“It’s been a helluva ride,” declares George Studnicky III, owner of Creative Stage Lighting (CSL). “We’ve had good growth throughout our history, and now we’re rebuilding from a 32,000 square foot space and adding another 75,000 to that, which will allow Creative Stage Lighting to create another 25 jobs.”
The CSL story kind of goes against the mantra “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Being proactive, they took a business model that was doing just fine with them and improved upon it anyway. Today “we’re like three companies in one big happy pile,” he laughs. They handle exclusive lines, their manufactured line, and then also maintain service and lighting production services.
“A Good Run”
CSL will celebrate its 35th year in business next year, and it continues to be a good run for Studnicky, who started as a spotlight operator in the 1970s. When he moved to crew chief, he knew he “wanted to make the magic happen everyday. I noticed that while New Jersey had a strong nightclub band scene, the clubs weren’t necessarily well cared for. People all around were driving through [the state] to Manhattan for gear. So I read a bunch of business books, took out a second mortgage on our house for $5,000 at a ridiculously high interest rate, and me and my wife Lily founded CSL in Mount Arlington, NJ.”
The year was 1977, and the early days had them taking care of the Cast of Beatlemania and folk hero Harry Chapin. Not that it was easy, as both still kept busy working multiple jobs — he did plumbing repairs, and she worked as a waitress and substitute teacher. “It was three years before I took my first paycheck with the company,” he says.
In 1981, they moved the operation to North Creek, NY, into a 2,500 square foot building. The move resulted in a desire to shift from retail, rentals and show services to lighting services, wholesale sales and manufacturing. CSL became the first lighting rep firm for Rainbo Products (now known as CAE). “We were in a lot of music stores, and we started creating popular products like our road and flight transportation cases.”
Throughout that decade, they supported the tours of Spryo Gyra, Julio Iglesias, Paul Anka and John Denver, among others. They took on new product lines, including PAR 64s, PAR 56s, dimmers and control consoles.
In 1990s, the Studnickys continued to expand with new clients while also supporting shows for Joan Jett, Diana Ross and David Bowie. They also introduced their Dura-Flex cables and their Entertainment Power Systems power distribution racks.
A New Business Model
In the past decade CSL grew, supporting working with acts like Maroon 5, Meat Loaf, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott.
But 2009 was a tough year, and CSL reacted by looking inward, creating a strategic plan in 2010. “Our own internal analysis proved that we were doing way too much,” Studnicky says. Handling 30,000 SKUs and representing so many manufacturers “just made it difficult to do a good job handling all of them. So we decided that we wanted to narrow or focus” for 2011.
CSL now has exclusive distribution relationships with Avolites, Wireless Solution/W-DMX, JB Lighting, VMB and, most recently, Kinesys. The new business model of doing more with less allows them to focus on quality and features as opposed to just price.
“We also have a service division, and all sales management has direct access to the lines of people out there using the product.” This gives them the advantage of being able to then transfer feedback to their manufacturing partners. “We’re highly integrated in how we share information.”
CSL has also become more selective with who they partner with, too. “Before we take on anything, we beat it up pretty good. We do real-world testing and see what is failing, and feed that back to the manufacturers. And we place an enormous emphasis on education and safety.”
The same applies to CSL’s own products. The company’s Dura-Flex, a 1000V, lead-free multi-cable, has UL, CSA, CE, NOM and DENAN approvals, meeting or exceeding safety standards for North America, Europe, Mexico, and Asia.
“It took a few years meeting the requirements,” Studnicky notes. “You might be able to buy something for less, but this is a quality that allows for use beyond just North America.” Other growing lines include Entertainment Industry Tape, Suspension Solutions and Northern Case.
Son George IV runs the production rental division. “We’re all in the same building, but the divisions are pretty autonomous.” Daughter Theresa helps with their media center, works in accounts payable, is the senior George’s administrative assistant and also handles human resources duties. Lily also takes care of accounts payable and plays the role of “mother hen,” George III laughs.
George IV’s twin brother Dan started working officially in 2005, focusing on the marketing side of the business, and is aggressively taking advantage of new media. “Our webinars are posted online on our blog, Youtube, and on iTunes,” Dan says, resulting in “quite a few people having heard of us because of that — we’re working to be a resource.”
