Zak Designs Trims Work Force Dinnerware Distributor Cites Need To Balance Payroll, Sales

Zak Designs Inc., an Airway Heights dinnerware distributor named last year as one of the fastest-growing companies in America, just went on a diet.

In a meeting Monday, owner Irv Zakheim told workers that he was laying off 15 employees and calling for a temporary hiring freeze to improve operating efficiency and bring company payroll in line with sales.

“We’re just trying to control our growth,” said Zakheim, who in 1992 moved the company, with five employees, from Los Angeles to Spokane. “We’re going to grow another 30 percent this year and run our company as smoothly as possible.

“But it’s unfortunate, and we’ve never had to do this,” Zakheim added. “This is a settling period.”

After four consecutive years of adding employees, Zak Designs was forced to make cuts in nearly every department, Zakheim said. The move sliced about 20 percent from the company’s $3.6 million annual payroll and reduced total employment from 147 to 132 people.

The layoffs come less than a year after Inc. Magazine listed Zak Designs as the 288th fastest-growing private company in America, seventh in Washington state. The magazine said Zak Designs annual sales had risen to $20.3 million in 1994, an increase of 815 percent in three years.

Zakheim declined to disclose current figures. However, he said the company is profitable.

Zak Designs is a wholesale distributor of adult, children and infant dinnerware sets to major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.

Zak Designs artists design the acrylic plates, bowls, tumblers and eating utensils with animated and live-action characters licensed from Disney, Warner Brothers and others. Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and the Lion King are among dozens of characters that Zak Designs uses.

The company ships the designs and orders to Chinese factories, where the dinnerware is manufactured and returned in bulk shipments.

Workers at Zak Designs’ 125,000-square-foot warehouse sort and package the sets and ship them to retailers.

, DataTimes