The decision by basket-maker Longaberger Co. to bring its pottery-manufacturing jobs back from
China is welcome news, underscoring that American workers can be competitive in the global
economy.
Yes, the U.S. has lost jobs as the global market recalibrates, but this also allows businesses
to be nimble and shift with changing costs, wages and consumer demand. Thus, American innovation,
manufacturing-technology advancements and the rising costs of doing business overseas are leading
to a new trend, “reshoring.”
“We’re coming home,” CEO and President Tami Longaberger announced last week at the company’s
annual national sales convention in Columbus.
The Dresden, Ohio, home-goods company is doing this because it is smart marketing; Longaberger’s
baskets and pottery are a tangible link to American craftsmanship and heritage.
And it’s doing this because it can make money, said Cleveland economist Dan Meges.
Pottery kilns use relatively cheap and abundant natural gas, and wages are going up in China,
said Meges of Chmura Economics & Analytics.
Longaberger, to be fair, never set out to offshore its pottery manufacturing. The privately held
company obtained its pottery from a U.S. manufacturer, which began off-shoring in the early 2000s.
By 2005, Longaberger was importing its pottery from China.
But some manufacturers have found that the move didn’t pay off: Fuel costs have increased
shipping rates, especially for heavy and bulky goods. Technology innovations have made
manufacturing in the U.S. less labor-intensive. Further, doing business half a world and 12 times
zones away can be complicated.
As one CEO of a technology company told Bloomberg last month, “If we have an issue in
manufacturing, in America we can walk down to the plant floor.”
Harry Moser, president of the nonprofit Reshoring Initiative, which is campaigning to bring jobs
back to the U.S., estimates at least 25,000 manufacturing and support jobs have come in the past
few years, he told
The Wall Street Journal.
That’s a small puddle in the big ocean, with thousands of jobs having shifted overseas. But as
Longaberger’s move shows, the market also can work in America’s favor.
The decision is expected to create 500 jobs.
Companies choose manufacturing sites for all sorts of reasons: government regulations and
incentives, cheap or trained labor, the tax environment, access to raw materials, convenience.
And sentiment.
Longaberger sits in Muskingum County, a center of pottery manufacturing since the 19 {+t}{+h}
century. As the home-goods company looks to again underline
American-made, sentiment plays a role. But improvements in American efficiency and a
far-improved environment for doing business in Ohio also are big factors in bringing manufacturing
home.
Source Article from http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2012/08/04/made-in-america.html
