Meyda: America’s decorative lamplighter

YORKVILLE — Meyda Lighting, which says it’s the nation’s leading manufacturer of decorative and custom lighting, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in business.

“We didn’t start out as a business,” says Robert Cohen, company president. “My mother [Ida] was tired of looking at the ‘vintage’ cars in our backyard, which my father [Meyer] said he would restore one day. She asked him to … [install] a stained-glass window [to block the view] … Meyer was retired and a master tinkerer, so he and my mother took a course in making stained-glass windows.” This was the beginning of Meyda Tiffany.

The year was 1974. “The window project was clearly a hobby with my parents,” remembers Cohen. “Following that, they made some stained-glass sun catchers, terrariums, lamps, and planters in the basement for area craft shows. Business was very slow; the door usually opened only when the wind blew. It wasn’t until 1980 when a local Methodist Church ordered four stained-glass windows that I started to think of this as a business.”

Meyda (a contraction of his parents’ names) today is anything but a hobby. “We have 65 employees here in Yorkville,” notes Cohen. Meyda Lighting is a d/b/a of 55 Oriskany, Inc., the operating company. “The family owns the company, as well as 170,000 square feet of manufacturing, distribution, and retail space incorporated as CMB Oriskany. The plant sits on 8.5 acres with an adjacent acre and building currently leased out.”

Meyda also has a 1,600-square-foot retail store in Old Forge. Meyda sources its Tiffany lamps from a contract manufacturer in China that employs 100 people devoted exclusively to Meyda products.

“I joined my parents in 1975 when I was a teenager, helping out at craft shows,” muses Cohen. “The business began to grow in the early 1980s, entirely by word-of-mouth. We also were fortunate to ride a national wave of renewed interest in Tiffany designs. While much of our growth was organic, we also acquired some of our suppliers and competitors. We bought the Quality Bent Glass Co., which created original lighting fixtures, including the famous Coca-Cola chandeliers supplied to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s studio in New York City.

He continues, “In the mid-1990s, Meyda bought Mecco Art, a metal-art studio which featured natural and wildlife themes. In 2009, we bought the assets of 2nd Ave. Lighting in Mesa, Ariz. to expand our metal-lighting sales both on the residential and commercial sides of the business.”

Today, Meyda works with steel, iron, aluminum, bronze, brass, copper, textiles, acrylics, wood, and glass to create lighting products with crafting techniques including forging, welding, forming, plasma and laser cutting, soldering, vacuum-forming, and engraving.

Meyda’s corporate strategy is simple. “We’re here to say yes and make it happen,” stresses Cohen. “Designers and customers are always sending us sketches and asking whether we can reproduce the designs. We hand the requests to our engineers. Sometimes the requests aren’t even sketches; they are just verbal thoughts about what a product should look like. We never delete from inventory any of the products we make; we just add more. Every evening, we bring the new products to our photo studio and then add them to our digital catalog.”

From supplying a few items at craft shows, Meyda has morphed into a complex business. “We’re in a number of different businesses,” asserts Cohen. “We are importers, retailers, and manufacturers. Meyda deals with a lot of market segments including Internet dealers, brick-and-mortar dealers, designers, customers who buy directly at Meyda’s retail outlets, and buyers in industries like hospitality. Starting in the 1990s, we installed a complex data-processing system to track our inventory of products, materials, and work-in-process. We have spent more than $1 million [over the years] developing the system.”

Meyda’s growth is also based on new-product development. “A few years ago, we created a lighting innovation by integrating lighting fixtures and fan mechanisms. The new collection takes a custom lighting fixture and inserts a fan mechanism inside the fixture. We call the line ‘Chandel-Airs’ and offer them in almost any size or color combination.”

Cohen and his wife Ellie, who is the company’s director of visual merchandising, are now joined in the business by their three sons Chester, Maxwell, and Benjamin. Chet, 28, focuses on production; Max, 27, is in sales, and Ben, 23, has just joined the company. Their grandmother, Ida, is still active at age 94 and runs the Nutty Putty Miniature Golf business in Old Forge.

The second generation has taken Meyda Lighting from a hobby to a recognized leader in the industry. “Meyda requires focus. I was unsuccessful in branching out into areas like home accessories and furniture,” Cohen says. “I am totally focused on lighting. I’m also a free-market guy who likes to do battle every day. The markets (home and hospitality) have picked up since the recession ended, and we’re seeing growth again … I’m always looking for talent to take us to the next level.”

Meyda Lighting is America’s decorative lamplighter. Historically, lamplighters were employees of a town who lit the street lamps at sundown and extinguished them at sunrise. They brought light to the community. They are also symbolic figures in literature who were the bearers of light. The Cohen family brings light and creative decoration not only to America’s homes but also to its streets through street lighting sold by 2nd Ave. Lighting. The third generation is poised to continue the legacy.

Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com