Economy of Stamford, Connecticut

The economy of Stamford, Connecticut is unusual for having a cluster of corporate headquarters (many of which moved from New York City in the 1980s both to lower their tax bill and to be closer to the homes of their top executives).

The city has four Fortune 500 Companies, nine Fortune 1000 Companies, and thirteen Courant 100 Companies, as well as numerous divisions of large corporations. This gives Stamford the largest financial district in New York Metro outside New York City itself and one of the largest concentrations of corporations in the nation.

Royal Bank of Scotland announced in October 2005 that it would consolidate its North American headquarters in downtown Stamford and build the largest trading floor in North America (the current largest trading floor is in the UBS building across the street from where the new building is under construction). In addition, many specialized hedge funds, asset managers and trading houses are localized in and around the city.

Large and distinctive companies

• Aircastle — a seller and leaser of aircraft
• Aladdin Capital Management LLC — a hedge fund manager with $21.5 billion in assets as of late 2007^[1]
• AmeriCares — a nonprofit humanitarian relief organization
• Cengage Learning - an educational publisher
• Crane Co. (CR) — headquarters, 100 First Stamford Place; a diversified manufacturer of engineered systems ranging from vending machines to anti-skid brakes for aircraft; 10,400 employees, 90 in Connecticut; $2 billion in annual revenues; CEO Eric C. Fast
• Conair Corporation — 1 Cummings Point Road; maker of blowdryers and other personal health care products, such as Jheri Redding and Rusk, and consumer electronic products, including telephones and Cuisinart products; the company is officially headquartered in East Windsor, New Jersey, but it is privately held by Leandro Rizzuto, who maintains a home in lower Fairfield County near the Stamford office. Rizzuto is the 392nd richest American, with an estimated $925 million in assets, according to the Forbes magazine "Forbes 400" list. (Rizzuto, a cousin of former Yankees baseball player Phil Rizzuto, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2002. He was co-founder of the company with his father in 1959.)
• Frontier Communications (FTR) — headquarters, 3 High Ridge Park; a provider of telephone, television and Internet access to rural areas and small- and medium-sized towns and cities in 23 states; it also runs a local exchange carrier service in the western states through a subsidiary, Electric Lightwave LLC subsidiary; 6,100 employees companywide; 170 in Connecticut; $2.2 billion in annual revenues; Maggie Wilderotter, CEO since November 2004
• Gartner Inc. (IT) — 56 Top Gallant Road; provides research and analysis on the information technology sector; 3,700 employees companywide; 730 of them in Fairfield County; $989 million in annual revenues; CEO Gene Hall
• GE Capital — headquarters of a major division of General Electric, 260 Long Ridge Road
• General Re — division of Berkshire Hathaway, 695 East Main St.; a holding company for global reinsurance and related operations. It owns General Reinsurance Corporation and is one of the largest reinsurers worldwide; 895 employees in county, 3,200 companywide; $10.5 billion in revenues in 2003; CEO Joseph P. Brandon
• Harman International Industries — headquarters, 400 Atlantic Street; manufacturer of audio products and electronics. Brands include AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. 11,000 employees globally; $3.4 billion in sales for fiscal year ended June 30, 2010. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR, CEO since 2008 Dinesh Paliwal
• Hexcel — headquarters; develops and makes carbon fibers, industrial fabrics and lightweight, high-performance composite materials, and parts and structures used in commercial aerospace, space and defense, recreation and other industries; 4,455 employees, 35 of them in Connecticut; $1.2 billion in annual revenues; CEO David Berges
• Indeed.com - a job search engine
• NBC Sports — is the sports division of the NBC television network. NBC consolidated its Sports division from two Stamford facilities, Philadelphia and 30 Rock offices to a new "green" facility. Administration, digital content, and television production for the NBC Sports Group including NBCSN many of its regional sports networks take place in the facility. NBC Sports is part of NBCUniversal, which generates $21 Billion dollars in revenue.
• Nestlé Waters North America - a bottled water company
• Odyssey Re Holdings Corp. (ORH) — a global property-casualty reinsurance company, 80-percent-owned by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: FFH) of Toronto; 600 employees, 300 of them in Connecticut; $2.6 billion in annual revenues; CEO Andrew A. Barnard
• Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI) — headquarters, 1 Elmcroft Road; the world's biggest maker of postal meters and mailing equipment and provides mailing and delivery software and services to companies; 32,700 employees companywide, 3,500 in Fairfield County; $5.5 billion in annual revenues; CEO Murray Martin
• Purdue Pharma, a drug maker
• SAC Capital Advisors LLC, a hedge fund run by Steven A. Cohen
• Sempra Energy — trading division
• Silgan Holdings Inc. (SLGN) — headquarters, 4 Landmark Square; a supplier of consumer goods packaging products with a 50 percent share of the U.S. metal food container market; 7,500 employees, 225 of them in Connecticut; annual revenues of $2.5 billion; Co-CEOs Anthony J. "Tony" Allott and D. Greg Horrigan
• SIGG (USA) Inc. - The USA division of the Swiss company SIGG^[2]
• Star Gas Partners L.P. (SGU) — headquarters, 2187 Atlantic St.; distributor of home heating oil, propane and other fuels in the Midwest and eastern U.S.; mostly owned by shareholders; 2,700 employees companywide; revenues of $1.2 billion; CEO Irik P. Sevin
• Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide
• Statoil ASA — North American headquarters, 1055 Washington Blvd.; Statoil ASA is Norway's largest oil and gas company.
• Student Loan Corp. (STU) — headquarters; originates, holds and services student loans; company is mostly owned by Citigroup; 550 employees, 30 of them in Connecticut; revenues of $1.5 billion; CEO Michael J. Reardon
• Suranya Capital Partners — called a "Tiger Cub" firm as one of the companies headed by alumni of Julian Robertson's Tiger Management.^[3]
• Synchrony Financial - retail financial firm
• Thomson Reuters — former operational headquarters of The Thomson Corporation; the company has retained a significant presence in Stamford since the April 2008 merger with Reuters.
• Time Warner Cable — headquarters of this division

