Robinson increases jobs, sales after Oneida licensing deal
Cheektowaga firm reopens warehouse
Robinson Home Products is going through a growth spurt in Cheektowaga, thanks to its licensing agreement with Oneida Ltd.
Robinson, a kitchen tool and gadget distributor, has a 30-year deal to make and sell Oneida-brand flatware and dinnerware for all consumer markets in the United States. It plans to add 88 jobs and has already filled 28 of those positions.
Robinson, which ships to big retail names like Walmart and Target, projects annual sales of $150 million, double its sales before the Oneida deal. It is investing $16.1 million in its business and has followed through on a pledge to reuse a warehouse at its Walden Avenue headquarters, a decision driven by the Oneida activity.
The company on Thursday marked the reopening of the warehouse and the completion of the Oneida deal.
Robert B. Skerker, Robinson's chief executive officer, said the Oneida agreement "creates a very stable future for the company."
"The Oneida brand is an iconic brand," he said. "It has the No. 1 market share in flatware. It has over 90 percent unaided [customer] awareness in the marketplace. It's an extraordinary opportunity to be able to take over a brand with those kinds of demographics and be responsible for [it]."
As enticing as the opportunity was, he said, the economic climate made borrowing money and completing the deal "very difficult." Skerker credited M&T Bank, Empire State Development Corp. and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, which provided a $2 million loan through an affiliate, with helping cobble together the deal.
Robinson, which has a work force of just over 100 people, was sold to its employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2007. Prior to that, it was family-owned.
Skerker said he believes Buffalo Niagara's economy would benefit from cultivating more "intellectual capital" companies like Robinson, amid continued job losses in the manufacturing sector. Its employees are not involved in manufacturing but instead handle work such as designing products. The region is located close to large population centers and has good highway and rail access, making it easy to import goods from places like Asia and then distribute them, he said.
"If you think about all the products you find on the shelf when you go to shop, most of those products were created someplace different from where they were manufactured," Skerker said.
"Those are the kinds of companies that Buffalo and Western New York, I think, should be looking out for, people that employ college graduates that are doing creative work, that are doing logistics work, that are doing planning and purchasing," he said. "And that's how we can create a new economy in Western New York."
Skerker estimates that 33 percent of Robinson's employees moved here from outside the area because of the job and because they liked the amenities Buffalo has to offer.
County Executive Chris Collins, who has known Skerker for almost 25 years, praised his business acumen.
"Knowing Bob as long as I have, he's the most strategic-thinking individual I have ever met," Collins said. "Everything he does has a plan to it. He is a visionary.
"Being such a visionary, he has seen a way to grow this company beyond anyone's comprehension," Collins added, referring to its origins as Robinson Knife in 1921.
Robinson was awarded a $400,000 state grant to help offset machinery and equipment costs.
Dennis M. Mullen, Empire State Development Corp.'s chairman and CEO designate, said Skerker has followed through on his pledge to add jobs as well as his commitment to "do the best that he could" to use some products from upstate manufacturers.
Robinson has placed orders for four new patterns with Sherrill Manufacturing, a factory near Syracuse formerly run by Oneida. It also plans to buy "green" products, made out of recycled water bottles, from Harbec Plastics, near Rochester.
Reopening the Cheektowaga warehouse was welcome news to town officials.
Three years ago, Robinson needed more space and acquired a former Oneida warehouse on Bailey Avenue in Buffalo, closing its Cheektowaga warehouse in the process. The move enabled Robinson to tap into Empire Zone benefits at the larger Bailey Avenue site, but it generated criticism from town officials.
Robinson's offices never left the Cheektowaga site, but Skerker had pledged to town officials that the adjacent warehouse would not be abandoned.
The Cheektowaga warehouse has 89,000 square feet, compared with 220,000 square feet at the Bailey Avenue site, which with higher ceilings has four times the amount of cubic area for storage. Robinson will use both locations.
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