Long Island Business News, Dec 21, 2007 by Ambrose Clancy

What literally started in a dumpster four decades ago had sales of more than $30 million last year.

Growth has been constant and spectacular for Bellport’s Omega Moulding, which manufactures, imports and distributes picture and mirror frames. There has been no magic formula for success, said David Merzin, president of the family-run firm, just strict adherence to fundamental principles. Fundamental doesn’t mean easy to achieve, since part of Omega’s strategy has been to keep things simple while the business grows more complex and to demand that management have a sense of personal sacrifice.

In 1967, Bernard Portnoy, a shop teacher and dean of students from Laurelton passed a dumpster and noticed some picture frame moldings destined for a landfill. He took them home and went to work in his basement, framing antique postcards and putting them up for sale at local flea markets.

At a hectic market in the parking lot of Lord & Taylor in Manhasset a woman admired his work and handed him a card, which he pocketed, thinking she was just looking for a discount. Later that night, he read her card and discovered she was a buyer for B. Altman. After showing her some frames, she wrote orders and soon Portnoy’s income from his frame-making business was surging ahead of his teacher’s salary.

In 1990, when Merzin – Portnoy’s son-in-law – came aboard, the company was clicking along with sales of $4.5 million with an employee staff of 30 which has since grown to 185. The management team went back to the basic principles of continuing to make good products and sell them at reasonable prices. “When it comes to customers, dot all I’s and cross all T’s and treat them well,” Merzin said.

Think there’s money to be made in molding? If you say yes, you’re thinking right. According to the Photo Marketing Association, 8.2 million U.S. households purchased custom frames in 2006 at an average cost of $172. The PMA’s research noted that Americans shelled out $2.4 billion on custom framing services last year.

But sometimes you have to sacrifice some of the green to prosper with a family-run firm, Merzin said, meaning “always reinvest proceeds back into the company.”

Maintaining visibility was not just empty business jargon for Omega but became a practical plan helped by reinvestment in an expanding sales force that went from six people in the early 90s to the more than 40 on board now.

Not standing pat has boosted Omega’s surge, from moving out of Portnoy’s Laurelton basement to Bellport and beyond. Ten years ago, Omega’s brand was put on buildings in Los Angeles, Memphis and Toronto. Next month, they’ll cut the ribbon on a 65,000-square-foot distribution facility in Chicago.

Merzin points to Omega’s presence in Canada as a significant milestone in the company’s growth.

“We had to build the back end of the facility in Toronto, which took management to a whole new level,” he said. Back end means building a more sophisticated tech system with computers programmed to handle new inventory, tariffs, duties and working with a different currency, Merzin said
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