And then there was one

Issue 34

The world’s oldest builder of diners announced this past March that it has emerged from bankruptcy, albeit with new owners. Company president Avi Telyas announced via press release that it will now be called Kullman Buildings Corp. The re-formed company “has laid out a strong business plan” to move forward, backed by a “million-dollar marketing plan” to “support the management team’s meeting schedule.” Expect to see the company begin advertising online, via direct mail, through trade shows, and in other media, according to the release.

The release continues, “Kullman is moving forward with a determination that would have made founder Samuel Kullman proud. Long known for the finest of craftsmanship and fast turnaround, Kullman will build on its position as the industry leader of permanent modular construction.”

Though this release contains not a single use of the word “diner,” Telyas was recently quoted in the Branchburg, New Jersey Courier-News as saying, “We love diners”…and not much else. He did add that he plans to take the company into the prefab condo market.

If Kullman does finally leave the diner business, it will close the book on almost 80 years of history building some of the finest examples of the iconic architectural form. Usually a leader in the industry, both in terms of quality and diner styling, Kullman built the first “colonial” diner, the first million-dollar diner, and the first 1950s retro-style diner.

Through the years, it gained a solid reputation as a quality builder, but the quality didn’t come cheap. The typical Kullman diner in the past 15 years usually cost more than $1.5 million, pricing out all but the better-heeled operators. Because of its inability (or unwillingness) to cater to the entry-level market, Kullman lost out to upstart diner companies such as Starlite and Diner-Mite, especially in the growing Southern and Mid-Western markets, and to on-site contractors in the Northeast.

In the late 1960s, the company embarked on a diversification strategy that took them into other markets. The company built banks, schools, prisons, airports, and even a temple. In the mid-1990s, Kullman built its first United States embassy, a relatively small structure that it dismantled in New Jersey and reassembled with their own crew in the foreign nation. The success of that project led to two more, but the fourth embassy, a massive building slated for Dushanbe, Tajikistan, proved disastrous. Mired in delays and overruns, the State Department would eventually cancel the program, leaving Kullman on the hook for more than $20 million.

Throughout the diversification years, Kullman did continue to build a steady trickle of diners, but it treated the food-service division as a corporate black sheep. In 1991, the company sent us their info packet, jammed with brochures and propaganda about their product line. The thick mailing included only a single sheet describing their “prefabricated restaurants.” The company also made attempts to build other food-service structures, such as “double drive-throughs” for a few corporate clients. Despite hopes to build multiple units for these customers, the work would later go to local contractors.

Despite an effort to offer the standardized “Blue Comet Diner” in 1996, it became clear to me and to much of the diner market that the company sought to shed itself of its heritage. Unfortunately for their marketing department, the media paid little attention. Every time a story ran about the company, they ran a large color photo of a Kullman diner. After all, what looks better splashed on the front page of the business section: A shiny diner or a utilitarian communications shelter?

Diner aficionados everywhere, I’m sure, all hope to see Kullman continue building our favorite roadside icons. Count me among them, but from where I sit, prospects look depressingly dim. Right now, only DeRaffele remains as a regular builder of modular diners, although Phil DeRaffele is now in his 80s. The partners running Diner-Mite diners in Georgia have split up, and Bill Starcevic, founder of Starlite, will build them only on contract for anyone willing to do the marketing. As I write, I know of nothing in the pipeline.

The construction and restaurant industries today look little like they did in Sam Kullman’s day. I firmly believe, despite Kullman’s misfortunes, that the diner as a restaurant concept will remain with us for years to come, even if the industry that built them fades into history.

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