By Tom Waring
Wire Staff Writer
J&J Seat Cover Co. Inc. specializes in upholstery, and company president Ed Sacco said there’s great potential in the industry.
“Anywhere you look, there’s upholstery,” he said. “Our business is endless.”
Joseph Sacco, Ed’s dad, started the company in the mid-1960s with a partner named Joe. He’s been retired for more than 20 years.
Today, Ed Sacco shares ownership with brothers Jim and Robert. They kept the name J&J, in part, to honor their mom, Jean.
About a month ago, the almost half-century-old company took a giant step forward, opening in bigger space at 2180 Hornig Road in Somerton.
“We were growing out of the spaces we had, and we wanted to streamline costs. We wanted to become more efficient. There is a lot of running back and forth with two facilities,” Ed Sacco said. “We’ve expanded over the last 15 to 20 years. We’ve had consistent growth the last three, four years.”
J&J closed a 7,000-square-foot facility at 2150 Comly Road. The company still has, at least for now, a 12,000-square-foot facility at 4901 Levick St. that manufactures automotive products.
The new digs are 22,000 square feet, much of which is manufacturing and woodworking space.
The company focuses on commercial, automotive and medical products.
“We do all aspects of upholstery. Any type of upholstery is basically our business,” Sacco said.
Commercial clients include the SugarHouse and Valley Forge casino resorts.
Medical clients include doctors’ offices, hospitals and nursing homes.
Joseph Sacco started the company with a focus on automotive. Today, J&J deals with body shops, used-car lots and automobile dealerships, with a specialty in convertible tops.
“Automotive is the hardest end of upholstery. It’s the most complicated,” Ed Sacco explained. “It’s a lot more detailed. It makes the rest of it (seem) easy.”
This week, the company welcomes commercial customers and others to an open house at the new Hornig Road facility. The site will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Friday.
The office has pictures on the walls of some of the company’s products, including daybeds for parents of patients at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and donor beds for American Red Cross blood drives.
Other familiar places that contain J&J craftsmanship include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; well-known eateries Maggiano’s Little Italy, Morton’s: The Steakhouse, McCormick & Schmick’s, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Capital Grille; and sports venues Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and the Wells Fargo Center.
The company succeeds, Sacco said, because of its employees and machinery. There are 18 workers who need a variety of skills.
“It’s a little bit involved,” he said. “We do such a wide range of things. Everything changes from day to day, and the employees go from job to job.”
One key piece of machinery is the Weeke Wood Cutting Machine CNC Router.
Another is the Autometrix Cutting System. A Bensalem display company needed Ottoman’s, and J&J created and photographed a pattern before the machine cut the wood pattern.
“They increase capabilities and make it a more efficient process,” Sacco said of the equipment.
Sacco got his start as a 14-year-old student at Archbishop Ryan. He recalled leaving school early one day to go to the old Potamkin Chevrolet, at Grant and Academy Roads, where he helped produce 28 vinyl tops.
Vinyl tops have generally been phased out, but J&J has found plenty of other ways to serve customers’ needs.
“For most upholstery shops, it’s a dying trade,” Sacco said. “But in my opinion, for us, it’s the service we try to provide and the capabilities of our machines. We’re geared to service so we don’t interrupt our customers’ business.”
