Within a few years of its founding, Louis Gasser exited the firm to follow a medical career, but remained a silent partner for most of his adult life. After his retirement from medicine in the late 1980s, Louis served as company medical director until his death in 1999.

Roger Gasser, a machinist by trade, built presses and dyes. Before his death in the late 1970s, he helped to direct a new use for aluminum in the entertainment and hospitality industries. The versatile, durable new material offered a choice of frame finishes and colors.

Youngest brother George was a gifted salesman who interacted well with people. In 1947, the recent high school graduate, newlywed and prospective father joined the company full-time. In his 70s, he remains semi-active in the business operations.

In the late 1940s, Gasser Chair manufactured multiple furniture lines, from dining room chairs and tables to railings, window frames for new homes and aluminum beer kegs. However, the brothers soon realized that their customer base was limited, and began searching for ways to expand. Gasser Chair exhibited at the first National Restaurant Association (NRA) convention in 1949, which forever changed their destiny.

It proved challenging for young George to participate because the minimum entry age was 21 and he was one year short. His daughter Cindy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, claims her father was insistent that he should be permitted to enter the convention hall. Tenacious George prevailed, allowing Gasser Chair to position itself in the hospitality industry.

Gasser Chair’s early business expansion in the 1950s came from supplying prominent hospitality clients and some government installations, including the United States Senate’s dining room in 1958. George greatly impacted their sales territories. Cindy reminisces: “As a child, I remember my dad packing up to travel the world, sometimes for what seemed like months. Besides the US, he sold many products to the military club system, NCO clubs, officers’ clubs, enlisted clubs, et cetera.”

George believed that slow, but steady growth was a smarter plan. By being deliberate they could concentrate on quality and durability, which was key to developing worldwide standards. As the company entered the private sector, Gasser Chair explored opportunities in the gaming industry, then limited to Nevada, in the mid 1950s.

Cindy says, “My father helped introduce casino seating in northern Nevada in the mid 1950s with Bill Harrah and Harvey Gross. He met Harrah at the National Restaurant show. My father then travelled to the West for months, hiring sales people along the way. It is strange to think of operating casinos without gaming stools at the slot machines.”

Gasser has introduced many “firsts” in the seating industry, including a flexible bracket that connects the seat and the backrest, Protective Edge, Quick Release base plate for slot stools, the industry’s first 10-year warranty, and casters and swivels for greater mobility.

Using aluminum has been a hallmark of Gasser Chair. Historically, they used nothing but top grade aluminum and manufactured a specific style of seating unlike any other, which granted the company “trade dress” in the mid 1990s. That provided legal recognition to Gasser Chair for their unrivaled long-term use of the product in a particular way. It cannot be copied.

According to Cindy, they continually field test a product to guarantee it will perform under the conditions of a particular market. She says, “High use translates into higher product maintenance and a shorter life span. We aim to engineer products to outperform all others, yet be aesthetically pleasing. The end result is lower maintenance/replacement costs, fewer liability claims and a resale value when it does come time to change them. We regard it as the ‘Ultimate in Seating’ where you can have the best of both worlds.”

Gasser welcomes customer input for design, and will work to develop what the customer believes is needed in the operation. To coordinate their products for installation into a unified theme, Gasser also works closely with many design firms, which are responsible for creating a specific interior theme to attract and retain customers.

Cindy says, “I believe this is one of the more exciting aspects of our job… specializing in meeting the design and quality needs of a product. We are unique because we have the engineering and manufacturing capability to help customers create what works best for their facility. We stay in sync with technology, and apply it wherever possible to improve the product offering. It doesn’t have to just be a seat. It can be a seat that provides profit to the casino by keeping their patrons comfortable.”

While Gasser’s product designers and engineers create many new designs, they also rejuvenate and reintroduce newer versions of old styles, which have maintained their real value in the market place. The designing and engineering staff develops new features by analyzing a need. Once identified, they develop a prototype.

Gasser designers take the raw prototype, and then tweak it until the customer is satisfied. “As a custom manufacturer, we produce many new products on a regular basis, with a primary focus on comfort, durability and size. This is where ergonomics come into play. We consider numerous factors when developing a seat and back in order to meet the customers’ interpretation of ergonomics,” Cindy claims.

On the surface, designing a seat may seem to be fairly routine. However, it can sometimes be a complicated process. Cindy says, “People don’t appreciate that when you deepen or widen the seat, you may need to adjust the spread on the base, or the size of the base to prevent tippage. We engineer all aspects of a new product to ensure its performance in the field. We want our customers to focus their attention on other business matters, not seating problems. “And, should something unusual occur in the field, we are there to develop the solution. This product offering and sales process applies domestically and internationally.”

Cindy states that unlike other companies, Gasser Chair provides a product the customer can resell or trade in when a casino operator redecorates the property’s interior. “We currently offer warranties that should provide a sense of comfort to our customer base, regardless of their location. We will continue to offer our trade-in program to our customers because that represents long-term value,” she states.

Today, the casino industry ranks as Gasser Chair’s largest single niche market. Cindy states that Indian gaming has grown as a sales category, right along with commercial properties. However, despite an explosion in gaming throughout the continental US, and an expansion of the company’s customer base, the Gasser family continues to maintain close supervision of its operation. Gasser Chair operates entirely from their Youngstown, Ohio headquarters. They previously had facilities in Seattle, Washington and Reno, Nevada, but they were not cost effective.

“We would rather operate from one site and travel when necessary. The company owns its own 10-seat turboprop plane. As needed, we can travel as a sales team to any city on short notice, split up and visit with customer groups,” says Cindy.

Gasser is exploring expanding deeper into the international marketplace. Looking ahead, they hope to offer a continuous line of new designs that may be used around the world. The plan would be to follow that with greater economic manufacturing abilities without having to convert to importing their raw materials.

All Gasser Chair products meet CAL 117 standards, which are fairly universal and very safe. “Meeting other codes has never presented a problem. It’s a matter of interpreting the code correctly and working with a lab to secure the results,” Cindy claims.

As for future products, Gasser Chair has recently introduced its “Heavenly” stool, which is part of their “Players Choice” series. The stool is available in both the universally standardized seat size, plus a larger version for those casinos with enough space. “It’s the kind of seat and back that echoes the ‘WOW factor’. It’s just wonderfully comfortable from immediate contact to several hours later,” Cindy says with pride.

What else is on the horizon for Gasser Chair? Cindy claims, “We have some new products underway, but we can’t reveal them yet!”

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