Princeton News Network

PNN: You know, I have to say, I was on my way out of the Microsoft truck, out here, outside of the Westin Hotel. A huge truck… amazing technologies. We’re at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce 26th Annual Trade Show here in Princeton, and I ran into Errol Ernstrom. Now, Errol Ernstrom  makes placemats, for…  How many diners are are there in New Jersey?

EROL:  Well, New Jersey has the record For the most diners in the nation. 630.

PNN: We have 630 diners in New Jersey.

EROL: And people love to eat out. Families are having a difficult time making ends meet so they eat in a diner where they get great quality and great service.

PNN: And your company makes placemats for these diners.

EROL: My company makes the placemats. We been in business a total of 23 years.

PNN: How do you come up with designs. I mean. I see puzzles. I see maps.

EROL: Well we have 2 graphic design artists that design for the individual client. We tailor to each client, but what clients like about our product is every ad is exclusive. There can only be one attorney, one bank on the placement and it runs 4 to 6 months.

PNN: But you also do the placemats that don’t have ads.

EROL: That is correct. We specialize in that too for different restaurants that want custom placemats,

PNN: How did you get into this?

EROL: In 1985 I was running the furniture store and I started advertising on placemats. And within a year it became my biggest source of sales.

PNN: You mean they would be sitting in a diner. They would look down at your ad…

EROL: They would see my coupon. They would see my ad. And they would come to  my store.

PNN: And they would rip it out… Okay, continue.

EROL:  Eventually it was 42% of my sales.

PNN: From placemats!

EROL: From placemats.

PNN: 42% of someone’s sales calls… from placemats.

EROL: And what we really liked was the fact that I was on a bunch of diners at that time and in 1997 the placemat company was up for sale, so I bought the company, it had 28 diners…

PNN: How many placemat companies are there in the United States?What’s your competition?

EROL: Oh, I would only know New Jersey. In New Jersey we probably have 8 to 10 larger placemat companies. I’m the largest and I provide well over 100 diners with the placemats.