NOVA RETURNS TO MEXICO
Casual Contemporary Lighting, Home Accents Company Returns To Roots With New 20,000-Square-Foot Factory Opening

HUNTINGTON PARK, CA (SEPTEMBER 5, 2008)-- As the next step in its full-scale expansion strategy. NOVA will open the doors to a new 20,000-square–foot manufacturing operation near the Otay Mesa border in Mexico on September 15, 2008. Expanding the company’s product assortment and prototyping capabilities, while also streamlining logistical, freight, labor issues and costs, the new factory represents a coming home of sorts for the company. NOVA used to manufacture in Tecate and Tijuana from 1996 to 2001 when all production was moved to Taiwan and eventually mainland China.

“With continued dislocations in the labor market, increasing labor costs and increases in ocean and inland freight costs, it became logical to set up a manufacturing operation in Mexico once again,” said Daniel Edelist, president, NOVA. “More importantly, Mexico has a long history of artisanship. Together with the well-established relationships we already have with skilled managers in Mexico, this operation certainly opens new creative and product development opportunities for us.”

Four key managers for the new factory have been commuting to and from Mexico and Southern California for the past 16 years to work with Jon Gilmore. Gilmore became NOVA’s Chief Designer in 2007 when NOVA merged with his Southern California-based company, Jon Gilmore Designs. JGD had been creating and manufacturing innovative wall décor, clocks, mirrors and accent furniture since 1974.

With these skilled managers, as well as the additional controls provided by NOVA’s close proximity to the new factory (which is roughly 160 miles from Los Angeles), the company expects to speed up its prototyping ability, shorten lead times for short run production, and expand its product assortment, adds Edelist.

The NOVA Mexico factory is the latest addition for the company since it opened a new showroom at the Dallas Market Center in June of 2008. That showroom joined the company’s other trade showrooms at the World Market Center in Las Vegas, NV, the International Home Furnishings Center in High Point, NC, as well as a recently opened international showroom in Zhongshan, China.

In addition to trade showrooms, NOVA expanded its US warehouse in Los Angeles, CA during the fourth quarter of 2007. Going from 65,000 to 112,000-square-feet, the warehouse expansion was completed in conjunction with NOVA’s acquisitions of Jon Gilmore Designs, Inc. and American Lamp Company, a casual transitional portable lamp manufacturer. Part of a full-scale expansion plan designed to take the company’s product offerings beyond portable lamps to include a complete lifestyle assortment of home accents and furnishings, the two acquisitions added hard-wired fixtures, sculpture, mirrors, clocks, screens and accent furniture to the growing NOVA line.

NOVA also opened a new domestic prototype operation in February 2008 to help accelerate its design capabilities and fine-tune and test market its latest lighting and home décor items before sending them into full-scale overseas production. Based in Laguna Hills, CA, “Q’s Laboratory” provides a metal shop for metal forming, welding and finishing operations; a wood shop for cutting, turning and laminating; and a model-making facility for forming shapes, sculpting and experimenting with new finishes.

Headquartered in Huntington Park, CA, NOVA is a leading designer of high quality, larger scale contemporary lighting designs at affordable price points. Through recent acquisitions and ongoing product development, the company is also expanding its versatile product line to include a complete lifestyle assortment of home accents and furnishings. Customers include top furniture retailers, as well as a growing customer base of specialty retailers, department stores, catalog buyers, e-tailers, mass merchants, home centers, lighting showrooms, model home designers and hospitality clients. For more information, visit www.NOVAlamps.com, call 323.277.6266 or write 6323 Maywood Avenue, Huntington Park, CA 90255