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Date: August 9,1999

Section: New Jersey”s Finest

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Title: A Quiet Giant in Manufacturing

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Even though they have been called a dying breed in New Jersey for many years, a visit to one of the state”s long-time manufacturers is often like stepping through a portal into the past. While the business may use up-to-date technology and operate out of the most modern of facilities it is, beneath the shiny surface, an old soul.

On a recent afternoon, David B. Gerstein and a guest hurried through the 250,000-square-foot warehouse of Thermwell Products in Mahwah, where Gerstein is CEO. As they passed row after towering row of boxed Thermwell items, many stamped with the familiar Frost King name, the visitor couldn”t help but feel a connection with a forgotten time and place. When we reached the line, where an animated shift of workers processed, pulled and packaged goods, Gerstein moved more slowly, greeting his employees and pointing out various aspects of the operation. “This is our felt weatherstripping,” he explained, holding up a dark coil no larger than a garden snake.

And suddenly we are back in East Newark in the 1940s and 1950s, where Frank Gerstein, David”s father, an immigrant from Russia, owned an indoor-outdoor carpet factory. When that industry had run its course, Frank cut the ends off his carpets and sold them as felt weatherstripping. It was those humble beginnings–perhaps some of the first attempts at demanufacturing and remanufacturing or breaking something down to build something else–that launched Thermwell Products in 1965. The carpet business had been called Thermwall, a name that wouldn”t work for weatherstripping–hence, the “a” was replaced with an “e.”

Gerstein and his twin brother, Mel, who prefers not to have a title, aren”t much for talking about the past. Nor are they willing to offer details on the evolution of their family business, but to say that the manufacturer moved to Paterson when they were boys and stayed there until a few months ago, when they decided to relocate their main operations to their distribution center in Mahwah as a way to reduce costs. Two of Thermwell”s factories still remain in the city.

But what is obvious to any observer is the fact that David and Mel Gerstein have quietly built a multi-million dollar weatherstripping business–America”s largest maker of packaged all-season weatherstrip. From the days of selling carpet edges, Thermwell now makes and supplies to retailers 1,000 different products, from several types of weatherstripping to pipe and duct insulation, air conditioner filters, screening, different types of tapes and floor and carpet trim–to name a few. The company also operates two subsidiaries: Lever Manufacturing, a machinery business that sells devices for slitting roll stock materials such as pressure sensitive tapes, paper and textiles, and Filmco, a plastics extrusion business. Thermwell employs some 600 people around the country.

Referring to the purchase of Filmco in 1981, Mel Gerstein says simply, “We”ve bought many small businesses over the years as a way to diversify.” In addition to Paterson, Thermwell has manufacturing plants in Zebulon, North Carolina; Newnan, Georgia; and Kankakee, Illinois and, other than Mahwah, distribution facilities in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kankakee, Illinois and Sparks, Nevada.

Jerry Giordano, Thermwell”s CFO, just joined Thermwell three months ago from a long stint with Colorite Plastics, a manufacturer of hoses and other products in Ridgefield. When it came time for him to look for a job, Thermwell was at the top of his list. “As an outsider having worked in a similar industry, I can tell you that the Frost King brand is recognized as a phenomenal name,” Giordano explains. “They have been in the marketplace for many years and are considered a real innovator.” Giordano admits that Thermwell has been streamlining in recent years, cutting back on some of the products it used to import. Nevertheless, he says, revenues have been increasing steadily, at an average of 5.8% annually.

Back in David Gerstein”s office, still bare and scattered with boxes from the recent move, he and his brother offer occasional tidbits about their business strategy–often completing each other”s sentences. David keeps constant eye contact with his twin over the formidable stacks of order acknowledgements on his desk. “We”ve worked very hard through the years and now have a fantastic customer base,” Mel says, listing such names as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Kmart and Sears among the retailers who sell Thermwell”s products. “Our future is through acquisitions or consolidation in our industry, though it”s harder to go into new industries in 1999. We will grow with our customer base.”

Toward the back of David”s office are two folding chairs decorated with New Jersey Nets” team logos. Gerstein was part of the basketball team”s seven-man Nets” ownership group that was bought out last summer by a group of New Jersey businessmen, including philanthropist Raymond Chambers and real estate developers, Stanley Gale and Finn Wentworth. Gerstein is now the Nets” vice-chairman. He is as tight-lipped about that role as he is about his position at Thermwell, but his eyes widen a bit at the mention of the Nets” pending move to Newark. It is, after all, where Thermwell got its start.