By Julian Walker
Times Staff Writer
Most people know Philadelphia as the home of liberty, birthplace of democracy. Fewer are aware that the city also spawned the aluminum folding table.
Like the cheesesteak, the aluminum folding table is a concept created right here in Philly.
In fact, the 50-year-old Northeast firm that was established to market the aluminum invention is still thriving in city limits and is considered the industry leader in collapsible tables, beach chairs and accessories.
Rio Brands Inc., at 10891 Decatur Road, according to its president Warren Cohen, controls much of the aluminum table-and-chair market, having beaten back several challenges from other manufacturers.
Originally christened All-Luminum Inc. in 1946 by founder/inventor Bob Cohen, the company primarily specialized in producing folding tables during the first 30 years.
Only in the past decade or so has the company expanded its product line to include aluminum chairs, a retro-style dinette collection, outdoor furniture and fixtures, and a collection of beach accessories like sun umbrellas and tote bags.
Before all of that, however, there was a young man just home from World War II looking to make his fortune in Philadelphia.
Drawing on his wartime memories and a gift for embellishment, Bob Cohen wrote a satirical novel titled Atabrine Time under the pen name of the mythical soldier Kilroy.
Cohen convinced 5,000 of his former comrades to purchase his book for two bucks apiece and used the $10,000 he raised to start a paint-and-wallpaper distribution business that supplied materials to residential contractors.
"One day, a paperhanger complained to my father that he was tired of carrying around two sawhorses and a piece of plywood to make a table at job sites to spread wallpaper on," said Warren Cohen, recounting a story he no doubt has heard hundreds of times. "The guy said if somebody sold a portable table they would make a fortune."
The exchange gave Cohen an idea.
He approached a fellow who had two "metal-working machines" in his garage and paid him to build two prototype aluminum folding tables; one he gave to the paperhanger who inspired the invention, the other was destined for greater fame.
The elder Cohen threw the second table into the trunk of his car and drove to Sears Roebuck headquarters in Chicago, pitching the product to three departments at the store: houseware, furniture and sporting goods.
He assured the company he had the capability to mass produce the merchandise — an outright lie — and returned to Philadelphia with hundreds of orders and in serious need of a metal shop capable of filling them.
Cohen subcontracted to a local factory and began shipping tables to Sears, then the nation’s largest retailer.
His brother, George, one of nine children from a poor immigrant Jewish family that hailed from Southwest Philadelphia, near where Philadelphia International Airport sits today, joined the venture and the company prospered.
Following a successful run as partners, the brothers parted ways in 1960. It wouldn’t be the only time the company would thrive as a family affair.
Other than aluminum folding tables, collapsible cots and folding rollaway beds, the product line stayed much the same through the 1980s.
After completing his studies at Cornell University, Warren Cohen joined the company in 1975. It wasn’t his first assignment there. He first worked in the company warehouse at age 14.
When he returned, Warren asked his father what the biggest problem facing the business was.
The answer?
Manufacturing.
At that time, the company operated out of a warehouse in Kensington. Warren Cohen set out to revolutionize the way the company fabricated its products.
One solution was to have the company build new machines specific to its production needs and redesign other pieces of equipment.
By 1981, Warren Cohen had streamlined the manufacturing process — since then the company has employed in-house engineers who constantly tinker with machines to devise better ways to build aluminum furniture — but "our sales were not growing."
All-Luminum had a consistent, if unchanging list of business clients, having maintained a relationship with Sears over the years.
But the product line had largely remained the same.
Two innovations happened in the early 1980s that positioned All-Luminum to make its next forward leap.
First came a decision to import and sell outdoor furniture — beach chairs and the like — made in Europe and Asia.
The second was the advent of the personal computer.
All-Luminum recognized the potential in the industry and quickly signed a deal to import home office chairs made in Italy into America.
"We were one of the earliest (companies) to do that," said Warren Cohen, noting that his company in 1987 won a national sales award from Sears for home office chairs. "The boom of the home computer created a need for computer furniture but there was no such thing. Plenty of people were jumping into the desk business but the home-chair industry was nonexistent."
In addition to an established relationship with Sears, All-Luminum "got its first big break" when it signed a contract with a then-fledgling chain called Office Max, which selected the company to be its sole supplier of office chairs.
Around that time, Warren’s brother Mark joined the business to lead its sales division. Later, younger brother Ira was coaxed away from his work as a magazine writer to join up as head of the emerging finance and technology division.
With the troika of succession solidified, attention turned to diversifying the product line.
All-Luminum slowly withdrew from the office-chair import business in the late 1980s, shifting its attention to other types of furniture.
In 1987 the company purchased Fanta Furniture, a firm that specialized in dinette style imports.
But the pivotal decision was to segue into beach furniture and accessories.
"That really skyrocketed our business," Warren Cohen said. "We became the number-one supplier within four to five years because the concept sold so well. Nobody could do what we do with the combination of manufacturing, importing and fashion design."
The idea to make beach furniture stylish was a simple one.
"Like women’s active wear, the point is to make a fashion statement when you go to the beach. People want bathing suits that coordinate with beach tote bags, chairs and umbrellas. It’s a beach boutique look."
Prior to that innovation taking hold, added Warren, most beach chairs came in bland colors and patterns. Rio Brand products, fabricated in the Northeast, come in vivid pastels and designs.
Most major retailers carry products from the Rio line that include folding tables, beach furniture and accessories, outdoor lamps, an official line of Coca-Cola licensed outdoor furniture, camping and hunting gear and a line of American flags.
The company, which adopted the Rio name a few years back, has seven product divisions operating out of two Northeast Philadelphia factories and a plant in San Antonio.
A privately held company, officials decline to offer specific revenue figures. It employs more than 100 people, produces 800,000 pieces of folding furniture each month and is considered the industry leader in that category.
Asked if he could have anticipated the business growing this large when he started with his first $10,000 investment, company patriarch Bob Cohen said he never could have imagined it.
"In my mind if the company got to become a $5 million business that would have been fine," said Cohen, 87.
Today, Rio is much more than that. ••
For more information, visit www.riobrands.com
Reporter Julian Walker can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jwalker@phillynews.com