Executive Roundtable | By Council of Industry Staff

Council Member Leaders Discuss Challenges, Change, and the Path Forward

American Manufacturing has been thrust into the spotlight over the last few years.
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to bring the industry back home and make the country globally competitive once again, staying persistent in those goals as he took office.

Hudson Valley manufacturers are now facing an economy that has changed substantially due to new policies, tariffs and not knowing what is going to come next. In an August survey – where 20 Hudson Valley manufacturers shared how recent tariffs are impacting their business – 80% responded that they were facing negative effects.

The Council arranged a roundtable discussion among five local manufacturing leaders to share their thoughts about, and experiences with, the current climate. The facilitated discussion was held at the Mechatronics Lab at Dutchess Community College’s Center for Excellence in Industry and Innovation in Fishkill, which is itself a product of the renewed interest in manufacturing.
 
There, some shared that they believe we are living in unprecedented times, while others are envisioning the opportunities from it.
 

‘There is a lot preventing business-as-usual’

 
Elna Magnetics – a custom machine shop, providing specialized ferrite cores to the electronics industry has gone through many iterations since its 1955 founding in a retired one-room schoolhouse in Woodstock.
 
Over the decades, the company has grown into a trusted supplier to the defense, military, and aerospace sectors, holding both ISO certification and ITAR-DDTC registration. Despite steady demand from military and aerospace customers, the Saugerties-based manufacturer faces significant uncertainty following the reciprocal tariffs imposed on Europe in April, said Jim Ferraro, vice president of Elna.
 
On April 2, President Trump signed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act – an executive order that put a 10% tariff on almost all imports, along with country-specific reciprocal tariffs, as a solution towards closing the trade gap and rebuilding U.S. manufacturing.
 
This action was immediately met with legal pushback, trade talks and constant changes from the administration, causing chaos for manufacturing leaders.
 
“We manufacture here, but I have to get the raw material from overseas,” Ferraro said. “We’re required to import it ourselves.”
 
Meaning, when the prices increase for the raw material, it increases for the customer. Nearly 70% of respondents to the Council of Industry’s Tariff Survey said that they had to raise prices to pass along tariff-related costs, passing along the majority, or all, of the costs to customers.
 
This has been the reality for Elna, as well as Kingston-based Fala Technologies and PTI Packing Technologies & Inspection, in Hawthorne, who have all seen a drop in demand for capital expenditures from their customers as a result.

 
Frank Falatyn, owner and president of FALA Technologies, Inc., believes that customers are now gearing up for more future unknowns by asking for cost reductions on product. Founded in 1946, FALA provides contract manufacturing and engineering services for advanced electro-mechanical products, serving industries from semiconductors and aerospace to green energy and defense.
 
“Our customers are really putting pressure on us, and we don’t have that margin to give,” Falatyn said. “That’s been a downside to the tariffs, and it’s been a downturn to our sales also.”
 
In Hawthorne, Packing Technologies & Inspection (PTI) experienced a downturn almost immediately, said Oliver Stauffer, the company’s CEO. Working in the life sciences industry, things came to a halt around March and since then, there’s been “a complete drop off in demand,” Stauffer said.
 
Uncertainty around government funding in the industry along with low demand, forced the company to make some major changes to stay afloat.
 
“There’s only so many things in this world that we control, and when it comes to business-as-usual right now, we control very little,” Stauffer continued. “We are fighting tooth and nail – we’ve had to control costs, and we cut as deep as we can without doing damage to the organization.”
 
While these companies manufacture in the Hudson Valley, a lot of their materials come from outside of the U.S., Elna Magnetics, PTI and Mechanical Rubber all have felt the impacts of the reciprocal tariffs.
 
These pressures have them considering, and in some cases going through with, shifting portions of their manufacturing overseas. In PTI’s case, they have started assembling machines intended for European customers at their facility in Switzerland, a move designed to reduce the impact of tariffs. With so much uncertainty, they are left questioning how best to move forward in a way that will meet customer needs and safeguard their business.
 
“Business is certainly down” said Elna’s Jim Ferraro. “It’s not where we wanted it to be, nor is it where we anticipated it to be at this point when we were planning nine or ten months ago.
 
