Company Profile
Osram Sylvania, Inc.
Company Overview
OSRAM SYLVANIA is the North American business of OSRAM GmbH of Germany, one of the world's largest lighting manufacturers and part of the Siemens family of companies. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of lighting products and precision materials and components for business and industry, consumers, for the automotive industry, and for the computer, aerospace and other major industries worldwide. It employs about 11,350 people in North America and is headquartered in Danvers, Mass.
OSRAM SYLVANIA has 22 manufacturing plants, one equipment assembly operation and twelve research and development laboratories, along with a network of sales offices and distribution centers serving all of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Most of the company's products are marketed in North and South America under the SYLVANIA or OSRAM brand name.
Company History
History of OSRAM SYLVANIA
In 1919, three companies - AEG, Siemens & Halske AG and Deutsche Gasglühlicht AG, better known as Auer-Gesellschaft, pooled their resources for producing filament lamps. Today, Siemens AG is the sole shareholder in the resulting company, OSRAM GmbH.
The name OSRAM derives from the names of two elements - Osmium, a metal, and Wolfram, the German word for tungsten. The OSRAM trade name had been registered in 1906, making it one of the oldest internationally recognized trade names.
OSRAM SYLVANIA, the North American subsidiary of OSRAM GmbH that manufactures SYLVANIA lamps and precision materials and components, also had its beginnings in the early 1900s. In 1901 in Middleton, Mass., Frank A. Poor purchased a half-interest in Merritt Manufacturing Company, a small firm which refilled burned-out light bulbs. Later, Poor bought out his partner and moved the plant to Danvers, Mass., changing the name of the company to Bay State Lamp Company.
In 1909, Poor formed Hygrade Lamp Company to sell new incandescent lamps made by Bay State. Hygrade was producing nearly 3,000 units a day by 1911, and had office connections in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Novelty Incandescent Lamp Company had been organized in 1905 at St. Marys, Pa. One year later Novelty opened a new plant in Emporium, Pa., which attracted the attention of General Motors. General Motors purchased control of Novelty in 1910 and hired Bernard G. Erskine to head the operation.
By 1916, Hygrade in Massachusetts had discontinued filling burned-out lamps, and moved to larger quarters in Salem, Mass. New light bulb production had reached 11,000 per day.
In 1922, Erskine and two other men bought the Novelty Lamp Company and created the Nilco Lamp Works. Lamp production was located at the St. Marys, Pa., plant. In 1924, Nilco formed the Sylvania Products Co. to enter the radio tube field. Hygrade also began manufacturing radio tubes in 1929 in Salem, Mass.
In 1931, Nilco, Sylvania and Hygrade merged to form Hygrade Sylvania Corporation. The new firm's plants were soon producing 90,000 lamps and 50,000 radio tubes each day. Hygrade Sylvania employed nearly 1,800 people at this point.
By 1932, the first research on fluorescent lamps had been started. It continued through the 1930s. The end of the decade saw the advent of the first fluorescent lamps, which were produced in a linear shape. The new lamp was a major breakthrough in lighting technology, producing much more light per watt consumed and lasting much longer than the incandescent lamp.
Public interest rose when the fluorescent was first exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Unfortunately, no lighting fixtures were commercially available for the new lighting source, so in 1940, Sylvania opened the world's first fluorescent fixture plant in Ipswich, Mass. A year later, in Danvers, Mass., the company opened what was then the world's largest fluorescent lamp factory.
In 1949, Sylvania Canada Limited was launched with the establishment of a head office in Montreal, Quebec and a fluorescent plant in Drummondville, Quèbec.
After a long period of expansion during and after World War II, Sylvania Electric was acquired in 1959 by General Telephone, who wanted a strong manufacturing subsidiary to fuel the expansion of the telephone business.
Munich, OSRAM's home
In 1971, the company's name was changed to GTE Sylvania Incorporated. Its parent, General Telephone & Electronics Corporation, reorganized its manufacturing operations into the GTE Products Corporation, creating five worldwide business groups. GTE Lighting Products was one of them.
GTE Electrical Products was formed in 1980 and GTE's lighting business was made part of that group. In early 1993, OSRAM GmbH purchased GTE's North American lighting and related precision materials operations and OSRAM SYLVANIA was formed. From its humble beginnings in 1901, the company, headquartered in Danvers, Mass., has been transformed into a truly international enterprise and become a worldwide supplier of lamps.
Benefits
Business casual environment, free parking, free coffee; many sites (including Danvers, MA) have on site fitness centers and on site cafeterias.