NEW YORK, New York —Samuel Cohen has taken a small, “onesey-twosey” side business of trim for home furnishings and made it into one of the largest suppliers of trim in the world with over 20,000 items in stock.

Cohen designs and converts trim in England and France for the high end buyer with novelty items coming from many other parts of the world, including tape made in China. “The tape is sent to India where it is embroidered,” he said. He is shocked he can’t make trim in the USA.  “I am looking for partners around the world who will warehouse and ship trim. This would make us more competitive overseas. I’d also consider acquisitions.”  Sam Cohen

In spite of the difficulties of the trim business, Cohen has built a 10,000 square foot, four and one half stories of trim.   Both brothers owned both of the businesses—M&J as well as Samuel Cohen & Sons jointly until they separated the businesses for tax reasons a few years ago. Sam knew he had a potential success based on his experience at M&J because garment designers “were buying tiebacks from us and making belts out of them.” Sam is now partners with his sons Michael, who joined the business from investment banking about 11 years ago. Michael handles internal operations including export.  Hymie is the other son in the business handling domestic business after joining forces seven years ago.

Samuel Cohen & Sons was the outgrowth of a family garment trimming business known as M&J Trimming on 37th Street and Sixth Avenue here owned by Sam and his older brother Joe. When a fire hit M&J Trim and M&J Decor 13 years ago, Sam took the opportunity to open a new location uptown for home furnishings trims which was at the time just one percent of the garment trim business. (The insurance company paid off about 25 percent of the retail price of the trim lost in the fire by the way.) That new location was over a Korean grocery store and was abandoned at the time. It took 10 years for Sam to get a certificate of occupancy from New York City. In the end, he had to build an elevator in the middle of the building making it inaccessible to other tenants. This sealed his fate as the sole tenant of the building. M&J Trimming-Samuel Cohen & Sons

After the fire, he visited every trim manufacturer there was including Castellano Beltrame which has since closed. “Once they closed, many left the trim business but we stayed in it. This is not an easy business. There are thousands of items and a lot of small sales. Styles change drastically; tiebacks were once an expensive staple and now these don’t sell. We moved the tieback inventory to Europe.

The business caters to the A&D community and the average order is $100, Sam said. “It is a global business and we sell to the trade which includes distributors worldwide. We don’t buy closeouts and we spend a fortune on sampling which is free to designers. When we take an order, the product we deliver has to match the original sample.” Sam says that the web has changed the industry because all showrooms can check inventory online as well as the styles available. “It cuts down on the back and forth stuff we had before,” he explained. “The designer still wants a sample but everything has been systematized.”

Sam said that once he got started on his new Third Avenue location just steps away from the D&D Building at 979 Third Avenue, another supplier opened its doors in direct competition with Samuel Cohen & Sons. “He tried to follow everything we did by copying many styles and selling them for less. Samuel Cohen & Sons N.Y. showroom

He didn’t make it because this business is about service, service and service—not price!”    F&FI

Samuel Cohen & Sons N.Y. showroom