Michigan Firm Buys Upscale L.A. Lighting Supplier

A 53-year-old Los Angeles wholesale supplier of expensive lamps and chandeliers has been purchased by a Michigan company that has been buying up big names in quality home furnishings like Drexel Heritage and Henredon.

Masco Corp. of Monroe, Mich., announced last week that it has bought Marbro Lamp, a company with 60 employees that imports porcelain, crystal, brass vases and other objects for lamps that typically sell at retail for $1,250 and up. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Marbro sells “an Architectural Digest-type of product,” Masco President Wayne Lyon said. “We were very interested in their leadership position.” About 90% of Masco’s sales are in products that are leaders “in their niche or industry segment,” he said.

The sale comes at a time of consolidation among home furnishings companies and at an acquisitive time for Masco, which purchased Drexel Heritage Furnishings in October for about $280 million and Henredon Furniture Industries in July for about $300 million.

Wallace W. (Jerry) Epperson Jr., a securities analyst who follows the home furnishings industry for Wheat, First Securities in Richmond, Va., said that with the Marbro purchase and others Masco is seeking “a high profile with the designer-decorator field and the high-end consumer.” This segment of the market, he says, is “less cyclical, less likely to buy imports and less concerned about price.”

Marbro lamps appeal to many high-end consumers and have “good classic lines that fit in many environments,” Beverly Hills interior designer Douglas Pierce Hiatt said.

As part of the purchase, the company’s owner Clara Markoff will retire as president but remain as a consultant to the company. “It’s very exciting,” Mrs. Markoff said. “They can go very far with it.”

She also said that, at age 80, “It was time to retire.” The new president is James Caver, who has been vice president and with the company since 1959.

Marbro was founded in 1934 by the late Morris and Elliott Markoff, who moved from Chicago. Clara Markoff took over the business after the death of her husband Morris.

The firm has a factory near downtown Los Angeles where vases and art objects are converted to lamps and other accessories and where lamp shades are custom-made. In addition, there are company showrooms there, in San Francisco, Dallas and High Point, N.C.