Firm keeping jewelry legacy alive

A JEWEL: Michael S. Duffy, president of Time Plating in Cranston, left, and employee Victor Espinal inspect necklaces being treated with a protective covering at the company. The business has been in Duffy’s family since the late 1980s. He purchased it in 2009. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
A JEWEL: Michael S. Duffy, president of Time Plating in Cranston, left, and employee Victor Espinal inspect necklaces being treated with a protective covering at the company. The business has been in Duffy’s family since the late 1980s. He purchased it in 2009. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

For years, electroplating and jewelry manufacturing were the bread and butter of Providence’s industrial base. Along with textiles, they were the main source of employment for many Rhode Island families.
The two industries fell victim in the 1980s to cheaper labor down South and outsourcing overseas.
Some jewelry companies have survived, however, like Time Plating, Inc. of Cranston.
“Business is pretty steady throughout the year but we see little spurts every now and then, Mothers’ Day and Valentine’s Day, things like that,” said Michael S. Duffy, president of the company. One thing that hasn’t changed is the fluctuation in business at Christmas.
“We run with an average of eight to 10 employees to about 30 to 40 in the busy season, the Christmas season,” he said. “It used to be from July or August through November but now it’s from September to December.”
It’s a family-owned company. Duffy’s uncle purchased the business, which used to be part of a larger company, in the 1980s. Duffy purchased the business in 2009. “I started here working as a teenager for my uncle until I bought it,” he said.
While some electroplaters have survived by focusing on specialty items, everything at Time Plating is based in the jewelry industry. The focus of their business is in the gold and sterling silver “e-coat” market, a process that uses electricity to apply water-based or ceramic-based paint or lacquer to jewelry. They were one of the first companies in the state to use the technology.
“The coating protects the silver from tarnishing and wear,” Duffy said. He declined to give the names of specific clients but said the jewelry he works with can be seen in major department stores across the country.
Most of his work revolves around the e-coat but there are also new materials and finishes always being developed. Black rhodium is used to provide a durable, tarnish-resistant, grey-black finish. There are also black gold, pink gold and yellow gold, which are also popular.
“During the last 10 years we saw a lot of the industry go overseas but now we’re seeing it come back,” he said. “I don’t know what the issues may be, whether they be quality or concerns over improper finishes, but we are starting to see it reverse again. “We are starting to see more domestic items than imported items,” he said. “We are starting to see more stuff coming in from local manufacturers. Little by little it’s starting to make a comeback.”
One ace-in-the-hole Duffy has is his lifetime of experience. Not all jewelry sent to the company contains the same concentrations of metals and each customer can request a variety of coatings and thicknesses.
“A customer can request anything from a gold flash to a heavy micron gold, for example, it’s all predicated on what the customer wants,” he said. “There are also other finishes and pre-plates necessary for some items but not others.”
His goal, he said, is to find the most cost-effective way to make the customer happy while developing a cost-effective and quality product. “That way we can all survive,” he said.
Despite foreign competition and the worst economy since the Great Depression, Duffy and his company have survived by becoming flexible and diverse, increasing the number of services they provide to their customers. “Instead of pulling back and doing less we’re expanding and doing more,” he said.
“Before, we were a plating shop where you would bring jewelry for gold or silver plating. Now, we will do the [unpacking], the gold and finishing, gluing, epoxy work and the packaging for distribution. It’s like one-stop shopping for the customer,” he said. “Clients don’t have to send it to us for plating, then ship it for packaging and ship it again for distribution.
One item that has always been a concern to those in the business has been what to do with metals-laden wastewater. For Duffy, it is an issue he watches closely. “We collect all of our wastewater and it is recycled as much as possible. Anything that does go out has been thoroughly treated and we are regulated by the city. We send out as little as possible into the sewer system.
“We are dealing with precious metals and we want to refine and collect them [from the wastewater] as much as we can,” he said. “We’ve always tried to be as green as possible.” •COMPANY PROFILE
Time Plating Inc.
Owner: Michael S. Duffy
Type of Business: Electroplating
Location: 30 Libera St., Cranston
Employees: Seasonal, 8 to 30
Year Established: 1969
Annual Sales: WND

No posts to display