I had no idea where I would put the products, but I just knew I had to buy them. “At the time my wife and I were living in a 800 sq ft apartment. I then called a freight forwarder and ordered a lot more products. I drove to Toronto and sold the whole load to an independent electrical distributor. “Driving home from California, I stopped in Chicago, parked in front of the factory, changed my jeans for a tie and bought a vanload of products. I came across a good line while spending time surfing in southern California, but couldn’t become an agent for them, so they said ‘Buy the company.’ At the time I already knew something about the lighting business and was thinking of becoming an agent, but you need a line to start with. I like to say that I am an ‘overnight success’ after 40 years.
Steve Silverstein, Liteline’s founder and president, started offering distributors the simple service of small run custom fabrication with quick delivery. Since every fluorescent fixture was built with slightly different dimensions, it was exceptionally challenging for electrical distributors to supply replacement lenses. One can read on the company website that in the late 1970s there was a need for an aftermarket lens replacement for fluorescent fixtures. Photo: L-R: Liteline’s Steve, Mark, Daniel and Sarah Silverstein But instead of sharing meals, they now share business plans and goals for the future. Steve will join us during the visit, part of which takes place around the old family dining table, around which the family still gathers. Three children, Daniel, Mark and Sarah, are actively involved in the business their parents founded in 1979, but it’s Mark, VP Sales and Marketing, who tells me the story that brought me to their facility. Here, work, family and leisure are interrelated, and after meeting president Steve Silverstein I might even add that it could be genetic. I have met several members of the Silverstein family on various occasions, and each time I have seen a fire burning in their eyes - a fire of passion and pleasure. The beginnings of a successful company are often the result of a happy confluence of circumstances where intuition, knowledge, economic or social factors and, it must be said, a certain amount of luck all come together.
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