History

Artistry Designs by Reliance was founded in 1960 as an importer of artificial flowers servicing the retail trade along with a merchandising department of over 500 people visiting stores twice per month.

In 1972, we established our Hong Kong company, IJK Limited, named for then company president Ira J. Kleinberg, who had the foresight to see that over time more and more of our customers had the desire and wear with all to import, warehouse, distribute themselves. This was a real stroke of genius as the timing came at a time when the retail industry began its massive consolidation, making our in-store merchandising programs obsolete.

In the early 1990’s we saw the consumer buying habits changing dramatically and the demand for “ready to decorate” products increase. We geared up our overseas factories for more assembly of arrangements, wreaths and other “finished goods” and domestically purchased a manufacturer, Artistry Designs, which gave us an immediate presence in the higher end retailer and furniture store trade. This expanded our customer base tremendously into various trades that had never carried permanent botanicals and this type of seasonal product before. Eventually, Artistry Designs grew to where we expanded into a 400,000 sq foot facility employing over 450 workers.

Over time, we saw the independent retail market erode significantly, the competition for the larger clients business increase and the manufacturing ability of our overseas suppliers increase to a point where we made a decision to close down our domestic manufacturing and warehouses and focus our resources and energy exclusively on servicing the larger retailers and distributors worldwide to adjust to world wide macro economic trends and take advantage of our core competency of Product Design, Merchandising, Custom Project Management, and Overseas Sourcing; with a goal making “fine things affordable” to consumers all around the world.