ORISKANY — Frank Giotto is an irrepressible entrepreneur. “I expect to close on a new 7,000-[square-] foot building [soon],” says Frank Giotto, 64, the founder of Giotto Enterprises. Headquarters is located at 161 Clear Road in Oriskany. “I’m considering two new markets. The first is in metal-bending … I’m projecting manufacturing 5,000 communication cabinets […]
ORISKANY — Frank Giotto is an irrepressible entrepreneur.
“I expect to close on a new 7,000-[square-] foot building [soon],” says Frank Giotto, 64, the founder of Giotto Enterprises. Headquarters is located at 161 Clear Road in Oriskany. “I’m considering two new markets. The first is in metal-bending … I’m projecting manufacturing 5,000 communication cabinets [annually] with a half-million dollar investment. The ROI should take five years … Second, I think we could make gun parts and assemble them … I already have a name picked out — Oriskany Arms.”
Giotto Enterprises currently includes nine companies. Most are located in his Fiber Optic Research Park just outside of Oriskany. Fiber Instrument Sales, Inc. (FIS) manufactures and distributes fiber-optic test equipment, patch cords, and connective devices to more than 11,000 customers. FIS Blue manufactures and distributes connectors and cable assemblies to the broadcast industry and to the U.S. military. The Light Connection manufactures and distributes fiber-optic cable and tubing.
Energy Efficient Products, Inc. distributes commercial and home LED lights, solar LED systems, and accessories. Molding Solutions, Inc. is a producer of plastic components, which also offers a prototyping service for custom products. Force Guided Relays International (FGR) is a manufacturer and distributor of fail-safe relays for commercial applications, including designing and manufacturing the PC boards for the control units. FGR products are used on elevators, escalators, medical equipment, and for railway and subway signaling.
Fermer Precision started in 1947 as a tool-and-die company. Giotto bought the operation in July 2011 to provide his group of companies a computer-numerical-control production facility capable of producing metal-working and related needs. Max L. Cowen’s Student Stores offers more than 3,000 basic and novelty school products. And, the newest company to join Giotto Enterprises is the Mohawk Valley Jet Service, operating from Griffiss International Airport in Rome.
Collectively, “Giotto Enterprises employs 350 and generates $75 million in revenue annually … FIS historically has exported 25 percent of its products to 110 countries worldwide, although that percentage is slipping because the Chinese are now selling directly … The enterprise occupies more than 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space plus a 15,000-square-foot training center, where we train 1,000 people a year with our program in fiber optics,” says Giotto.
He created a separate real-estate company as the property owner. “I am the owner of Giotto Enterprises and the real-estate company, except for FIS Blue, [in which] my daughter, Valerie Sitler, is the majority stockholder, and the Jet Service [in which] I am a 50 percent stockholder.” Giotto bought back the employee stock-option plan (30 percent of the corporate stock) he established in 2002 for Fiber Instrument Sales. He paid $10.5 million for the repurchase. The real-estate company holds no mortgages.
“Each company is set up to run independently with its own president … We do share some functions, such as accounting, OSHA, ISO, human resources, and some purchasing,” notes Giotto. “Innovation is vital to all our companies; that is why we emphasize research and development. Each year, we target 4 percent to 5 percent of our revenues to R&D.” Giotto Enterprises currently holds six patents.
Frank Giotto was born in Oneonta and grew up in Utica. He graduated from Utica College in 1972 as a math major. Beginning in 1973, Giotto taught mathematics to students in the 7th and 8th grades and later taught algebra and geometry to high-school students. Even during his seven-year stint as a teacher, he worked as a wholesale-food distributor. “Long before individual pizzas were popular, I sold them to chain stores between Albany and Syracuse. I called them Joe DiMaggio pizzas, after my uncle who was a VP of the corporation, and delivered them by truck. Next, I opened a taco stand, but didn’t have any capital to franchise the idea. I was a tour guide and bus driver during the summers, showing visitors around Utica …,” Giotto reminisces. He then shows this reporter his drawing from 1972 of “Mr. Coffee,” a coffee maker that could brew a single cup using a rotating disk with multiple baskets. “I couldn’t find any investors,” laments Giotto.
“I left teaching in 1980 because I didn’t have the patience,” says Giotto. “I joined the Laser Precision Co., which was a fiber-optics firm. I got a lot of training [in the field] and soon suggested [to management] that they set up a distributorship. Laser Precision had no interest, so I quit after one year and set up my own distributorship called Fiber Instrument Associates. I represented a German firm called Hengstler, [whom] I still represent today. I used the money I made to buy inventory [in anticipation of] starting my own business, which I did in 1985. Today, Fiber Instrument Sales has the largest inventory in the world of passive fiber optics (cables, connectors, etc.). It’s valued at $10 million. We only turn the inventory five or six times a year, but it allows us to ship 94 percent of our products the same day [we receive the order].”
Giotto always recognized the potential synergy of a sales force with multiple products to sell. “We have sales people who specialize in plastics, fiber-optics, and machinery … [Our] sales people are encouraged through a cash-bonus program to pass on leads to their sister companies … I also saw the strength in leveraging the growth of a small company by including it under the umbrella of Fiber Instrument Sales. The smaller business could get financial credit, because it was part of a larger company … When the high-tech bubble broke in 2000, I determined that I would be better off investing in companies I could control,” says Giotto. A review of the Giotto Enterprises’ history shows an escalation in creating corporations after 2000.
Giotto relies on a number of local professionals to guide his enterprise successfully. In the area of law, he retains Gerald F. Stack in the Syracuse office of Hiscock & Barclay, LLP for corporate and tax matters and for estate planning. For protection of intellectual property, Giotto turns to the law office of Bernhard P. Molldrem, located in Syracuse. Giotto Enterprises’ accounting is handled by Steven G. Brown and Mark P. Colombo, principals in Firley, Moran, Freer, & Eassa, CPA, P.C. headquartered in DeWitt. Human resources is assisted by Anne Tindall of Employee Management Strategies, Inc., located in Syracuse. Giotto Enterprises relies on corporate cash flow to fund much of his operations and capital needs, but also turns to Adirondack Bank for certain requirements.
As for how he generates so many new business concepts, Giotto has a theory. “I don’t watch TV,” he quips. “Maybe that’s why I dream up so many new ideas.”
Some of Giotto’s ideas are not focused strictly on business. “We need to create opportunities for young people in this region if we are going to retain them … We need to involve the area colleges and provide mentors … We have to stop exporting our young people.” Giotto also finds time to help forge a manufacturers’ coalition to lobby New York State legislators. He is currently focused on providing tax advantages to New York manufacturers that buy products from each other and increase business opportunities for them if they sell to other Empire State manufacturers. “I also find time to fish, golf, ski, and hunt,” says Giotto. “I especially enjoy building Adirondack furniture.”
Giotto resides with his wife Kristine on 85 acres in New Hartford “with my 52 chickens, five horses, two goats, four peacocks, and two cats.” Married 28 years, the couple has five children, of whom the youngest is 18, and they also have two grandchildren.
Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com