When Joel Blumberg co-founded Kenro Industries inMineola, New York 30 years ago, his distributorshipportfolio started with Aurora, a 70 year old brand from Italy with a small footprint in the United States.
Blumberg was part of a renaissance in distributorship. Rather than passively waiting for retailers to ask for product, Blumberg sought out retailers large and small. Rather than being silent, Blumberg peppered Aurora with suggestions on how to maximize its presence in the U.S. market. When Kenro gained U.S. distributorship rights to Italy’s Montegrappa in the early 2000s, it repeated that success.
This method of distributorship—let’s call it “active distributorship”—comes from the management style of Blumberg who, along with his role as CEO, also acts as a sort of paterfamilias for his employees—the result being unusually long tenures. Danean Dymond, Bryan Hulser, and Liz Lopes began their professional careers at Kenro at ages 19 through 23, and 30 years later, they still work there. Ryan Sirignano’s tenure with Kenro is over 15 years. Even newer employees such as Neil Lipper, Cary Yeager, and Brett Braley-Palko comment on the unusual opportunity at Kenro of maintaining lifelong employment at a single company.
Braley-Palko joined Kenro only a year ago as the new Digital Marketing Manager. “Forgive me if I get choked up, but this job never feels like a job. It feels like a hobby because I enjoy it so much,” he says. “I have the potential to be here as many years as Bryan and Danean, and that makes me feel more comfortable in my role.”
Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av PEN WORLD.
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Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av PEN WORLD.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Show Your Summer Style
The newest Visconti Homo Sapiens, Iris Garden, is a tribute to the beautiful irises that bloom each spring in Florence, Italy's Iris Garden.
Good Made Better Keeps Getting Better
SUZANNE C. LEE tests Dan Keller's wood and metal reading and writing accessories and finds her childhood dream desk come to fruition.
Layers of Talent: River City Pen Company
With his skills in design and eye for details, Rich Paul crafts pens that are as beautiful as they are functional.
Fathoming the Unfathomable
The new Kanilea Pen Co. Blue Moana fountain pen and Mau Loa cap band are inspired by the ocean's depths and universal interconnectivity.
Truphae: Flexibility Is Key
This young pen shop is writing a new chapter in retail pen sales by finding unique ways to foster community.
"Winter Counts:" Transforming Non-fiction into Fiction
Creative writing typically blends what we know and experience with what we invent and imagine.
Swivodex, Sailors, and the Plastic Revolution: An Overview of Dip-less Desk Sets, Part V
The end of World War II ushered in a new era, with plastics technology opening the way to better and less costly products of all sorts.
The Mystery of the Purloined Parkers
What do G-men, mobsters, and tampons have in common? The two most epic fountain pen heists in history.
The Other Articles of Impeachment
\"Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons are commanded to keep silent, on pain of imprisonment...\"
The Road to Recovery
A recent trip to Wajima, Japan, by TACCIA's Shu-Jen Lin shows tragedy in the present but hope for the future.