Thomas Russell –
ONTARIO, Calif. — Former Creative Ideas President Steve Balsamo has sold a majority ownership stake in the company to business partner Nick Lanphier.


Lanphier is president of Lanpar Inc., the parent company of Oakwood Interiors, Creative Ideas and the Alan Morgan import division. The wood furniture makers merged earlier this year to help strengthen their respective product lines and manufacturing operations.

By selling his ownership stake to Lanphier, Balsamo is taking a reduced role in the company.

He had been handling Creative Ideas operations, including oversight of sales and marketing. He will still work for Lanpar, but will spend his time exclusively on sales, marketing and product development. He also will help oversee showroom operations, and plans to remain on the advisory board of the World Market Center in Las Vegas.

“I wanted to get away from behind the desk and running the operations side,” Balsamo said. “I wanted to stay involved in the industry, but in a capacity of doing the things that I like, including sales, marketing and (developing) new product.”

Lanphier will handle operations, and also will help Balsamo with product design.

“I look forward to him being able to devote the majority of his time to some of the things he does best,” Lanphier said. “He has a lot of experience in design and marketing and working with product development.”

John Morse, an industry consultant with about 25 years of manufacturing experience who helped with the merger process, heads customer satisfaction, a new position. He will be responsible for customer service, cutting schedules and quality control. 

The changes come at a period of adjustment for both companies following the merger.

The combined companies had about 300 employees at the time of the merger. Since then, Oakwood has recalled about 70 workers it had laid off earlier, bringing the work force to 370. Inventories also were reduced by nearly half, to $2.5 million.

Balsamo said it was somewhat bittersweet to scale back his role in a company he founded 27 years ago. Still, he has no regrets, particularly since he will remain involved with the business.

“I am still involved and active with the company and have no intention of leaving,” he said. “As long as we are still successful and there is a future, I will still be there.”