“There’s a lot preventing business-as-usual.”

 

‘I see countless opportunities’

 
Mechanical Rubber – a custom contractor of rubber, plastics and metals, has been focused on acquisitions and diversification for the last decade and does not see any reason to stop now.
 
Cedric Glasper, the company’s president and CEO, has been on “go” for the past few years, he said, expanding his business across the country. The Warwick-based manufacturer now has its “eggs in different baskets,” riding the waves of change, and looking for more.
 
“You go where the opportunity is, and I see countless opportunities” Glasper said. “You can’t go by what you hear on the news, you have to go by what you experience with your customer, because your customer is the true tea leaves.”

Examples of these opportunities are emerging nationally and locally. GE Appliances, recently announced a $3 billion investment over the next five years in its U.S. operations, development, product innovation and advanced manufacturing, as well as workforce. Mechanical Rubber is a supplier to GE Appliances, which anticipates 1,000 new jobs to be created from the deal.
 
Diana Tomassetti, Hudson Valley Plastics’ President and CEO, has seen similar signs at the regional level, from inquiries by new customers to increased interest from companies seeking manufacturing space and tooling capacity on the East Coast.
 
Nationally, Apple announced plans to invest $600 billion over the next four years, hiring 20,000 workers across the country, while locally, New York Governor Kathy Hocul announced that Garonit Pharmaceutical, Inc. – a global manufacturer of antiseptic products and health care solutions – plans to erect a 200,000 square foot manufacturing facility in New Windsor, Orange County, and create 100 high-skilled jobs.
 
“But who is going to work? That’s the bigger issue,” says Frank Falatyn.
 

The Workforce Challenge Isn’t Going Away

 
While efforts to build Hudson Valley’s manufacturing workforce – such as the Council of Industry’s Manufacturing Intermediary Apprenticeship Program and SUNY Reconnect are having a positive impact, these efforts are not enough to meet what is needed, especially as more jobs are created. Community colleges are stepping up, with SUNY Reconnect identifying advanced manufacturing as a priority sector, and facilities like the Mechatronics Lab at DCC’s in Fishkill developed in partnership with employers to meet regional demand. “The community colleges are playing ball with us like they never had before,” Falatyn said. “they are really stepping up.”
 
Even with this progress, the concerns go deeper. “Even before the latest trade disruptions and reshoring efforts, we were already worried about the skills gap, looming retirements, and the transfer of knowledge to the next generation,” said Elna’s Jim Ferraro, who also serves as Chair of the Ulster County Workforce Investment Board.
 
According to the 2025 USA Reshoring Survey, done by the Reshoring Initiative and Regions Recruiting, original equipment manufacturers said that having a skilled workforce is more important than any other policy and that reindustrialization is “impossible” without a national workforce commitment. Nearly one-quarter of the U.S. manufacturing workforce is age 55 or older, underscoring the urgency of attracting new workers from all demographics and backgrounds into the field.

 
One solution is legal immigration, which PTI’s Oliver Stauffer, also a member of the Advanced Manufacturers Task Force in Westchester, has already been doing for some time. Being a first generation American himself, Stauffer is open to having a heavy international workforce, recognizing the skills and impact these employees bring. “My workforce is quite international. We have a lot of people on H-1B visas, engineers, and high-skilled controls and mechanical talent,” he explained. That commitment to cultivating talent and innovation has made PTI a recognized employer in the region, earning a 2023 Best Place to Work award.
 
“We have five employees that we’re currently sponsoring,” Stauffer added. “We are international, and legal immigration is such an important aspect of the conversation. My father came to this country and started a business in 1984 – we just celebrated 40 years.”
 
Legal immigration has been on the Trump administration’s mind, but not in terms of workforce. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs approved a proposal in August that experts believe will change the current random lottery with a system that favors those with higher wages, according to Seyfarth’s Immigration Group.
 
Frank Falatyn also thinks that legal immigration must be the way to supplement the manufacturing workforce moving forward. But he stressed that system changes are necessary, as the current system does not align with current workforce needs. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, in June there were more than 400,000 open manufacturing jobs nationwide, and projections estimate 3.8 million new positions will be created by 2033.
 
