Erector sets for adults

Dennis Long, exhibits manager for South Meadows-based Gyford Productions, describes the company's extensive product line of high-grade aluminum parts Gyford manufactures nearly 500 pieces at its South Meadows facility as an "adult Erector Set."

"They all work together," he says. "You can build anything out of them."

Founded in Reno in 1991, Gyford Productions manufactures display hardware sold under the StandOff Systems brand. It also manufactures and sells ready-made and custom trade show exhibits and custom-made museum exhibits. Long runs the company's print shop, which provides large-format printing such as the display panels used to highlight products in trade show exhibits.

StandOff Systems, Gyford Productions' top sellers, are small wall-mounted polished aluminum barrels with end caps that can hang virtually anything. "They are a way to create distance and a bit of drama," Long says.

Other products include StructureLite hardware and furniture pieces designed by company founder Steven Gyford. The company's newest product line, the WireLite suspension system, integrates with the company's other product lines and was designed to compete against four well-established European manufacturers.

Gyford, a Londoner who still speaks with a thick British accent despite living in the United States for more than 30 years, says many European real estate offices use wire suspension systems for their showrooms. He sees the application for use in the United States in upscale boutiques and salons.

"It seems like they (foreign manufacturers) all copy each other," he says. "There are not many original designs; they've had them for 20 years. I am coming out with a better mousetrap. It's more adaptable."

Most of the manufacturing process takes place at Gyford's 20,000-square-foot facility, and he also has two satellite buildings of 5,000 square feet each that house a host of aluminum blanks and finished products, as well as a cabinet shop and the graphics department. Parts are cut from raw blanks, de-burred, polished and then inspected; only anodizing is farmed out. The company also receives structural support rods for its StructureLite line from a manufacturer in Salt Lake City.

Finding employees who understand the product line and its capabilities has been challenging, but Gyford says he now has a pretty solid crew.

The facility employs 44, with roughly two-thirds working as shop production staff: Machinists, fabricators, polishers, inspectors and cabinet-makers. The other third works in sales and marketing, and Gyford's wife Valerie runs the office. Layoffs in the construction industry recently delivered some talented salesmen with technical understanding of construction hardware, as well as good office and accounting help.

Gyford started the business with his own funds and has never sought investment capital. He estimates he's invested more than $20 million in equipment since bringing manufacturing operations in-house in the first few years of business.

"We went through some frustrating periods where they weren't keeping up with demand, so we ended up buying our own machines," he says.

Examples of Gyford's creative side dot an expansive showroom of lounge chairs, desks, tables and radically designed clocks made of aircraft-grade aluminum, wire and glass structural components don't touch and are connected through an intricate system of grabbers, grippers, pulleys and hinges. Gyford employs his products around the office for desks, computer monitor stands, stairs, shop workstations, wall partitions and of course displays. He'd like to establish the showroom as a retail location, but because of their cost his designs are more common in commercial construction.

"I see the product going beyond where it's at now," Gyford says. "It's being used more in homes, but typically orders come from 'end-specifiers' such as interior designers and architects."

Gyford started out building museum exhibits and full-cabinet structural displays, and in slower times he began selling trade show exhibits. Since many museum jobs involved separating panel displays from walls, he created a tri-fold brochure with a few components used for display purposes.

"We figured we would give it a go, and from there it just took off," Gyford says.