 Rio brands was founded as All-Luminum Products, Inc., in 1947 with the invention of the very first portable folding table. Today Rio Brands is the oldest firm operating in the outdoor furniture industry. The story of our company’s founding is a classic telling of the American dream.
Bob Cohen grew up in a dirt poor household with 8 sisters and brothers. They shared everything – as there wasn’t enough of anything to go around. He often said that “the first one up was the best one dressed”. When his father passed away during his senior year of high school, he had no choice but to skip any thoughts of college and go to work to support the family, along with his other brothers.
In 1941, at the age of 24, Bob joined the army to fight for his country in World War II. He served for 4 years, earning a purple heart and bringing home some shrapnel in his legs as souvenirs at the end of the war. When he returned to civilian life, he had only one asset - a list of the names and addresses of the 10,000 who had served in his battalion in New Guinea during the war. So, he used that asset to his best advantage – he wrote a book called “Attabrine Times”, a tongue-in-cheek chronicle of the life of a typical GI in the South Pacific during the war years. He sold 9,000 copies of the book for $1.00 a piece to those 10,000 former battalion members.
With cash in his pocket for the first time in his life, Bob started up a paint and wallpaper store  with his brother. During the course of the first 2 years, they had numerous paper hangers ask if there was any type of flat surface that could be carried around folded and then opened up to lay paper down on, so that the paste could be applied to the back.
Seeing a need for a product like that, Bob approached a friend who did some metal working in his garage, and together they developed a product made completely out of aluminum (lightweight), that had folding legs and a flat top that folded in the middle, with a handle to be carried like a suitcase. The "paper hanger's table" was an instant hit in the store, and they sold over 100 units in the first three months.
Knowing an opportunity when he saw one, Bob put a sample in the trunk and drove off to Chicago, and (not knowing you were supposed to sell an item to just one department) he sold that table to four different buyers at Sears and Roebuck! When asked about his factory capacity, he said "we can make all you need". The next day, he returned home to Philadelphia, took out a loan from the bank, and went into the table manufacturing business!
In the 60 years hence, All-Luminum Products, Inc. has not only blossomed into the leading  supplier of casual folding furniture in the world, but has shipped over 25 million folding tables. In 2005, Bob Cohen passed away at the age of 87. He remained active in the business into his late 70's and was known and respected as the elder statesman of the entire industry.
Today, RIO Brands is managed by Bob’s three sons- Warren, Mark, and Ira. The company headquarters are housed in a 250,000 square foot manufacturing and warehousing facility in Philadelphia, PA, plus a second 100,000' facility in San Antonio, TX. In China we operate in more than 1.4 million square feet and employ more than 1500 workers. Our brand new 20,000' showroom at our main China facility in Wuyi, Zhejiang Province, China is a marvelous place for our buyers to visit.
The brothers try hard to do business in the fashion that their father taught them, with honesty and integrity. As such, the company's mission statement reads, "RIO is a family business dedicated to being a leader in service, quality and innovation in each market we serve, committed to the highest standards of ethics in our relationships with our customers, employees and vendors." It's not easy maintaining those high standards in today's ultra-competitive business world, but the example Bob Cohen set is a great one to follow.
RIO has a unique new strategic approach to manufacturing in China, taking advantage of an exploding new industrial opportunity in the North.
We now have more than 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing space involving 1500 workers, giving us the production capacity and warehousing to build up for large orders - we’re capable of building 500 containers per month! Unlike 95% of China factories that make and load goods immediately, RIO builds and holds stock and can accommodate mixed container orders or large orders requiring a tight shipping window. |
