SYRACUSE — SyracuseFirst and CenterState CEO are launching a new partnership to encourage more support for locally owned businesses.

Members of SyracuseFirst, a nonprofit launched in 2009 to promote buying local, will now have access to a dual membership in both organizations. SyracuseFirst has 220 members, including local companies and nonprofits.

The organization will maintain its own identity and Chris Fowler will continue as executive director.

One of the chief goals of the partnership will be to bring local companies together to do business with each other, says Jane Amico, CenterState CEO vice president of chamber services. The more connections and relationships the groups can foster among Central New York businesses, the better, she says.

Both organizations hold numerous networking events and combining resources makes sense, Fowler adds.

“Here we are, trying to get the same people involved,” he says. “Why not try to get all these people together and coordinate?”

Working with CenterState will allow for more education and promotion in the business community on SyracuseFirst’s events and other initiatives, Amico notes.

“We want to build on the events we’ve had that have been successful in the past,” Fowler says.

The partnership will allow the groups to share resources instead of compete for the attention of the same companies, Amico adds.

“Our missions are very much in alignment,” she says.

In addition to encouraging more business-to-business activity among local companies, SyracuseFirst also performs outreach to consumers and aims to get municipal and government leaders thinking more about using local vendors, Fowler says. The group has run events in the past like a Buy Local Bash that brought together local restaurants, food companies, musicians, and others.

The event drew more than 500 people both times it was held, Fowler says. The group also ran a Shop Syracuse Week during the holiday season for the past two years to encourage consumers to shop at local stores.

The group is launching a series of Cuse Mobs to support local businesses and educate consumers on the benefits of buying local, Fowler says. Known as cash mobs in other cities, the events began popping up last year, according to Syracuse First.

Organizers encouraged participants to ‘mob’ local companies and asked them to spend some cash at a pre-determined location. SyracuseFirst is organizing a Syracuse version of the event through social media and on the group’s website at www.syracusefirst.org.

CenterState CEO, with 2,000 members, is the region’s main business group.     

DeWITT — Anaren, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANEN) has continued cutting jobs in the face of declining profits and sales.

The DeWitt–based company began eliminating jobs last July and has so far reduced its work force of 1,000 employees by 19 percent, CFO George Blanton said during an April 25 conference call to discuss Anaren’s latest quarterly results.

The moves resulted in personnel savings of $6.6 million, Blanton said. The company also took other steps to cut costs during its most recent quarter that will bring total cost savings to $11 million annually.

Total operating expenses for the quarter ending March 31 fell to $9.9 million from $11.8 million in the same period last year. Through the first nine months of Anaren’s fiscal year, ending March 31, operating expenses totaled $30.8 million, down from about $34 million in the year-earlier period.

Anaren, which has locations in the Syracuse area, New Hampshire, Colorado, and China, did not provide further details on the job cuts. The company develops and manufactures components and subsystems for applications in sectors including satellite communications, defense, and wireless communications.

Profit in Anaren’s fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, totaled $2 million, or 14 cents a share, down more than 41 percent from the same period a year earlier. Net sales dropped more than 21 percent to $34.7 million.

A decline in demand for some of the company’s wireless products drove the sales dip, Anaren Chairman, President, and CEO Lawrence Sala said during the conference call. Sales in the firm’s wireless business totaled $10.2 million in the fiscal third quarter, down more than 32 percent from a year earlier.

Company leaders believe the dip in wireless sales is temporary. Customer forecasts are showing strength and wireless sales should increase during Anaren’s fiscal fourth quarter, Sala said.

Sales in the company’s space and defense business totaled $24.5 million for the quarter, down 15.1 percent. The dip resulted mainly from a decline of $2.8 million in sales related to Anaren’s work on a subsystem for a product developed by Cicero–based SRC, Inc. that disables improvised explosive devices (IED).

Some new radar-contracts customers should give Anaren a boost in the coming months, Sala said. The firm expects 

$15 million to $17 million in new radar-related orders as a result, he said.

That should help total space and defense sales should recover in the company’s fourth quarter, he added.

Also, Anaren announced three contracts on April 9 totaling $11.5 million for subsystems used in airborne applications. The orders are part of a long-term supply agreement with a defense contractor for domestic and international applications of Anaren’s proprietary electronic warfare technology.

Deliveries will begin in the fiscal first quarter of 2013 and take place over 26 months, the company said.

For Anaren’s fiscal fourth quarter, ending June 30, net sales should reach $35 million to $40 million with earnings per share of 11 cents to 23 cents, Sala said. 

The U. S. Department of Energy has selected teams from Cornell University Sustainable Design and the university’s Cornell Energy Institute to compete in a geothermal energy contest.

The teams from Cornell are now finalists in the 2012 National Geothermal Student Competition, which will have students analyzing the economic feasibility of developing geothermal energy in the Snake River Plain in Idaho. That region is a potential area for near-term geothermal development in the United States, according to a 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.

“The National Geothermal Student Competition challenges the country’s best and brightest students to develop innovative approaches to expanding geothermal energy production in the United States, advancing our commitment to an all-out, all-of-the-above energy strategy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a news release.

The Cornell University Sustainable Design team will use geologic remote sensing to profile the Snake River Plain to uncover areas with thermal potential. The Cornell Energy Institute team will collect data in the region and will review geothermal resource studies, maps, and models to try to identify markets for geothermal heat or electricity.

Other finalists taking part in the competition include teams from Boise State University, the Colorado School of Mines, Idaho State University, the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory, the University of Idaho, and the University of Texas at Austin. The Department of Energy plans to give each team $10,000 in technical assistance.

The competition ends in October, when three teams will present their findings at the annual Geothermal Resources Council meeting in Reno, Nev.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com