UBS Investment Bank's offices in Stamford, Connecticut. When the building opened it featured the largest trading floor ever built

• UBS — U.S. headquarters, 677 Washington Blvd.; a financial services company; 4,000 employees in Fairfield County; The UBS trading floor in Stamford, Connecticut holds the Guinness World Record as the largest securities trading floor in the world. The 103,000-square-foot (9,600 m²) operation has 40-foot (12 m) arched ceiling freeing it of columns or walls. The size of two football fields and home to 1,400 traders and staff who handle about $1 trillion worth of transactions a day. It is roughly 227 wide by 410 feet (120 m) long.
• Vineyard Vines (privately held) — The company designs and sells ties, polo shirts, flip-flops and other products. It has a store on Martha's Vineyard and (in partnership with others) has opened stores in Greenwich, and Nantucket. In 2005 the company made the Inc. magazine "Inc. 500" list of fastest growing companies, placing at No. 202 with revenue growth of 547 over three years (2002 to 2004). In 2006, the company again made the list, this time at No. 217 with 569.4 percent growth in revenues over three years (from 2003 to 2005). Its 2005 revenues came to 23.8 million (up from 13.2 the year before) and 85 employees (up from 45 the year before), according to Inc. The company was founded in 1998.
• World Wrestling Entertainment — 1241 E. Main St.; headquarters of the company.
• Xerox Corp. — 800 Long Ridge Road; a Fortune 500 company that makes and sells color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. This location served as the corporate headquarters for 30 years, before the move to nearby Norwalk in October, 2007.^[4]
• XL — U.S. headquarters. Insurer.

In 2006, Virgin Atlantic Airways occupied an office in Norwalk, Connecticut as its United States headquarters. During that year signed a 15-year lease to occupy space in a building in Stamford, Connecticut to use as its new United States headquarters. Virgin was scheduled to be the first tenant in the recently renovated at the time 15,200 square feet (1,410 m²) building, which was scheduled to be renamed "Virgin Atlantic Center." Richard Lee of The Stamford Advocate said that Virgin Atlantic was "the first marquee business that Stamford has lured from Norwalk in recent years."^[5] Brooke Lawer, a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic, said that the company needed less space and desired a smaller office building for the company; she added that the company preferred the Stamford location as it was closer to rail lines and New York City. Michael W. Freimuth, Stamford's director of economic development, stated that Virgin Atlantic would get tax breaks since the company was relocating to an enterprise zone; he also stated that Virgin's relocation would bring 75 jobs to the city.^[6] As of 2009 Virgin Atlantic occupies a different office building in Norwalk and uses it as its U.S. headquarters.^[7][8]

Top Employers

According to the City's 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,^[9] the top employers in the city are:

Footnotes

1. ↑ Harrington, Shannon D., "Aladdin starts company to handle risky transactions", Bloomberg News article, as published in The Advocate, business section, November 22, 2007, p B1
2. ↑ "SIGG Addresses." SIGG. Retrieved on 12 May 2010.
3. ↑ Fishman-Lapin, Julie, "New fund offered at Suranya", article in The Advocate, business section, November 22, 2007, p B1
4. ↑ "Factbook". Xerox Corporation. Retrieved 2008-06-20. 
5. ↑ Lee, Richard. "Virgin Atlantic shifts U.S. headquarters to Stamford, Conn." The Stamford Advocate. January 4, 2006. Retrieved on December 14, 2009.
6. ↑ Holtz, Jeff. "IN BRIEF; Virgin Atlantic Offices Are Moving to Stamford." The New York Times. January 8, 2006. Retrieved on December 14, 2009.
7. ↑ "Contact Us." Virgin Atlantic Airways United States. Retrieved on December 14, 2009.
8. ↑ "USA Office." Virgin Atlantic Airways. Retrieved on December 14, 2009.
9. ↑ City of Stamford CAFR

External links

• Stamford Chamber of Commerce
• Stamford Downtown Special Services District
• Stamford Town Center
• "Made in Stamford: A History of Stamford as a Manufacturing Center"
• City of Stamford