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SYRACUSE - POMCO, a Syracuse based employee benefits firm specializing in self-funding, has won some major regional accounts in recent months, as it builds brand recognition and companies and organizations seek ways to stem rising benefit costs.

POMCO's recent account wins across New York State include Penn Traffic Co., L. & J.G. Stickley, Pyramid Management, SUNY Research Foundation, Rochester City Schools, Buffalo Board of Education, and Schenectady Schools.

The new accounts are partly resulting from POMCO doing a better job getting the word out, say officials. Within the last two to three years, POMCO has significantly boosted its promotions aimed at building its brand across the Northeast and the United States as a whole. One example is the firm's purchase of advertisements airing during weekend professional golf tournaments on CBS. The ads depict a CEO in a glassencased conference room with a narrator talking about the responsibilities leaders have to their employees and to their bottom lines.

"We're doing it to build our brand. We're competing against the big, branded national players," says Donald P. Napier, POMCO's chief operating officer, noting health insurers like BlueCross BlueShield and United Healthcare.

T. Marc Flood, vice president, business development at POMCO, adds, "When we come in now in a competitive-bid situation, people aren't saying what's a POMCO? If people are going to make a multi-million dollar business decision, they better know who you are and who they're dealing with."

POMCO officials declined to disclose the firm's ad budget or annual revenue. The firm manages more than $500 million in client assets funding employee benefits.

POMCO consistently generates 15-percent annual revenue growth, according to Napier and Flood. The firm doubles its business every five years. POMCO finished the first six months "right about on-target" for that 15-percent annual growth, says Napier.

In addition to better name recognition, POMCO is also winning business because of the double-digit percentage rise in healthcare benefit costs annually the last few years, Napier says. "That's one of the strongest market drivers right now."

POMCO says its clients' benefits costs (premium equivalents) rose an average of 7.5 percent annually from 2000 through 2004. That's compared to the 12.4-percent average, annual premium increase for national insured plans during the same five-year time period.

POMCO is also actively looking for companies it could acquire to expand its customer base nationally and provide clients with complementary services, such as medical-bill auditing, pharmacy-benefits management, and nurse-case management. POMCO has looked at acquisition candidates up and down the Eastern Seaboard, including companies in Maine, West Virginia, and Alabama, says Napier. It's also considered about 20 thirdparty providers.

The company has no set timeline for executing a deal, placing emphasis on finding the right deal that complements what the firm already does.

"Not having to do it for the pure sake of growth makes it easier," Napier says.

POMCO made its last acquisitions in January 2004, when it bought Buffalobased HRH Risk Management Services, a thirdparty administrator focused on workers'-compensation benefits, and Rochester-based EB Statements, an employeebenefits statements provider.

The purchases boosted POMCO's business in the niches of workers'-comp benefits and statements, and gave it some large corporate clients not only in Western New York but also nationally.

Since acquiring HRH Risk Management Services, POMCO won the accounts to handle workers'-compensation benefits for the Rochester and Buffalo city school districts according to POMCO officials.

POMCO currently has more than 300 employees.

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Jul 15, 2005
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