PAGE 14, WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1987 Keeping in fashion helped Sklar grow In 1946, when the four. Sklar brothers moved their furniture operation to Oshawa from Toronto, they had 10 employees. Twenty-five years later, after a merger with the well-established Peppler furniture company that was accompanied by a merger of old and new ideas, Sklar-Peppler now has a total workforce of 1,400, ha.f of them at the two.Whitby plan- ts on Victoria St. E. and Consumer Drive. Harry, Sam and Joe Peppler started a small furniture manufac- turing operation on College St. in Toronto just after World War II. They later moved to the former Williams Piano building in Oshawa where, in 1953, Lou joined his three brothers. "The company prospered," says Lou Sklar, noting how the operation expanded to include most of the Williams building as well as other buildings in the city. "We all seemed to gain an exper- tise in different functions of the business so that we could com- plement each other effectively," he says of the brother combination. While Harry and Sam have retired, Joe is still active as senior vice president and is still known as one of Canada's leading designers of furniture. The expertise of Lou, now president and chief executive officer of Sklar-Peppler, was in the manufacturing and finance aspect. The merger with Peppler, a wood furniture manufacturing company since the early 1900's, took place in 1966. Ed Peppler, a third generation member of the Peppler family, remains as a product manager and he, too, remains a highly regarded figure in the fur- niture industry. (In 1982, Sklar-Peppler was pur- chased by PCL Industries Ltd., based in Toronto.) "We weren't burdened with some of the old-fashioned ideas about the way· furniture should be designed and produced," says Lou Sklar of the company's growth over the years. "At all times were commit- ted to high quality. Early on, we became recognized as quality leaders." He says Sklar-Peppler was also "aggressive" in the fashion aspect of the business. "This is a fashion industry," says Sklar, comparing it to a woman buyihg a dress in a store. "It's the same with furniture...you look for style and appearance." Sales manager Doug Dobbyn says Sklar-Peppler offers a wide product range, with more than 100 different designs and 400 different fabrics for those designs. The Whitby plants manufacture the upholstered stationery products such as sofas and chairs. The Toronto plant makes the upholstered "motion" products such as recliners and sofa beds. The plant in Hanover, formerly the Peppler factory, produces the case goods such as bedroom and dining room furniture of solid-wood and veneer. Sklar says the "new direction" taken by the company enabled it to remain healthy in an industry susceptible to changes in the economy. "We took the old-time concept of skilled craftsmen and introduced modern techniques. It gave us a leg up on the competition." ONE OF THE ASSEMBLY lines at the upholstered products such as chairs and Victoria St. E. main Whitby plant which love seats. manufactures the company's stationary Wilson Furniture -53-year tradition Wilson Furniture has been a home furnishings tradition in down- town Oshawa for 53 years. Family- owned and operated throughout this period, Wilson's has grown from a 4,000-sq. ft. used-furniture store and "auction mart" to the present 18,000-sq. ft. showroom featuring more than 70 completely co-ordinated and accessorized room displays. In 1934 founder Ed Wilson opened a used-furniture store in the midst of the Depression. Located in a former roller-skating rink on Chur- ch St. (now Centre St.) Wilson began to offer new furniture at discount prices. "My father was always value conscious," explains daughter Helen (Wilson) Sherman, who- joined the business with husband Bob Sherman in 1953 and ultimately purchased Wilson's in 1962. "He in- sisted that his customers should be offered the best available product at reasonable prices," she says. Wilson's Centennial project in 1967 restored an old home adjacent to the store and converted it into a furniture gallery. During the 1970's Wilson's continued to grow. By the end of the decade, it was determined that Wilson's required a larger showroom. "We really had outgrown our old store" says Bob Sherman, president and general manager. "We wanted to offer greater selec- tion of room displays so people could see how furniture would look in their own home." A serious fire that gutted a neighboring automotive store in November 1984 caused major smoke and structural damage to Wilson's. As a result, Wilson's demelished their Centre St. store in June 1986 and commenced construction of their new showroom in the same location. "Our customers wanted us to stay in downtown Oshawa," explains Helen Sherman.