Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the March 3, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
On the Move
For nearly 25 years Thomas Judge has been preparing tax returns for
small businesses. And right in the middle of the tax season, in late
February when his lease ran out, he moved from 168 Franklin Corner
Road to 9 Princess Road.
That doesn’t faze Judge, who is also in the middle of a transition
from a parent company that is based in California to one that is based
in France – two business cultures that don’t automatically mesh well.
The new owner, Fiducial, is a privately held firm, headquartered in
France with 6,500 employees worldwide serving 185,000 clients. From
its Park Avenue North American headquarters it administers just under
600 franchises in the United States and Canada, plus 25 company-owned
stores and a processing center in Columbia, Maryland. There are 10
similar franchisees under various names within 50 miles of Princeton,
and Fiducial is still buying.
Soon after Judge opened his business in 1980, he took out a franchise
with an Illinois-based accountant who had invented an efficient system
that allows his company to handle a large number of clients with not
as many staffers. A press release lauds the current "complete package
of services – from advanced systems, products, procedures, web-based
applications and processing centers – to the depth of management
experience and collective knowledge of the network," but just how this
is accomplished is a trade secret.
Judge’s first franchiser went through various changes and eventually
turned into Century Small Business Solutions. When Fiducial began its
"roll-up" of U.S. accounting firms in 1999, it bought Century Small
Business Solutions from C-Biz the following year. Now Fiducial is the
13th largest accounting firm in the world and the ninth largest in the
United States.
Overall, says Judge, he has no problems with the franchise and relies
on the systems it provides. But there have been some problems in the
transition, partly because the concept of independent franchise owners
was new to the French management. "I head up a recently formed
franchisee/franchiser relations committee, and we are trying to smooth
the ruffled feathers," says Judge. An ombudsman has been appointed,
who has earned the trust of both the French management and the
American owners.
"Now we think we have blended the four entities and are going to
promote the Fiducial name," says Judge, noting that the legacy firms,
such as his, are allowed to keep their trade names. The Fiducial name
will be bold, in black, and the individual company names (such as
Century Small Business Solutions) will be underneath in light gray. A
television ad campaign begins soon.
Judge, 53, is the son of a sales manager for the Singer sewing machine
company. He was born in Toronto and moved to New Jersey when he was in
high school and went to Rutgers College, attending night classes. He
and his wife, Effie, have a son and daughter, both grown. Effie works
with him in the business, as does his sister (Sheree Newell) and one
of his brothers, who runs two affiliated offices in Florida. His
attorney is Don Veix at Mason Griffin Pearson, and Tom Romano at
Buschman Partners helped him find the new space.
"Our client base covers all aspects, but we do specialize in small
businesses with less than $1 million in sales. We love going after the
payroll services because they are impersonal, rigid in their time
frames, and problems are hard to resolve," says Judge. "Our bread and
butter is monthly financial statements, and we also do payroll, ‘live’
or ‘after the fact,’ business plans, budgets, and web-based accounts
payable." He is not a certified public accountant, so he does not do
audits, but he is moving into the financial planning area and
affiliated with a Dallas-based firm for that. "And of course," says
Judge, "we do taxes."
Road, Suite K, Lawrenceville 08648. Thomas H. Judge, president.
609-620-0011; fax, 609-620-0277. Home page: www.tejindustriesinc.com
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Expansions
203, Princeton 08540. Christopher E. Cahill, chief executive officer.
609-987-9000; fax, 609-987-9997. Home page: www.concordadvisory.com
Wall Street scandals bode well for Christopher Cahill and Scott
Santin, who are nearly doubling their staff and moving from 600
Alexander Park to 5,500 square feet at 700 Alexander Park in mid
March. They have added six people for a staff total of 14.
The company helps institutional investors with asset allocation,
development of investment policies, manager selection, and manager
evaluation on an ongoing basis. Their clients are "middle market"
institutions, with from $20 million to just over $1 billion in their
portfolios. "That we work on a retainer basis has driven interest,"
says Santin. "People are looking for independent analysis and
counsel."
