Rose Brand West Celebrates its Sweet 16

Friday, April 16, 2010

During the month of April, Rose Brand celebrates the 16th anniversary of the opening of its west coast facility. On April, 1st 1994 Rose Brand West opened its doors at 10856 Vanowen Street in North Hollywood, California. The facility was opened by Rose Brand veteran Peter Monahan. "Rose Brand has always been a national resource for the theater world," says Monahan, “but before we opened our LA facility we realized that 50% of our customers could be found within a seventy-five mile radius of NYC. If we found success in the country’s largest metropolitan area we thought we could also do it in the nation’s second largest metro area."

Under Monahan’s guidance Rose Brand West would focus on serving the Hollywood Film and TV industry- strictly selling wholesale duvetyn, commando, and diffusion fabrics – no yard goods, no sewing, and no special requests. "We catered to the studio gaff departments. They knew we had the 108", 120" and 140" muslin, cinenet, and commando cloth; and they knew we would get it to them when they needed it i.e., yesterday," comments Monahan. Rose Brand West was embraced by the west coast market and began to grow very quickly. After 22-months Monahan would return to the east coast but not before finding the person who would take RBW to the next level, Tina Carlin Wright.

“Before I was hired at Rose Brand I was a customer," says Tina. “Rose Brand would have what I needed and they put a premium on servicing me, the customer. When the opportunity to lead Rose Brand West was presented I could do nothing but jump at the opportunity."

Dave Daniels, RBW’s first hire, says, “Tina knows everyone! She came in with the energy and the push to go out there to make the calls and had the industry knowledge to introduce new products to Rose Brand that the industry needed.” Growing up in a family that was influential in the studio lighting business, Tina fostered great relationships with studio heads along the way. Using these connections, Tina was able to cement RBW as the "new blood in town".

"We presented a new, fresh way of doing things. We found it easy to meet our customers’ service needs and we were excited to try new things," says Tina.

Today RBW has developed into a fully functional office, warehouse and sewing room. In 1998 Tina hired Helene Romans, an LA theatrical design veteran, to start and manage RBW’s sewing room. In 2004 RBW moved from the 5,000 sq ft facility in North Hollywood to a 42,000 sq ft facility. It is the production home of all of our ShowLED products and employs nearly 90 workers to maintain the extensive inventory of fabrics and production supplies. While still maintaining a premium on servicing the urgent needs of Hollywood studios, RBW has expanded its reach to the event industry, nightclubs, architecture and beyond. Simply put by Rose Brand President George Jacobstein,"Our bi-coastal presence has allowed us to continually meet the changing demands of our unique client base. We thank our customers for supporting us in our endeavors and challenging us to provide them with better service and better products. We will never stop striving to meet and exceed the needs and wants of our customers."