At a Glance
Company Diamond Needle Inc.
Headquarters Carlstadt, New Jersey
Founded 1951
Ownership Privately held
Employees 20
Specialty Distributor of sewing machine needles for the bedding industry and replacement parts for sewing, cutting, and quilting machines; exclusive North American distributor of the Organ Needle brand; manufacturer of the Belmont scissors brand
Learn more DiamondNeedle.com
Even when doing business in a niche market, it’s important to stand out. New Jersey-based Diamond Needle, a leading distributor of sewing machine needles, leans hard into what sets it apart from the competition: “Our customers come to us for three main reasons: They want fast delivery, they want a good-quality product, and as a bonus, they want to get a better price,” says Abe Silberstein, president of Diamond Needle.
That’s at the heart of the company’s commitment to its customers. “When you consider that we provide a high-quality product that sells for $10, whereas an OEM product might sell for $40, people open their eyes,” he adds. “Then there’s the fact that we provide fast and reliable delivery too. That’s how we gain our reputation.”
Diamond Needle’s extensive database of more than 100,000 items includes top brands such as Avery Dennison, EW White Diamond, Gold Star, HandMates, and EMCO. Sewing machine needles remain Diamond Needle’s core business, with bedding representing 10% of its customers.
As a service provider, Diamond Needle equips its manufacturer customers with the tools they need to make their products. That simple fact describes everything Diamond Needle does every day. Boasting an inventory of more than 7,000 individual needles, Diamond Needle can accommodate virtually any type of sewing need, both within and outside the sleep products industry. “The bedding industry doesn’t use nearly that many, but we have those that deal with different industries,” Silberstein explains.
Diamond Needle’s customers also come from the automotive, bookbinding, furniture, quilting, and industrial textiles industries, among others. Customers can trust Diamond Needle to supply the various tools they need to make their products, he says.
Diamond Needle also stands out as the exclusive North American distributor of the Japan-based Organ Needle brand, which was founded in Japan in 1920 as a gramophone needle manufacturer. Silberstein says the brand is innovative. “They’re one of the first companies to produce titanium-plated needles,” he says. “They make special eyes to handle thread better and have different designs to give the needles more structure.
“Because in the final analysis, the sewing machine is only as good as the needle in it.”
A history of quality
Diamond Needle opened its doors in 1951, representing a German manufacturer of needles primarily focused on the fur industry. At the time, the company operated out of New York City’s bustling Garment District. Over the years, tastes evolved and the demand for fur dwindled significantly. With the neighborhood changing as well, Diamond Needle moved to its current location in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Carlstadt, New Jersey, 20 minutes from New York’s Times Square.
In 1957, the company became the exclusive distributor of the Organ Needle brand. By being open to new markets and listening to its customers, it has grown steadily ever since. Diamond Needle expanded into other niches as needs arose, which broadened its presence in different markets. The company prides itself on strong relationships, and it takes customer requests seriously. This commitment to customers was behind its launch of what became a secondary specialty—replacement parts for sewing, cutting, and quilting machines, along with all types of scissors (see “Cutting Edge,” page 30), cutting-machine knives, chemicals including cleaning fluids and silicon sprays, adhesives such as dry web foam spray to join foam inside mattresses, and more.
Carrying a wide inventory of replacement parts has allowed Diamond Needle to expand into areas beyond the bedding industry. With ongoing tariffs and stricter bedding industry guidelines posing countless challenges, broadening its scope became a necessity. “We had much more opportunity. Now with the government tariffs, business is getting harder. It’s more stringent, especially the bedding industry,” says Fai Ng, general manager. “We’ve just had to find more customers and other markets over the last five years.”
A history of quantity
Unlike many other industries that must order products six months to one year in advance, Silberstein estimates that Diamond Needle’s turnover is approximately once a year thanks to the sheer size of its orders to manufacturers. “[Our customers] can order what they need, when they need it, and get turnover 12, 24, 36 times a year,” he says. “But if we’re going to have a manufacturer produce something for us, sometimes it takes a considerable amount of time, so we have to have a big inventory.”
Because the company has such a vast database and robust inventory, it can quickly accommodate most customer orders—99.9% ship the same day. “Here in New Jersey, we have our own building,” Silberstein says. “We’re in an industrial park that’s probably one of the biggest hubs for FedEx and UPS, so we can get shipments in and send shipments out easily.”
