Fenton-based Tacony moves vacuum production to St. James from Asia
Tired of quality problems at Asian factories, Fenton-based Tacony Corp. is moving the manufacture of two vacuum cleaner models to its plant in St. James, Mo.
The plant will add 20 jobs as the models are brought on line this summer. The St. James plant now employs 120 people.
Joy Petty, Tacony marketing director, said the company is tired of having to fix quality problems once Chinese- and Korean-made vacuum cleaners arrive in the United States. The cost of fixing those mistakes erases the advantage of manufacturing overseas, she said.
"We can’t keep reworking stuff made in China to meet our standards," she said. The errors ranged from dust in the paint to parts installed upside down payday loans no faxing. "We were making stuff there, fixing it here, then sending it out to our highly demanding dealer base," she said. The vacuums involved are the Simplicity and Riccar canister models.
The vacuums were made at Asian facilities that Tacony doesn’t own. Making vacuums in Tacony’s own plant will let the company control quality, Petty said.
Tacony says that less than 7 percent of home vacuum cleaners sold in the United States are made in America.
Filed under: technology by Guru