Company
History
The Blickman story is one of
all-American pluck, determination and dedication to doing things the
right way!
The
company originated in 1898, the year Sophia Blickman began
manufacturing pots and pans in her garage, and selling to neighbors in
her New York City metro-area community. The quality of her cookware
made Sophia's business thrive. By 1923 the garage was no longer
adequate as a production facility. So the S. Blickman Company, as it
was then known, moved to a plant in Weehawken, New Jersey. It wasn't
until years later―in the depths of the Great Depression―that an
employee persuaded her that hospitals, as well as homemakers, needed
durable pots and pans, too.
Eager
to explore a new market, Sophia began marketing to hospitals. Thus was
born an extraordinary legacy of service to the nation's healthcare
industry. Sustained through lean economic times by its reputation for
excellence, the company grew, slowly but steadily, and began to add
other hospital equipment, fabricated of stainless steel, to its product
line. Soon the S. Blickman Company name was familiar, not only in
hospital kitchens, but throughout major health-care facilities as well.
Fred
Heisman, Blickman's next President, joined the company as a purchasing
executive in 1947, to be followed four years later by Ben Freedman,
eventual Chairman of the Board, and an expert at estimating. By 1975,
the two men acquired the company's medical-surgical division, renamed
it Blickman Health Industries, Inc., and moved it to Fairlawn, New
Jersey. Success compelled a recent move to larger quarters, its current
71,000-square-foot plant in Lodi, New Jersey.
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