User:MorleyWriter/sandbox

Morley Companies, Inc.
Type: Private

Industry: Meetings, Incentive Travel, Event Production, Contact Centers and BPO, Exhibit Design and Build Services, Data Collection and Reporting, Award Fulfillment

Founded: Saginaw, Michigan, U.S. (1863)

Founders: Anton Schmitz, George W. Morley, Edward W. Morley

Headquarters: Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.

Number of locations: 3

Products: Travel services, tradeshows/exhibits, incentive programs, outsourcing services, marketing research, experiential services

Employees: 2,100 (2014)

Website: morleynet.com

Morley is an American corporation that provides performance-based, people-driven sales, marketing and customer service solutions in a variety of industries. Originating and headquartered in Saginaw, Michigan, the company was founded as a hardware store before becoming offering business solutions to organizations both domestic and foreign. Morley has a corporate headquarters in Saginaw, Michigan, as well as sales offices in Wilton, Connecticut and Irvine, California. It is also one of the Great Lakes Bay Region’s oldest surviving businesses, having been in operation since 1863(1).

Contents
1 History

2 Portfolio

History
Morley was originally founded as a hardware store by German immigrant Anton Schmitz in 1863. It opened during Saginaw’s early periods of growth. With the city still largely in the process of settlement, business accelerated to the point where Schmitz could not handle the volume of business by himself. George W. Morley and Edward W. Morley, two brothers from Painesville, Ohio, responded to Schmitz’s advertisement for a business partner. The hardware store was named “Schmitz & Morley” in June 1863. Within two years, the Morley brothers bought out Anton Schmitz’s half of the business and expanded to a much larger building on the Saginaw River, renaming the business “Morley Brothers.”

This new storefront catered almost exclusively to lumber baron clientele. Due to the close proximity of the sawmills and the store’s physical location as the northernmost hardware store at that time, Morley Brothers became the one of the largest wholesalers in Michigan by 1880, and the second-largest hardware company in the United States by 1892. (cite) The company was incorporated on February 15th, 1883, keeping Morley Brothers as its namesake and George W. Morley as the company’s first president.

As Morley experienced strong profits as a hardware lynchpin(2) for the area, the expanding Morley family became involved in other business ventures in Saginaw. Among others, these ventures included founding the Second National Bank (which would later become FirstMerit Bank) as well as starting business ventures both in Saginaw and westward. At the turn of the century, Morley Brothers’ wares diversified toward a more domestic market in response to the lumber industry’s decline. Morley Brothers became a distributor of sporting goods, homeware and other popular appliances of that era along with their original hardware selection. This move also allowed Morley Brothers to open two branches in downstate Grand Rapids and Detroit.

In February 1933, Morley Brothers supplied the city of Saginaw, Michigan, $500,000 to help the city meet payroll in response to the eight-day Michigan Bank Holiday. Then-president Franklin Roosevelt would institute a national bank holiday a month later.

After a period of economic calm from the 1940s - 60s and a centennial celebration, Morley Brothers experienced a negative impact in business caused both by the 1973-75 recession and by the rise of direct distribution practices by their clients. Morley Brothers hired an outside consultant was hired from without the company to provide additional business perspective; Morley Brothers’ physical presence followed other businesses out of East Saginaw, ending a family tradition set in 1865. Morley Brothers discontinued business on April 8, 1981, when the company was sold to S&T Industries of Louisville, Kentucky. However, Louis J. Furlo, Sr. purchased the Incentive Division of Morley Brothers back from S&T Industries on July 1, 1982. Furlo was an employee of Morley Brothers who began in 1959, founded the Incentive Division and became company president in 1978. A group of local investors formed a partnership with Furlo to raise capital. This group included Burrows Morley, one of the previous Chairmen of Morley Brothers. Morley Brothers was re-opened as Morley Incentives, specially focusing on travel incentives and core service foundations, with Furlo as president. The Furlo family would eventually purchase the original investors’ shares, leaving ownership to Louis J. Furlo’s three sons and maintaining a family-owned enterprise.

Since the 1980s, Morley Incentives expanded as additional services were identified that complimented the core incentive travel model. Business theater production, exhibit fabrication, data collection and logistics coalesced into separate divisions. These various divisions were incorporated on December 10, 1993, as Morley Companies, Inc.

Portfolio
Morley has undergone several transformations in its business approach due to market demand. The original Morley Brothers business started as a hardware store, expanded into a department store, then diversified into corporate incentive programs and travel. As of 2015, Morley provides service products as three separate business units, designed to work on a stand-alone basis or in concert with one another:

Meetings & Incentives – group travel logistics and event planning for any number of participants. This division includes business theater and production, as well as program design, award fulfillment and performance-based training

Exhibits, Displays & Experiences – in-house fabrication for trade shows, fixed exhibits, mobile exhibits and experiential marketing

Interactive – business process management, contact center services, social media management, sales and marketing support, data collection, reporting and analysis