Girard Company Extends 'Soft Touch' to Saudi Arabia
GIRARD, Ohio -- Residents of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will soon be enjoying American-style hamburgers and fries while dining in booths and at counters crafted here in the Mahoning Valley.
Soft Touch Furniture, 1560 State St., Girard, Tuesday shipped its very first order to Saudi Arabia as part of a long-standing relationship the company has with Boardwalk Burgers and Fries, reports Jessie Abeid, production manager at Soft Touch.
"It started out with orders in California and Texas for Boardwalk and they wanted to us to do one of the jobs in Saudi Arabia," Abeid says.
Soft Touch custom designs, manufactures and reconditions furniture for commercial and residential clients here in the Mahoning Valley and all across the country.
Over the last several years, the company has found success in providing custom furniture for chain restaurants such as Panera Bread and Boardwalk Burgers and Fries.
Musaid Alsayyar Est, a Saudi company based in Riyadh that holds a master franchisee agreement with Boardwalk, was impressed with Soft Touch's work at other Boardwalk restaurants and requested that the company make furniture for its first restaurant in the Middle East.
The shipment consists of an entire furniture package that includes booths, tabletops and bases, dining chairs and waste receptacles.
"This will be our sixth Boardwalk restaurant," reports Megan Vickers, Soft Touch director of operations. "We have another one on the books already, before this shipment leaves."
Soft Touch employs 25 at its Girard site, and has eyes on future growth in the custom furniture market, notes Katherine Kahn, the company's marketing director.
"This is the busiest the company's ever been," Kahn says. "It's growing leaps and bounds with a lot of different franchises and repetitive business."
Kahn says the company is able to supply small, local businesses to international franchise chains. Soft Touch also works with designers and architects that are based in Pittsburgh, New York City, and Baltimore, and has secured high-profile clients such as The Plaza Hotel and the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
"We're always expanding and we're still running out of room," Vickers adds.
Soft Touch's niche is that it custom manufactures all of its products for clients, a craft that separates the business from overseas companies that rely on mass production.
"We don't have anything in stock," Abeid says. "It's all custom made. You can't get that from China. That's why The Plaza Hotel came to us."
Soft Touch supplies on average between eight and 10 restaurants per month with full furnishings, says Vickers.
"This is a very exciting time at Soft Touch," Bob Chudakoff, company president said in a statement that announced the shipment to Saudi Arabia.
"Despite the challenging economy the last few years, our manufacturing has defied the trends and increased continually year after year," Chudakoff says. "American-made products are still manufactured here in the Mahoning Valley, and Soft Touch is very optimistic about our future. We look forward to growing our local, national and international business."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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