| Lemada Light Industries Ltd. | |
|---|---|
Native name | למדע תעשיות קלות בע"מ |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Toy industry |
| Founded | 17 March 1975 |
| Products | Board games, toys and educational games |
Production output | Arad, Israel |
| Brands | KodKod |
| Website | www |
'Lemada Light Industries Ltd. (למדע תעשיות קלות בע"מ) is an Israeli manufacturer and publisher of board games and toys. Its products are marketed in Israel primarily under the KodKod (קודקוד) brand. The company developed from the Hertzano family's manufacture of Rummikub, the tile game created by Ephraim Hertzano, and for decades operated the principal Rummikub manufacturing plant in Arad.
Lemada is registered as an active Israeli private company. Company-register data give its incorporation date as 17 March 1975. Israeli government records identify its English legal name as Lemada Light Industries Ltd..
Ephraim Hertzano emigrated from Romania to Israel in 1950. According to a 1994 Jewish Telegraphic Agency profile, he had previously worked as a perfume vendor and, after settling in Israel, developed Rummikub as a family game in the kitchen of his home in Tel Aviv. Early sets were produced with the assistance of his family and sold directly to friends, neighbours and local shops.
An account published by Ynet in 2003 similarly described the business as beginning with small-scale production by the Hertzano family before growing into an industrial operation. Hertzano initially carried small numbers of sets to shops and offered them on a sale-or-return basis. Production later moved from handmade sets to mass-produced plastic components.
The formal company, Lemada Light Industries, was incorporated in 1975. Ephraim's children, Micha and Mariana Hertzano, subsequently became closely involved in running the business and expanding Rummikub internationally.
Micha Hertzano attempted to introduce Rummikub to the American market after studying in the United States. According to the 1994 JTA account, a significant boost came in 1977 after comedian Don Rickles mentioned the game during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Demand in the United States increased sharply afterward.
By 1994, JTA described Lemada as a multimillion-dollar family business headed by Micha Hertzano. Hertzano said at the time that approximately 600,000 Rummikub sets were being sold annually in 34 countries.
The company and the Hertzano family also established the World Rummikub Championship. The first championship was held in Israel in 1991. The second, in 1994, was staged aboard a chartered cruise on the Rhine, with competitors from around 20 countries.
By 2003, annual Rummikub sales had risen to approximately two million sets, and the game was distributed in more than 40 countries. The company also licensed production to factories in India and Brazil.
Lemada developed a large manufacturing facility in Arad in southern Israel. In 2003, Ynet reported that the factory occupied approximately 8,500 m2 (91,000 sq ft), employed about 150 people and operated three shifts a day.
More than 90 per cent of the factory's production was exported. Most stages of manufacture were carried out on site, including plastic moulding, production of wooden and cardboard boxes, game boards and final assembly; only limited printing work was outsourced.
The Arad facility later also manufactured games for other companies. Hasbro has listed Lemada's Arad factory among its third-party manufacturing facilities.
In Israel, Lemada's games and toys are marketed under the KodKod brand. Before 2004, KodKod was already known primarily for Rummikub and as a producer and marketer of board games.
In February 2004, Hasbro announced that it would close its Israeli subsidiary after ten years of operation and transfer its Israeli business to KodKod. Contemporary reporting described the choice as unexpected within the local toy industry because KodKod had previously concentrated on board games and had not operated significantly in Hasbro's other toy categories.
The agreement expanded KodKod's role in the Israeli market to Hasbro products. Hebrew editions of titles associated with Hasbro have included Monopoly, Risk and Cluedo. The relationship continued in later years; in 2016 Hasbro and KodKod jointly marketed a Jerusalem edition of Monopoly in Israel.
KodKod also publishes and localises games from other manufacturers as well as games developed for the Israeli market.
Rummikub remained Lemada's best-known product for much of the company's history. The Israeli Rummikub trademark was registered in 1981 and is held by Lemada Light Industries Ltd.
The game was distributed internationally through licensing arrangements with local companies, while production for many markets continued at Arad or at licensed overseas plants.
In April 2026, Hong Kong board-game manufacturer Longshore Limited acquired most of the worldwide intellectual-property rights to the physical tabletop version of Rummikub from Lemada. The transaction took effect on 1 April and covered worldwide rights except Israel, the United States and Canada; digital versions of the game were also excluded.
Micha Hertzano described the acquisition as bringing the Hertzano family's decades-long international stewardship of the game to a close. Longshore had worked with the family as a manufacturing partner for more than forty years.
The transaction did not transfer Lemada's rights to the tabletop game in Israel, nor the rights covering the United States, Canada or online versions.