkins

Cognitive’s history mirrors that of many manufacturing companies in New York, tracing its roots to NCR Corp., which opened the South Hill facility in 1956 and moved the design and production of its thermal printers there in 1972. At one point, it was one of Tompkins County’s largest employers and filled the four-story facility.

But while many manufacturing companies left New York, CognitiveTPG has stayed on.

Now, it has about 32 people on-site, with several more in sales offices in the Chicago area. Manufacturing is done there as well, though some assembly is performed on South Hill. The bulk of the work done in Ithaca includes design, engineering, quality control, marketing and finance.

“You can always try to relocate a company, but if you lose all the knowledge in the process, you don’t have the company,” Turner said. “Out of our tribal knowledge and a lot of our investment in people who’ve been here decades, it’d be too big a risk to try to move it somewhere else.”
Changing hands

NCR sold the Ithaca operations to Axiohm Transaction Solutions in 1994. Axiohm later reorganized and, in 2003, sold the subsidiary that included the Ithaca operations to local investors, which changed its name to ATSI Holdings, according to the company’s website. Cognitive Solutions and TPG were subsidiaries, which combined brands in 2007.

The company’s point-of-sale products print receipts at retailers — from big-box stores to restaurants and coffee shops. Some printers use adhesive paper for use on such things as pizza-delivery boxes. Other printers are used in health care, such as for prescription bottles at pharmacies or hospital wristbands. One end-user prints labels for paint cans specifying the color inside.

Representatives of DeltaPoint said CognitiveTPG is a relatively small part of the printer industry, with Epson, also known for its consumer printers, the major maker. But Cognitive’s strength is a reputation for quality and a willingness to customize for customers’ needs, said DeltaPoint Vice President Jason Hall.

“They’re good at it, and they’re willing to do it,” he said.

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October 2, 2012 at 8:22 AM