Behind the nondescript office doors at 1 Haven Avenue in Mount Vernon, there awaits a cosmic universe of pop culture — everything from DC to Marvel, Star Wars to Star Trek and The Godfather to Game of Thrones. That’s because tenant Pyramid America happens to be among the national leaders in licensed products.
Pyramid America co-owner Erol Liguori got his start in 2005 selling and distributing wall posters to college campuses and independent poster stores, from poster suppliers around the world. One of these suppliers, Pyramid International, asked Liguori if he wanted to start a company in the US, called Pyramid America. “The purpose of starting this company was so that I could be a publisher in manufacturing and licensing posters, not just distribute them,” Liguori explains.
In March 2006, after almost half a year of negotiations, Pyramid America, LP, was founded in Yonkers. The company began to buy rights from licensed properties to manufacture their posters. Some of its first licenses were for merchandise from the Twilight and 300 franchises, both of which wound up catapulting the company’s revenue to new heights. In 2013, Liguori moved his company to the Mount Vernon facility, where Pyramid America currently occupies 25,000 square feet.
Looking to expand the business further, Liguori and Pyramid America began producing framed 3D lenticular posters, which proved a big hit at retail stores. “We were doing millions of dollars with Bed, Bath & Beyond with our framed lenticular posters, and they became a big, big item,” Liguori says.
Pyramid America has been manufacturing and selling Marvel-licensed merchandise for more than three years now and, given the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has become their hottest property. The company also found success recently with a Legend of Zelda chest, of which GameStop purchased 10,000 units. In late 2018, Pyramid America began working with Walmart to sell their products there, though you can find their products at comic conventions across the US.
