This month, the United States celebrated its 250th birthday—an extraordinary occasion that allowed us all to come together and reflect on our past as a nation.
While Stelray Plastic Products claims only about a fifth of those 250 years, we see this as an opportunity to embrace the incredible history of our business and our industry that have both flourished in the Land of the Free. So, please join us as we chart the history of Stelray Plastic Products, Inc.
The Formative Years
Stelray began its life as simply Stelray Products, Inc., owned by Naugatuck Valley-based entrepreneur, Raymond Luben. Raymond was born in the late 1800s in Russia and immigrated to the United States with his family through Ellis Island at the turn of the Twentieth Century, settling in southern Connecticut. Raymond made his initial fortune through two separate ventures in the manufacturing of silver products, a prominent industry in Derby supporting the Derby Silver Company. After the shuttering of the main Derby Silver Company plant due to the effects of the Great Depression, the local silver industry collapsed and forced Raymond into a new pursuit. Combining his name with business partner and daughter Estelle, Raymond founded Stelray Products, Inc. to produce a variety of hand tools throughout the 1940s and ‘50s. Several relics of this period in company history remain, including a flyer for their sure-devil nail set and self-centering punch, circa 1952.
Around the late 1950s, when thermoplastics began to take centerstage in American manufacturing, Estelle and Raymond introduced this promising new technology to their production line with their initial acquisition of injection molding machines. This continued into the 1960s when they hired Mortimore “Mort” Saffran as General Manager to oversee their operations. Over the course of the next few years, the Luben family would divest from their namesake, and the company would find its way into the hands of Trans-World Manufacturing, based in Little Ferry, New Jersey. All this time, from its original foundation and into the 1970s, Stelray called 65 Shelton Avenue in Shelton, Connecticut its headquarters. This all changed in the Spring of 1974.
Rising Like a Phoenix
On March 14th, a fire broke in the basement of the Stelray plant. The blaze grew rapidly, soon engulfing the entire building. Despite the rapid response by Shelton volunteer firemen and supporting firefighters from Derby and Ansonia, the flames amassed a solid wall over 100 feet long. The heat produced was so intense that it melted the crews’ gear and severely damaged several trucks from Echo Hose, Hook and Ladder Company. The fire completely devastated the building, causing the walls to cave into the basement and generating over $700,000 in damages. This included knocking out utilities in the area for several days but did not affect the neighboring home less than twenty feet from the facility, a testament to the skill of Shelton Fire Chief LeRoy Brainard’s crew.
Having been recently named President of the Stelray organization, Mort Saffran now had little more to his name other than a pile of ashes. Trans-World took the insurance payout from the accident and offered Mort what remained of the assets and total ownership of the Stelray name. That is all it took to set the ambitious entrepreneur into action. With the connections he had made in local industry, Mort was able to rent molding machine time from neighboring firms to keep his manufacturing contracts afloat while he sought a more permanent solution. After several months, he was able to secure space in the B&D Molded Products facility, a local blowmolder, courtesy of the Outlaw family. Here, Mort set up shop with six new injection molding machines to get Stelray back on track.
Finding Our Footing
Within a year, Stelray—now reborn as Stelray Plastic Products, Inc.—had generated enough business that Mort was able to finally secure a permanent plant at 151 Wakelee Avenue in Ansonia, Connecticut. Throughout the rest of 1977 and into 1978, Mort transitioned the business to the 151 Wakelee facility, setting up his full complement of molding machines in the building that remains Stelray’s main manufacturing floor to this very day. As Stelray grew and grew over the ensuing decade, Mort acquired the neighboring E.H. Kneen Company and its facility at 50 Westfield Avenue that would become Stelray’s offices, tool room, and warehouse. Shortly after the acquisition, Mort was joined at Stelray by his son and current President Larry Saffran as General Manager.
Stelray’s next big move came in 1997 when Mort and Larry purchased Aero-Med Molding Technologies in Orleans, Massachusetts. Focused on advancing their foothold in the Aerospace and Medical industries, Mort and Larry saw incredible opportunity in this acquisition, which immediately led to the introduction of several prominent new customers and a suite of programs tailor-made for Stelray’s peerless devotion to precision manufacturing. After nearly a decade operating two facilities in Connecticut and Cape Cod, Larry Saffran divested from the Kneen Metal Stamping business in order to absorb Aero-Med into the Ansonia campus—creating the Stelray Plastic Products, Inc. entity as we know it today.
Taking the Next Step
With two decades testing the bounds of the original manufacturing facility acquired by his father in the late 1970s, Larry Saffran led the expansion of the 151 Wakelee Avenue molding plant in 2023 by adding 5,000 square feet of 23-foot-high ceilings and reinforced cement floors. Looking toward the future with sights set on large-part molding, Mr. Saffran saw this as an opportunity to introduce a 618-ton injection molding machine with plans to add more 400+ ton machines in the coming years.
Just one year later, Stelray raised the curtain on an Advanced Metrology Lab and a revamped Operations office suite. The new lab, outfitted with a Micro-Vu Vision Measuring Machine and Brown & Sharpe Coordinate Measuring Machine, represents Stelray’s prioritization of elite customer quality outcomes and investment in ensuring those results across every one of the 30 million parts that leave our facility every year.
From its founding to today, Stelray Plastic Products, Inc. represents one idea above all else: resiliency. Be it the collapse of the local silver industry that led to its creation, the transition out of hand tools and into contract plastic molding, or the gamble Mort Saffran made on a pile of ashes, each step in Stelray’s colorful history represents the triumph of the human will over seemingly insurmountable odds. It is why we are still here to this day, over fifty years since that devastating fire. It is why we are proud to call ourselves American and why we are so committed to manufacturing in this country. In honor of the United States’ 250th birthday, Stelray Plastic Products, Inc. is humbled to share our small piece of our nation’s history.
How Can I Learn More?
With centuries of combined experience building, maintaining, and reconditioning injection molds, Stelray is your preferred partner for getting the most out of your molded part program. If you want to learn more about our process, or are interested in a program consultation, please please call or email our Sales team below!