A Toast for These American-Made Coasters

By Caitlin Musselman
Photos courtesy Katz Americas

For 36 years, Katz Americas has manufactured custom coasters for a variety of companies.

Coasters long have served as a way to protect a table from being stained by a bottle or glass. But if you’ve been to a bar or restaurant in the past decade, you’ve probably noticed some coasters also double as advertisements.

That’s because Katz Americas takes the traditional beverage coaster and transforms it into something that people will remember.

“Coasters are almost like mini billboards. No matter if you are at a bar or restaurant they captivate the audience,” said Tammy Gorzka, president and CEO of Katz Americas. “They grab the attention of someone and it becomes a conversation piece rather than just an advertisement.”

Founded in 1979, Katz is the leading manufacturer of beverage coasters, and specializes in creating custom beverage coasters for a wide variety of clients. All of the coasters are manufactured in the United States, at one of the company’s two factories in Sanborn, New York or Johnson City, Tennessee, Gorzka said.

Katz Americas makes traditional round, square, and rectangular coasters, but they like to stay ahead of the curve and offer something new and different. Customers can purchase glow-in-the-dark, interactive, and even scratch-and sniff coasters as well.

"We want our customers to know that we will always be dedicated to making quality, American-made products." —Tammy Gorzka, president and CEO of Katz Americas

The company currently produces about 1.5 billion coasters a year, including for big-name beverage brands such as Coors, Corona, Dos Equis, Heineken, Newcastle, Rolling Rock and Tecate, along with restaurants like Chili’s. Coasters promoting movies such as Captain America or television shows like How I Met Your Mother also have been produced by Katz.

And it appears Katz will be keeping it Made in America for the long haul, as Gorzka said she is confident that the company will continue to thrive and increase revenue.

“The company comes from a very strong family business background who believed in American manufacturing. That is a process that we want to continue with,” Gorzka said. “We take pride in the business that we do and it is important for us to keep that tradition alive. We want our customers to know that we will always be dedicated to making quality, American-made products.”