What fund manager they recommend is determined by the size and
complexity of the portfolio. "We maintain a universe of managers and
do ongoing research on managers and funds," says Santin. "We might
recommend a money manager, a bank, or a trust department, depending on
specific needs." Fees are based on portfolio size.
Santin is a graduate of Rider College, Class of 1983, and has a
graduate degree from Rutgers, while Cahill graduated in 1982 from
Washington & Lee. They met at Merrill Lynch, where they provided
similar consulting services until they founded their own firm in 1988.
Concord expects to grow to 20 people and will hire people with
experience in asset management community, plus one recent college
graduate to do portfolio analysis. KSS architects designed the space,
which is being fitted out by Blue Rock Construction on behalf of
property manager Trammell Crow. The furniture is being provided by
Innovative Commercial Interiors. Gerard Fennelly of NAI Fennelly
represented the tenants and Karen Iman of Trammell Crow represented
the landlord.
Concord’s competition comes from other regional firms and from
companies like Merrill Lynch. "It all comes down to the independence
issue, especially institutions," says Santin. "At this juncture they
want to be sure the advice is untainted, unaffected by soft dollars
from asset managers. It’s a small niche, and all of our business comes
from referrals."
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Expansions
100, Princeton 08540. Karen Iman, vice president. 609-951-0200; fax,
609-951-0180. Home page: www.trammellcrow.com
Trammell Crow has expanded from five to 10 people and is moving from
600 Alexander Park to 4,376 square feet at 700 Alexander Park, partly
for more space and partly to accommodate the building’s major tenant,
Mathematica. Mathematica is taking the 4,800 feet now occupied by the
commercial real estate firm and Concord Advisory Services (see article
above).
6176, Hillsborough 08544. Michael Kenyon, president. 908-281-6900;
fax, 908-281-6943. Home page: www.RSL95.com
In February the six-person employee and benefits planning firm moved
from 684 Whitehead Road in Lawrenceville to 2,000 square feet in
Hillsborough, and it has new phone and fax numbers. Founded in 1995,
it does corporate and employee planning – benefits, compensation,
insurance, training, HR operations, accounting, information systems,
and employee relations.
Boulevard, Suite 130, Princeton 08540. Ray DeMaio, regional vice
president, sales. 609-987-0730; fax, 609-987-0583. Home page:
Right Management Consultants expanded from 2 Research Way to Forrestal
Village when it bought the national career transition and executive
development business of Manchester Right Management is based in
Philadelphia Recently Right Management announced it was being acquired
by Manpower Inc. of Glendale. Right Management offers career
transition, talent management, organizational performance, and
leadership development.
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Crosstown Moves
Floor, Princeton 08542. Bradford Mills, chairman. 609-921-3880; fax,
609-921-9577.
In February Bradford Mills moved his 30-year-old investment firm from
44 Nassau to half of 2,400 square feet on the second floor of Hamilton
Jewelers (the Pyne Building). His firm shares the space with Solon
Capital. The Mills Foundation is also located here.
The company’s former president, Cheryl Mills, recently took a job in
Washington for the Bush administration as associate deputy
administrator for entrepreneurial development for the United States
Small Business Administration. Her department provides information,
training, and business counseling through business development
networks, programs at state universities, SCORE volunteers, and the
SBA web site.
In addition to the investment advisory business, Bradford invests
capital in seed, first and second-stage companies and, with family and
client funds, buys mature, mid-size companies.
08540. Steven Haase, owner. 609-524-4029; fax, 800-878-6708. Home
page: www.akroslearning.com
Steven Haase, principal. 609-333-1144. Home page: www.trainfans.com
Akros Learning Group moved from Princeton Avenue in Hopewell to
Forrestal Village. The phone is new. The company offers turnkey
enterprise learning and compliance solutions. Simultaneously Haase’s
train video company moved to a home address in Hopewell. Trainfans
produces educational travel videos for children.
