Emess Design Group, LLC

History

We measure our success in light years!

The company was originally founded in 1949 by Sy Stewart under the brand name of Quartite Creative Corporation which specialized in portable lighting and decorative home accessories. Sy Stewart successfully ran Quartite until 1970. In 1971 Sy formed a strategic partnership with Alvin (Al) Gindel and together they launched the Alsy brand into the marketplace.

Alsy quickly rose to the esteemed position of an industry leader within the portable lighting category and garnered a very large market share through innovation, delivering compelling designs, demonstrating responsive product development and manufacturing lighting products that express a high perceived value. These elements are still the core strengths, competencies and values of the company in the marketplace today.

Alsy developed and marketed several industry innovations such as the energy efficient “Coolbrite” –a fluorescent bulb and ballast system that was recognized not only as energy efficient, but moreover, this system was a major break through towards making torchiere’s much safer to operate. On June 27, 1997, then Secretary of Energy, Federico Pena formally recognized Michael Sininovitch of the Berkeley Lab and Michael Dene, president of Alsy for their collaborative efforts towards brining this system to market. Alsy was also the first lighting manufacturer to implement the usage of the “Quick Connect Plug System,” which enabled the company to expedite production through off-line pre assembly of lamp cord and socket sets. Additionally, the company partnered with the original developer of the first flat plug in the industry that was used on table and floor lamps.

In 1988 Alsy was purchased by Emess PLC, a lighting conglomerate that was founded in London by entrepreneur Michael Meyer and Alsy became part of the brand portfolio which contained such notables in the European market as Cresswell and Brilliant AG.

The company underwent several top executive transitions in response to changes in the retail environment, whereby the mass market retail venues began to dominate and manufacturing of lighting began to move quickly to Asia.

In 1995 Mr. Meyer tapped Michael Dene for the position of president and CEO to bring stability, organization and growth to the Alsy brand. Mr. Dene is an experienced executive in the lighting industry who successfully ran L.A. Concepts and Dynasty Classics before joining the Alsy division of successful entrepreneur, owning and running Bright Metals in Brooklyn, NY.

Mr. Dene still plays an active role with the company in the in position of Chairman and CEO. Since 2006, the day-to-day management of the company is led by a very spirited and experienced team of executives comprised of Richard Giron in the position of President; John Jordan who hold the position of Senior Vice President COO/CFO; Doug Leavy who is Vice President of Global Sourcing; Tim Haubach, Vice President of Product Development; and Marjorie Price-Director of Customer Service.