In Search of a Manufacturer

My friend and I have come up with a product we are both excited about and think can be a viable business. We've been making our product ourselves by hand up until now, but we've come to the point where we can't make them fast enough. We need someone else to make it. We need a manufacturer.

Sounds easy, right? Just look up some manufacturers and get some prices. Well, not so easy. There's a catch: we want our product to be made in the United States, not overseas; even better if we can have it made locally.

The initial price quotes we got back were discouraging, but not completely out of the ballpark. We'll have to keep looking. But what was more interesting is the story of one Massachusetts manufacturer, Fall River Manufacturing.

I spoke to the owner, Jimmy Petrosso, on the phone for a long time.  And even though his price wouldn't work for us, he was friendly and encouraging about our business, not so much about the future of his own industry, manufacturing.

"Do you know how many calls I get like this?" Petrosso asked. "I hear this every day. You make things at home then you want to have someone [in the U.S.] sew for you, and you can't afford it."

At one time, Fall River was a much bigger operation than it is now. "We used to do a thousand dresses a week for Talbot's, then they lifted the [trade] quotas and let China in, and that was it. One week, it was all over. They went to China and it was all over," Petrosso said.

"I used to have 100 employees," Petrosso said. "I have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. It's all paid for. Now I have myself, my wife and two employees."

Petrosso doesn't think the manufacturing business will be coming back to the United States anytime soon. "It's over for us," he said. "Our business is back in the Stone Age. We made our money when we could."

A week later, I found another manufacturer in New Jersey, that came in at the right price. A full-scale sewing operation, this company shares a football field sized industrial loft with an embroidery company, and three other garment industry companies. Originally located in an industrial complex in East Newark, the five companies had already become good neighbors, so they moved en masse to their new location.

After touring the factory floor and meeting with the contracting manager, I was walked out through the massive building by one of the managers, Dominic. I told him how happy I was to find a local manufacturer. I told him about the discussion I had with Mr. Petrosso about the demise U.S. manufacturing.

Dominic leaned in as if to tell me a secret. "You know," he said, "some people think manufacturing is coming back here."

Let's hope so. But for now, I'm glad we'll be keeping it local.