When Terry Lesniewicz designed his new office furniture including aluminum-clad wood conference-room table, library cabinets, and reception desk he turned to Allied Plastics Inc.
We re designers, and we re pretty picky, said Mr. Lesniewicz, president and owner of Lesniewicz Associates, a design and advertising firm with offices in Toledo, Perrysburg, and elsewhere. We had a hard time finding [a fabricator] that picky.
He said he has been ordering custom-made products from the Toledo company for a decade.
Allied was started 20 years ago, in early 1986, by two men who were in between permanent jobs.
Jeff Hood was helping his brother do plastic-fabrication jobs, and Leonard Pudlicki, a woodworker, had just lost a job. I had worked for others, but they had trouble staying in business, said Mr. Pudlicki, vice president.
It was kind of tough at first, but work always came in.
Initially, the firm did only plastics work. But some early clients were chain-store retailers that wanted a variety of materials for their merchandise-display units.
Since then, the business expanded into wooden office and home furniture, cabinetry, and bedroom suites. Now, it is about half woodwork and half fabricated plastics, including windshields and consoles for boaters, said Mr. Hood, president.
We do a lot of work for marinas, including some in Sandusky and some in Canada and New York, he said.
Among the items the firm has fabricated are trophy cases, sun visors for buses, cab enclosures for trucks, water-ski platforms for power boats, and bullet-proof turntables for carry-out workers to use for dispensing merchandise to customers.
It also made a lot of storm windows last year, as people prepared for higher fuel costs. We also do a lot of work altering cabinets for the new [larger] TVs, Mr. Hood said.
Regular customers include ad agencies, malls, hospitals, and restaurants, he said.
The owners said they expect revenue to hit $500,000 for the year, a gain over 2004 but still below the best years of the middle to late 1990s.
The partners, Mr. Hood said, have learned to be more efficient and are doing better financially with five employees than they did with eight or nine five years ago.
He said the firm especially seeks repeat business. I believe every day we have a job from a repeat customer, he said, adding that about half of his firm s business is from existing customers.
Among them is Dean Sparks, co-founder of DRS Industries Inc., a Holland firm that makes prototypes for plastics molders. Basically, I keep going back because I get what I want at a fair price, he said. He has ordered a number of custom-made furniture pieces for his office and home.
Allied s partners said the business has survived because they work well together. There have been a couple of times when we butted heads, but in all, I m glad we [went into business], said Mr. Pudlicki.
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Contact Homer Brickey at: homerbrickey@theblade.com or 419-724-6129.
First Published January 2, 2006, 1:21 p.m.
