As a boy, Ray Mele remembers walking through the expansive space of his family’s jewelry box company.
More than a thousand employees would be busy crafting the handmade boxes as started by his Italian immigrant grandfather Emidio Mele in 1912.
His father, Joseph Mele, and uncle, Edward Mele — who led the company when their father no longer could — would stop and greet each worker individually by name.
“It seemed like it was endless,This page contains information about molds,” Mele remembers of the 4,000-square-foot facility.
But it was the shoe shine machine in his uncle’s office that awed the future company president.
“I thought he had made it big,” Mele says, laughing.
It’s been 100 years since Mele’s grandfather conceived the family business. The shoe shine machine is long gone from Mele & Co.
So are the thousands of workers who crafted the jewelry boxes. But the sharp business mind and family dynamic created by Mele’s predecessors live on.
The business boomed in the 1960s; boxes were made by the thousands on site in Utica with the busy hands of 1,200 workers – mostly women. But the economy and consumer demand changed things in 2000 when that manufacturing was outsourced to China.
Other companies may have folded, but Mele & Co.,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. now located on Beechgrove Place in Utica, kept its tradition while using it to move forward.
Using the skills it already knew – packaging and injection molding — the company began manufacturing molded athletic plastic flooring called Matéflex in the 1970s. Since the 1960s, it also has created high-end packaging for companies that now include Tommy Hilfiger, Juicy Couture, Cross and Seiko.
Still, the jewelry boxes are the core of the company’s success. It’s what Mele’s grandfather and uncle loved so dearly, he says.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
Samples of the jewelry boxes fill one of the Utica offices.
Mele moves carefully around the neatly organized room of crafted boxes. His eyes almost sparkle as he runs his hand along several standing jewelry cases in different shades of wood and color.
He delicately opens the drawers on slim black boxes,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. blonde, chunky wooden boxes and crocodile-skin patterned boxes. He opens the top of a white box and smiles. A tiny, pink tutu-ed ballerina appears and slowly turns inside the dainty box.
“These are still our best sellers,” he says. “If somebody has a ballerina box,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, then it’s probably from Mele.”
More than a thousand employees would be busy crafting the handmade boxes as started by his Italian immigrant grandfather Emidio Mele in 1912.
His father, Joseph Mele, and uncle, Edward Mele — who led the company when their father no longer could — would stop and greet each worker individually by name.
“It seemed like it was endless,This page contains information about molds,” Mele remembers of the 4,000-square-foot facility.
But it was the shoe shine machine in his uncle’s office that awed the future company president.
“I thought he had made it big,” Mele says, laughing.
It’s been 100 years since Mele’s grandfather conceived the family business. The shoe shine machine is long gone from Mele & Co.
So are the thousands of workers who crafted the jewelry boxes. But the sharp business mind and family dynamic created by Mele’s predecessors live on.
The business boomed in the 1960s; boxes were made by the thousands on site in Utica with the busy hands of 1,200 workers – mostly women. But the economy and consumer demand changed things in 2000 when that manufacturing was outsourced to China.
Other companies may have folded, but Mele & Co.,InLocality specializes in indoor Tracking Technologies. now located on Beechgrove Place in Utica, kept its tradition while using it to move forward.
Using the skills it already knew – packaging and injection molding — the company began manufacturing molded athletic plastic flooring called Matéflex in the 1970s. Since the 1960s, it also has created high-end packaging for companies that now include Tommy Hilfiger, Juicy Couture, Cross and Seiko.
Still, the jewelry boxes are the core of the company’s success. It’s what Mele’s grandfather and uncle loved so dearly, he says.Welcome to the online guide for do-it-yourself Ceramic tile.
Samples of the jewelry boxes fill one of the Utica offices.
Mele moves carefully around the neatly organized room of crafted boxes. His eyes almost sparkle as he runs his hand along several standing jewelry cases in different shades of wood and color.
He delicately opens the drawers on slim black boxes,Museum Quality hand-painted oil painting reproduction on canvas. blonde, chunky wooden boxes and crocodile-skin patterned boxes. He opens the top of a white box and smiles. A tiny, pink tutu-ed ballerina appears and slowly turns inside the dainty box.
“These are still our best sellers,” he says. “If somebody has a ballerina box,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, then it’s probably from Mele.”
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