Since founding her company in 1979, Gloria Duchin has made her name synonymous with quality gold-plated Christmas ornaments, corporate recognition items and gift engravables. Guided by a principled commitment to delivering a superior product through solid business management, she has built a reputation for Gloria Duchin, Inc. that extends from Canada to the Middle East.
"Besides being creative, Gloria is also possessed with a very sound business sense," says vice president of sales and marketing, Robyn Smalletz.
That business sense drew Duchin away from her successful career in New York area retail firms to capitalize on a need she saw for fine, mass-produced ornaments and engravables. Rhode Island, with its long tradition in jewelry manufacture, was the obvious choice for basing operations.
As a result, the company is now the leading U.S. manufacturer of metal Christmas ornaments, shipping 10 million a year to such major retail outlets as Macy's, Target, and Wal-Mart. Gloria Duchin Inc. has grown from its beginnings in a 10,000-square-foot manufacturing operation employing eight people to a 40,000-square-foot East Providence factory with more than 150 employees (during peak season Ñ March to September). Wal- Mart stores alone account for 2,200 individual product shipments.
And, Smalletz points out, in spite of such massive volume, Gloria Duchin Inc. always makes its shipping deadlines.
"The success of this company is a testimony to its management," she says.
That management team, lead by Duchin herself, is a family operation. Her husband, David, holds the positions of vice chairman, executive vice president and general manager of the corporation. Her son-in-law, Theodore Smalletz is the president and chief financial officer and her daughter, Robyn, presides over the sales and marketing aspects of the operation.
Smalletz says Gloria and David Duchin have set tremendously high standards. "My respect for my family grows continually," she points out. Everyone in the family held a management position with a fortune 500 company prior to being recruited by Duchin. "We each brought with us our own areas of expertise."
With the combined expertise of the family members, Gloria Duchin Inc. intends to move aggressively into the next century. The company has developed tailor-made shipping software and installed a computer network which should serve its needs for years to come. "Our biggest expenditures over the past few years have been in technology," says Theodore Smalletz. "We are a much more productive company than we were just a short time ago. We will continue to be: That's where the challenge is."
That challenge translates into a push toward expanding the product base while maintaining its traditionally high standards. Gloria Duchin Inc. has already supplemented its line of more than 1,000 traditional ornaments and recognition items with licensing contracts to manufacture screen printed metal items for such high profile clients as the Walt Disney corporation.