“Nobody is talking about legal immigration, but we’re going to have to have it,” Falatyn said. “We need to address the demographic challenges and engage more workers across the board, including through changes to legal immigration. Then our community college partners can work with us and train people for current and future roles. That is the solution. But I am worried we’re never going to have enough people, I’ll tell you the truth.”
 

‘Manufacturing has been in way tougher times’

 
Johnnieanne Hansen, CEO of the Council of Industry, the region’s manufacturers association, noted the long history of manufacturers adapting through disruption. “Some of the Council’s member companies are now led by fifth-generation owners,” Hansen said. “Manufacturers have always had to adapt, but resilience in the moment doesn’t feel like strength – it feels like strain. That’s why sharing stories like this, and communication with policymakers and with other manufacturers, is critical.”
 
FALA Technologies faced its biggest hurdle when IBM closed its Kingston campus in the 1990s, which at the time were one of its main clients, but that hard lesson eventually opened doors in the semiconductor industry. Falatyn recalled that period as a fight to keep the doors open, including drawing a circle on a map and using the Thomas Register of Manufacturers to visit every company within a 150-mile radius in search of work. “We’ve been in business for 79 years now, and we have been through three downturns where we almost lost the business,” he said. “It’s cyclical. This is tough times right now, but two years ago we were on top of the world – so, we’re trying to take advantages of opportunities and prepare for the next downturn.”

 
Similar stories of adaptation can be found across the region. Hudson Valley Plastics has paired optimism with realism. Since purchasing and rebranding the company in 2018, Tomassetti has reorganized leadership, invested in new equipment, and added warehouse space to prepare for future demand. She described the early years as “a great challenge” but said she is proud of turning the business around and building a stable, loyal workforce.
 
Looking ahead, she noted that employers across the industry are facing big decisions in a shifting landscape, whether to double down on investments and innovation, or navigate increasing private equity interest or consolidation. “We’re not struggling to keep the lights on like we were in the beginning, but there are still so many challenges,” Tomassetti said.
 
At Elna, it kickstarted a change that might have been needed. The company has had to adapt regularly over the last few years – everything from pivoting during COVID and managing unfilled positions, to exceptionally high demand that did not seem sustainable, and now tariffs. These last few months, Elna is thinking about the future.
 
“It’s provided us an opportunity to get creative and rethink our sales strategy, instead of rushing and reacting just to keep up,” said Jim Ferraro, vice president of Elna Magnetics. “We are pounding the pavement with customers and looking at different opportunities on the market. This downturn has given us an opportunity to refocus on the business.”
 
When asked about their current strategies, 35% of respondents to the Council’s Tariff Survey said that they are making temporary adjustments, with 25% developing their strategies. But as some adapt or expand, others still struggle to stay afloat.
 
PTI’s Oliver Stauffer has been in a “dog fight” to keep his company competitive amongst the global players. While he continues to battle through disruption, he believes that damage has already been done.
 
“I think that these last three to four months has done permanent damage to the life sciences industry domestically, and debilitated some small businesses,” Stauffer said. “It feels like we are no longer in a global environment of business, but rather one in which the borders are going up and the lines are being drawn.”
 
Resilience, however, is built into PTI’s story. Stauffer’s Swiss immigrant father founded the company in 1984 and grew it from a small operation into a trusted innovator serving the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors. “That’s the American story,” Stauffer reflected. “My father answered an ad in a newspaper and came here with very little, then built this company from the ground up.” Now in its second generation of leadership, PTI will rely on its proven strengths – patented technologies, a highly skilled and innovative workforce, and a global perspective – to adapt and compete through the uncertainty.
 
Still, the manufacturing leaders are hopeful that the sector will regain its footing and evolve despite the daily uncertainty. Manufacturers in the Hudson Valley have been adapting for more than a century, and in recent decades have weathered disruptions from the early 2000s economic crisis to the global pandemic, making change become the norm.
 
And when manufacturing can make it through these tough times, it will once again be America’s Backbone, said Mechanical Rubber’s Glasper. He emphasized that survival also means recognizing and seizing opportunities.
 
“One thing that manufacturers know is evolution,” Glasper said. “FALA has evolved; Mechanical Rubber has evolved. That’s what we do. We evolve, We survive.”