Exceptional customer service remains a hallmark of Diamond Needle’s operation. Though the company has grown and evolved and keeps a firm eye on the future, it has had great success with adhering to timeless business practices—namely, fast and personalized service. “If customers have questions about an order, we respond within an hour or two,” Ng says.
“Sometimes I see customers at trade shows, and they say we have the best customer service,” he adds. “We know customers want the answer today. Right now. We try to learn everything in advance before responding to the customer. ‘When is the part coming in? Is it on back order?’ We’ll send a replacement in the same day. We do everything in our service to help the customer provide their service. We do everything we can to support them.”
Face-to-face customer service is still a big focus for the company as a way to reinforce ongoing relationships and meet new business representatives. For example, Ng still goes out to meet with customers and catch up with them at various trade shows.
“It’s all about continuing to learn more about their brands, building trust, and working to expand their markets.”
—Fai Ng, general manager, Diamond Needle
Supplying a quality workforce
Like every business, Diamond Needle is driven by its workforce. The company has a small but mighty team of 20 employees. Silberstein was named president of the company in 2015 and says he’s getting ready for a new generation in the business.
Many of Diamond Needle’s employees have been with the company for most of their professional lives because, as with customers, Silberstein believes in building strong relationships with his staff. He’s also proud that the company has a multilingual workforce, adding that warehouse staff also has a long tenure with the company. “We’ve had people come to us who could barely speak English, and now they’ve finished college, they’ve learned skills, they’ve become fluent in English, and are very proficient in what they do, whether it’s administrative, bookkeeping, or customer service,” he says.
Silberstein says Diamond Needle is a company where employees have found security. Several started with the company when they were young and are now sending their own kids off to college. “We don’t have a big turnover,” he says. “Our office manager recently retired after 25 years, and we now have someone new in that position. Hopefully they’ll stay on and grow with the company, too.”
Everybody contributes to the company, Silberstein stresses. Every employee has a vested interest in its existence and, ultimately, its long-term prospects.
Ng understands this better than most. He started his career at Diamond Needle as a packing clerk in the shipping department 37 years ago. “Over time, step by step, I learned all the company’s positions and every skill they needed to train,” he says. “That’s how I got here.”
Now as general manager, he is responsible for the company’s warehouse procedures and oversees the technology, sales, and customer service departments. His first years with the company were spent at its former New York City headquarters. When the company moved to New Jersey, Ng moved with it. “It’s a good company, and it teaches you a lot about the business,” he says. “There are a lot of opportunities to promote.”
Looking ahead
The economy over the past few years has brought unprecedented challenges to many of the markets Diamond Needle serves. However, in terms of needles, the mattress industry has been relatively stable, and Diamond Needle is finding growth in producing replacement parts to service different machines within the industry.
Silberstein sees growth in Diamond Needle’s future, whether it’s in niche markets like embroidery or expanding relationships with existing customers. “It may not all be in the bedding industry, but the bedding industry is still an important factor to us,” he says.
Ng says the company is keeping a close eye on the economy, but in the long term, he expects Diamond Needle to continue as it has always done.
“We have to observe and see what the future will be,” Ng says. “We still have strong customer relationships [that we] will keep at the same pace. It’s all about continuing to learn more about their brands, building trust, and working to expand their markets.”
Cutting Edge
Needles are at the heart of the business, as its name suggests, but Diamond Needle is also a master distributor for several lines of industrial scissors from well-known brands such as Fiskars, Wiss, Mundial, Kretzer, and Clauss. The company has sold Belmont scissors for more than 40 years.
“To augment these lines of scissors and offer customers more specialized and economically priced scissors, we have been contracting the making of our Belmont brand of scissors to experienced factories,” President Abe Silberstein says. “Some of these factories produce comparable scissors for other leading brands, so we get their same high quality and can sell them at more economical prices.”
As with sewing machine needles, Silberstein stresses manufacturers need high-quality scissors but look for the best price. Diamond Needle is proud to be the distributor of choice for many top manufacturers.
“In any industrial situation, good-quality scissors are required,” he says. “When you multiply the costs over the number of workers who need to be equipped with scissors, finding a good-quality, money-saving alternative is a must.”
