Furniture accounting office moves to Pike

Sixteen jobs returning from India to Milford area in what officials say could become a business trend Milford — The Pike County Economic Development Authority last Thursday announced that Empire Office, the nation’s largest office furniture dealership, has relocated its accounting department to Milford. The new operation, located in the Milford Professional Park in Dingman Township, already employs 16 people and opened on September 15. This department had previously been outsourced from New York City to India. The company was able to locate most of the staffing for the new operation already residing in Pike County Company principal, Michael Pfaeffle, already familiar with the area from his family’s vacation home in Dingmans Ferry, relocated to Pike County in January. He recommended that the Manhattan-based company consider Pike County. The Pike County Economic Development Authority assisted the company with their site selection process and brought together a team to assist the company as it sought local talent to staff the facility. The Pike County Workforce Development Agency and the PCEDA spread the word about the job openings and provided the company with avenues to advertise them. Pike County Light and Power and the PCEDA made space available in their offices for the company to interview prospective employees. Commissioner Harry Forbes even got in on the action, personally showing a space to the company that the county was vacating. PCEDA also assisted the company in finding local resources to assist them as they brought 10 individuals from India to train the new employees and oversee the smooth transition of operations to the new office in Milford, over a period of approximately six weeks. Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, Rich Caridi, welcomed the company to Pike County, saying, “We’re proud to be the recipient of jobs returning to the U. S., and we’re proud that a high quality company like Empire Office chose Pike County as the place to bring them home.” “Empire’s move to Milford is a huge success story and we are most grateful for its decision to invest in our community,” added Dave Farrington, Chairman of the authority. “Pike County has always been a terrific location to live and work. Now, it’s also become a great destination to start or move a business.” “In today’s economic climate, businesses need to be more competitive and cost efficient than ever before. Historically, Empire Office Inc. has been able to stay ahead of the curve by predicting trends and we now believe that bringing jobs back to the United States makes good sense. In the past, we learned how to use technology to make international outsourcing very effective - but it was not without its drawbacks; especially in terms of customer service. said Peter Gaslow, President and CEO of Empire Office. Pfaeffle said the move back to the US was prompted by comments from clients, mostly banks and insurance companies who are Fortune 500 companies. “There are language issues and cultural differences. A customer might use a humorous figure of speech, that had no meaning to someone in India. We want our customers to be comfortable.” he explained. “Pike County’s demographic profile was a perfect fit for our back-office operation. It is close enough to NYC that we can share people at the management level and it offers talented people at competitive salaries. The resultant savings gets passed along to our customers and we grow - both in and out of the city. It’s a winning situation for everybody,” Gaslow said.