taylor companies type private industry furniture founded 1816 headquarters bedford ohio usa key people jeff baldassari president brett meals executive vp bob schroeter treasurer nancy paladino national sales manager website www.thetaylorcompanies.com the taylor companies consisting of the taylor chair company and the taylor desk company was an american manufacturer of upholstered wood office seating and wood casegoods . taylor s primary manufacturing plant and headquarters were located in bedford ohio . it also had a second manufacturing plant located in lynwood california . the company was often touted as being the oldest privately held furniture manufacturer in the united states . 1 history edit established in 1816 by benjamin fitch the taylor companies had been privately held for seven generations and was recognized as the oldest manufacturing company in existence in the western reserve . 2 3 benjamin fitch started making split bottom chairs in 1816 at his cabin at the corner of what is now libby and warrensville center roads in bedford township now part of maple heights ohio . 2 one of the young men working for benjamin fitch was william o. taylor . in 1841 he married mr. fitch s daughter harriet . by the mid 1840s william taylor had taken over active management of the company although benjamin fitch remained involved in applying his skills to production methods and tools . 2 4 the taylor companies factory 1899 in 1871 w. o. taylor s son vincent a. taylor took over the active management of the company and the name was changed to w. o. taylor and son . in 1876 the international exhibition in philadelphia awarded the company a prize for outstanding products and methods . 2 in 1885 it was incorporated as the taylor chair company . 1 as an ohio corporation it began with capitalization of 100 000 and an issue of 1 000 shares of stock . 2 following incorporation the company grew in volume of sales and in the breadth of its product lines . by 1907 there were 102 different designs of chairs being produced . 1 in 1913 the company began the design of office furniture . when world war i broke out the company supplied furniture for military offices throughout the country . 2 the company survived the depression and during the world war ii years of 1941 1945 it became extremely busy filling government orders in 1945 the pent up civilian demand for furniture produced high levels of business . by 1947 the company employed the largest number of people in its history . 2 the 1950s and 1960s saw a continued expansion of product lines including chairs sofas and tables available to professional interior designers . the alertness of the taylor chair co. in responding to changing market conditions has been a major factor in the success of the company . 2 on june 8 2012 the taylor company announced that the company would close . the last day of regular operation was june 15 2012 . parts of the plant remained open for a few weeks to complete orders . equipment used for production is being auctioned in august 2012 . no plans for the building have been announced . company archives and artifacts were divided between the bedford historical society and the western reserve historical society . 2 sustainability edit taylor initiated various sustainable manufacturing practices . in july 2006 taylor moved to a new factory on a remediated 50 acre brownfield that had been abandoned since 1987 . 5 the former brownfield is now called tinker s creek commerce park and it is where taylor operates its bedford ohio factory and headquarters . by investing in energy efficient equipment having an energy audit and implementing better practices in the factory taylor s aggregate consumption of natural gas electricity and water was reduced by 59 % at the new bedford ohio manufacturing plant . 90 % of the manufacturing waste that was generated at the bedford ohio factory was diverted away from local landfills through recycling upcycling and composting . 6 at the lynwood california factory 60 % of the manufacturing waste was diverted from local landfills . taylor reduced its costs by 20 000 through waste reduction and 80 000 through energy conservation efforts . 7 in april 2010 taylor became the first furniture manufacturer member of the climate registry . 8 taylor has received numerous national and regional recognition of its sustainability efforts north american sustainable enterprise people s choice award 2010 9 crain s cleveland business emerald award 2010 10 north american sustainable enterprise of the year 2011 11 sjf institute green jobs award 2011 12 pillar award sustainable business practices 2011 13 the taylor cos. a nearly 200 year old company that bills itself as the oldest furniture manufacturer in the united states announced that it plans to go out of business . august 8 2012 14 on september 18 2012 the gasser chair co. of youngstown ohio announced that it had acquired the intellectual property of taylor chair co. this will allow gasser chair a manufacturer of commercial seating for the entertainment and hospitality industries to expand into office seating . the agreement also allows gasser chair to use the taylor brand name and customer list . 15 references edit a b c http ech.case.edu ech cgi article.pl id tcc a b c d e f g h i http www.bedfordohiohistory.org build taylor.php taylor chair co. the encyclopedia of cleveland history . case western reserve university . retrieved 5 february 2016 . caldwell janet 2012 . images of america bedford and bedford township . charleston sc arcadia publishing . p. 11 . isbn 0738593699 . http www.epa.state.oh.us portals 30 brownfield conference docs craig % 20kasper steve % 20giles kara % 20allison mike % 20malis.pdf http www.marketplace.org topics sustainability reducing trash saves company cash http gogreenplus.org 2010 certified green plus taylor companies tackles red tape as it cleans up ohio brownfields http www.theclimateregistry.org members http gogreenplus.org 2010 green plus north american sustainable enterprise award winners announced http www.crainscleveland.com marketing eaarchives10.html http gogreenplus.org 2011 2011 green plus award north american sustainable enterprise finalists announced http www.citigroup.com citi press 2011 111109 b.htm http www.e4s.org news taylor companies wins pillar award sustainable practices http www.crainscleveland.com article 20120608 free 120609843 1003 http businessjournaldaily.com company news gasser buys taylor chair plans new product lines 2012 9 18 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title the taylor companies & oldid 743910011 categories furniture companies of the united statescompanies based in ohiomanufacturing companies established in 1816hidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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