Assemblyman Steve Hawley held a business tour on Thursday afternoon at Oxbo International, located in Byron on Batavia Byron Road.
“They highlight the many different types of enterprises throughout the assembly district and throughout NYS,” says Hawley.
“Agriculture is not only the number one industry/employer in this area, not just farming, the economy is really dependent on the success of agriculture and agriculture related businesses, and this is a prime example.”
Headquartered in Roosendaal, Netherlands, Oxbo has manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Brazil
Locally, Oxbo International in Byron employs 140 people. They currently employ 1200 people globally. They recently acquired H&S Manufacturing in Wisconsin in June. Oxbo acquires H&S Manufacturing – Oxbo International
In Byron it all started in 1969 when Byron Enterprises obtained a patent for the Corn head and turned into Byron Equipment. A Corn head is an implement that attaches to a harvester and pulls corn from the field and separates the corn cut from the stalk and leaves. Link to history At Oxbo, we are Optimizing farming together – About Us. The company also makes the world’s only pea combine.
Plant Manager Chris Chadbourne says everything they build is to order in Byron.
“We physically don’t have the room to store all the work in process, (making one machine at a time) it allows us to produce a machine a lot quicker being able to go with one piece at a time. We might pay for that in terms of inefficiencies in our fabrication, but we start gaining ground in our weld operation. By the time we hit assembly, the guy is turning around and the next piece he needs is right there and that’s how we keep things moving through the line, it’s a very efficient process for how we build equipment,” says Chadbourne.
With supply chain issues with hydraulics and electronics the turnaround is 6 months to a year.
“We’ve been able to finagle our way around because of our international reach in Europe and we have more purchasing power than if we were just here in WNY.”
Chadbourne moved to the area with his wife from New Hampshire 22 years ago. He says his wife took a temporary job at Oxbo in the Accounting Office. Chadbourne started as a Production Supervisor 6 years ago after years of working at a foundry.
Oxbo International has worked hard with the help of the state and county to continue to have access to employees who are tech savvy and understand how things function and work together. They work with BOCES, participate in job co-ops, job shadowing and work with programs at Alfred State.
“We continue to try and recruit folks from a technical nature who can understand and read schematics. The equipment we make is simplistic in what it does, but not simplistic on how it acts and what it does in the field. There is a lot of technology that goes into these machines, and they can do an awful lot of things from the cab of the machine.”
Hawley says Oxbo International should be viewed as a regional economic development no matter where they are located in the state.
“It’s an American dream, long hours, taking risks, borrowing money with no idea that you will be successful with no guarantees, but in this case, doing those type of things will bring positive results, not just for the founders, but for everyone else who is employed here and spends money in the community,” says Hawley.