6, Bordentown 08505. Chris Moser, president. 609-291-1500; fax,
609-291-1353.
The company moved from 335 Yardville-Allentown Road, Hamilton 08620 to
Bordentown. It offers full-service construction – estimating, project
inspection, scheduling, project advisement, management, steel
buildings and general residential and commercial construction
Plaza, East Windsor 08520. Tommy Cuilla, owner/business broker.
609-918-1500; fax, 609-918-1166.
Mercer Commercial Realtors moved from Royal Plaza to Town Center Plaza
on Route 130. The telephone is new.
Brunswick Pike, Suite 203, Lawrenceville 08648. Roger A. Shapiro,
president. 609-434-0030; fax, 609-434-0031. Home page:
The full-service marketing communications firm moved a seven-person
office from an address at Princeton Shopping Center to 1,000 square
feet in Lawrenceville.
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Down-Sizing
Building 2B, Suite 105, Lawrenceville 08648. Kris Subramaniam,
principal. 609-912-0004; fax, 609-912-0307. Home page:
The software consulting firm moved from 3,000 square feet to 2,000
feet on Princeton Pike. It does project-oriented information IT –
E-business, Internet technology, and client server business systems,
with 35 workers at client sites, also in Bangalore.
Road, Suite 10, Jamesburg 08831. Home page: www.hexaware.com
Once at 1095 Cranbury-South River Road, HexaWare has no Princeton area
phone that answers as a business number. At its peak, during the Year
2000 conversions, this global IT consulting firm had 80 employees and
10,000 square feet on Independence Way.
Center, Suite 15-3, Box 7064, Princeton 08543. Joseph Nichols,
president. 609-275-5975; fax, 609-452-8345. Home page:
After 16 years at Princeton Service Center, Joseph Nichols is closing
his biomedical laboratory. Nichols consults on new surgical implant
materials and medical devices, technology of natural biomaterials,
research and development of composite wound and burn dressings, skin
replacement.
He hopes to find a buyer for the laboratory and equipment. "Rather
than dismantle the laboratory, I would like to pass it on to another
investigator who may be looking for space for equipment," says
Nichols.
A graduate of City College of New York, Class of 1938, with a PhD from
Minnesota, he worked for Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon and founded
Princeton Biomedix and Helitriex, which was later sold.
230, Lawrenceville 08648. Craig Muhlhauser, president and COO.
609-512-3000; fax, 609-512-3071. Home page: www.exideworld.com
Exide Technologies moved its headquarters from 21,000 feet at 210
Carnegie Center to 11,000 feet at Crossroads Corporate Center. Phone
and fax are new. With 30 employees at this office, the company employs
16,000 overall.
With operations in 89 countries and net sales last year of
approximately $2.4 billion, the firm is being reorganized under
Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Exide Technologies is one of the worlds largest
producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries. It has two major
groups, industrial energy and transportation.
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Name Changes
224, Lawrenceville 08648. Andrew Chapman, president. 609-512-9400;
fax, 609-512-3680. Home page: www.americanwater.com
Elizabethtown Water Company has a new name, the result of a merger
with another firm. The merged firms are owned by RWE AG, a
100-year-old German company with core businesses in electricity, gas,
water and wastewater, waste disposal, and recycling.
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Leaving Town
Frank J. Brill, president. 215-295-9339. Home page:
Frank Brill closed his public affairs office in West State Street in
Trenton and moved to Yardley.
22209. Richard E. Seltzer, president and CEO. 703-841-8068; fax,
703-524-9415. Home page: www.dpra.com
DPRA moved its Research Park office to Virginia. Founded in 1961 and
based in Manhattan, Kansas, it does environmental health and safety
consulting.
45150. 513-248-2882; fax, 513-248-2672. Home page:
The loyalty marketing firm relocated the Princeton office last fall to
its headquarters in Ohio.
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