Made in Utah: manufacturers returning production to Utah roots.

• Author: Haraldsen, Tom
• Position: Business Trends

Ray Malley remembers something is late father used to say to him whenever the elder Malley made a purchase.

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"He'd say, 'if it's made in the USA, it's good for the USA. Closer to home is better"' Malley recalls. Now, the advice that the former Californian received from his father may be in step with that of several local manufacturers who've started a new trend--bringing their manufacturing back to the state from abroad.

"Not only have I been hearing that it's going to happen, it's a fact," says Lew Cramer, president and CEO of the World Trade Center Utah. "Manufacturers in this state, and in several other states, are asking themselves what makes the most sense to do. They no longer say, 'Hey, I'm going offshore no matter what,' because that is short-sighted. I've talked to several local manufacturers who are no longer interested in going to China for their products, and that's a great thing for Utah"

Quality Counts

A number of Utah manufacturers discussed the subject at a Utah Business roundtable earlier this year (see our April issue). Companies such as Orem-based Mity-Lite and Bountiful-based Orbit Irrigation have expanded their local production efforts and have been importing less and less from Asia. Other Utah companies such as Little Giant Ladders and BlendTec are doing the same.

There are several reasons for the shift in strategy--customer loyalty being among them.

"We have noticed in the stores and through visits with customers that products that say 'Made in the USA' sell better here, as well as in foreign countries," says K.C. Ericksen, president and CEO of Orbit. "We've found ways to make the move back to local manufacturing more strategic, and it's helped us on many fronts."

Cramer, who visited China as part of a state-sponsored trade mission trip in April, observes that "thousands of [Chinese] companies have gone out of business" over the past couple of years, due largely to the fact that manufacturers are choosing to bring their production back to their native countries.

"There are many advantages for doing that," Cramer says. "Among them are more quality control, employee morale and motivation, and reducing costs by incorporating more and more automation into the process. Price alone [by importing products from China] is becoming less of an incentive for companies who want to keep production at home."

Mity-Lite is a great example.

"Our decisions [on importing] have gotten clearer over the past few years"...