February 10, 2025

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From art supplies to automotive products, Anderson’s Roylco carves unique niche

From art supplies to automotive products, Anderson’s Roylco carves unique niche

At first glance, there might not seem much of a connection between manufacturing educational toys and manufacturing sound-insulating panels for car doors.

The simple connection linking the educational and art products made by Anderson-based Roylco and the automotive products made by its Roylco Industrial division is the die-cutting machines used in both product lines.

The more complicated connection is how the family-owned business diversified from its roots in educational products and seized an opportunity to join the web of companies supplying parts destined for BMW Manufacturing’s Plant Spartanburg, the automotive giant’s largest production facility in the world located in Spartanburg County.

For Roylco president Carolyn Voisin, serving two such disparate markets is all about keeping her family’s company nimble and able to take advantage of business opportunities when they arise.

Moving toward growth

Founded in 1969 in his parents’ garage in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, by John Nosalik, Roylco’s first product was chalkboard erasers.

From that single product the company expanded into art supplies for the Canadian market and grew into a small art-supply company. By the mid-1980s Nosalik’s daughter, Carolyn, saw an opportunity to expand to the American market.

By this point the company’s offerings had expanded to include a range of educational products, including manipulatives and other sensory-related products used in special education classrooms.

To serve the growing American market, the company opened a factory in Buffalo, New York. Voisin said at this point the company took off, but discovered over the next few years that New York was a difficult state to do business in.

Voisin and her husband, Perry, were by this point in the mid-1990s running the company and had discovered Greenville and the Upstate and began considering moving their company to the more business-friendly South Carolina.

The family ultimately ended up at Lake Hartwell with the factory located in nearby Anderson on Abbeville Highway. Voisin said the move was good for the company and good for her young family.

Expanding opportunities

Roylco’s factory in Anderson is the kind of nondescript industrial building people pass every day without having any real idea of the products made within its walls.

The injection molding machines that crank out the tens of thousands of small, colorful plastic parts for educational and art products are similar to ones found in any number of other industries.

It’s the same with the die-cutting machines and even the printing equipment the company uses for all of its packaging. Voisin said this versatility is what opened the door for the company to diversify its products.

“We can apply a lot of our equipment here to a number of different markets,” Voisin said.

She said the company’s reliance on serving a single sector with its products made it potentially vulnerable to fluctuations in that market, so a member of the latest generation of the family was charged with seeking out new opportunities.

Darby Smith is the company’s director of business development and along with her sister, Victoria Voisin, is the third generation of the family to work at Roylco.

Both sisters have regularly attended BMW’s Supplier Diversity Xchange in recent years, and the connections made there enabled the company, through its Roylco Industrial division, to secure a contract with a BMW supplier to produce die-cut noise, vibration and harshness pads that are used in instrument panels and door components.

The company already had the necessary equipment, and Smith said with the automotive industry’s standard of just-in-time delivery, the automotive products require almost no warehouse space for inventory storage.

Carolyn Voisin said the contract with a BMW supplier and being located in the Upstate where the automaker and many of its suppliers are concentrated have opened up a whole new range of possibilities for her company.

“What a great move it was for us to come (to South Carolina),” she said.

Roylco timeline

  • 1969 — Company founded in Canada with its first product being chalkboard erasers
  • 1985 — Began exporting educational and art supply products to the American market
  • 1990 — Opened manufacturing plant in Buffalo, New York, to serve the growing American market
  • 1995 — Moved manufacturing operations to facility in Anderson
  • 2005 — Expanded offerings to include STEAM educational products
  • 2023 — Secured contract with Yanfeng, a BMW supplier, to make die-cut noise and vibration pads for instrument panels and door components

Roylco fast facts

  • 63,000-square-foot factory located at 3251 Abbeville Highway in Anderson
  • 30 employees
  • More than 300 educational, art and automotive products
  • Products shipped to every U.S. state, as well as countries worldwide



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