Business owner at textile plant has it covered
Executive Q&A with Martin ‘Marty' Lichtmann
Business owner at textile plant has it covered

PAULS VALLEY — It's easy to spot which car is the boss' outside the corporate headquarters of Covercraft Industries Inc. in Pauls Valley. It's not that it's ritzy. It's a nice SUV. But onlookers wouldn't know it, because the car is covered bumper to bumper with a fitted polyester stretch knit cover, a signature product of Covercraft.

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Martin "Marty” Lichtmann has headed the manufacturing company, since he moved it from Los Angeles here 15 years ago, to capitalize on Oklahoma's centralized shipping, affordable real estate, lower labor costs and other incentives. His father, Robert Lichtmann of Phoenix, founded the specialty business in 1965.

In Pauls Valley, Covercraft has a 105,000-square-foot facility, the former Kellwood Co. blue jeans sewing plant, and employs 160. The manufacturer also has plants in Wichita Falls, Texas and Baja, Mexico, and a design shop in Los Angeles.

Covercraft custom designs and makes more than 65,000 different car covers using 30 different materials. Its distributors annually sell about 150,000 covers, which retail for $70 to $500.

Lichtmann is up front about the heightened competition from companies who are manufacturing high-volume, lower-quality, generic covers offshore. "The past 13 years, we've had to refocus on our custom-tailored products,” he said. "We can custom make a cover for a certain car in a certain fabric and certain color in a week to 10 days, compared with three to four weeks overseas."

The company also makes seat covers, covers for jet skis, car bras and other specialty products.

Lichtmann recently sat down with The Oklahoman to talk about his professional and personal life. The following is an edited transcript:

Q: Tell us about your roots.

A: I was born in Chicago. But when I was 5, my family moved to a suburb of Los Angeles, where my dad, who earned a chemical engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, worked as a plant manager for a company that made convertible tops. My mother stayed home and took care of me and my two brothers, who are a few years older and younger than I.

Both sets of grandparents lived in Chicago, but within a few months, followed us to LA. My grandfathers knew each other through the textile business. That's how my parents met.

In those days, the early '60s, LA wasn't crowded. I remember lots of orange groves. We did things as a family, like hiking or climbing rocks in local parks. We didn't have a lot of money, but we'd always eat out once a week, even if it was just McDonald's.

Q: How'd your dad start the business?

A: My dad's employer was contracted to make the covers to compete with the industry pioneer — MG Mitten, and he did most of the work himself. After his company changed hands, he in 1965 decided to start his own business, striking a contracting deal with MG Mitten. In a 1,500-square-foot shop, he handled all the cutting and his one employee, all the sewing.

Q: Did you always know you'd join the family business?

A: No. I started college as a marine biology major. I was an Eagle Scout and enjoyed my campouts on Catalina Island, off the coast of LA. But at USC, I learned pretty quickly I wasn't a science guy and switched to business, with the intent of working for my dad. From age 11, I'd worked for him every summer, sweeping floors and doing odd jobs. I've always been fascinated in watching things go together, like model cars or skyscrapers.

My brothers didn't share the fascination. The older is a physicist/computer scientist and (the) younger (is a) symphonic trumpeter. I often joke that one of us got the brains, one got the musical talent and I got the business.

Q: But you also played an instrument. Correct?

A: Yes. I was a band jock in high school and played the baritone horn in the marching band at USC. That's how I met my wife Donna. I met her older brother, a clarinet player, first, and she, a few years later, was in the band with us. She played the flute.

Our three children all played in the band in Norman, and our younger son, Daniel, served as drum major for the USC band, under the same director as we had.

Q: Do you miss California?

A: Sure. But if I lived there, I'd miss lots of things about Oklahoma — like the openness, four seasons and friendly people.

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