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Jensen Company: Manufacturer of fireplaces. Wisconsin-based Jensen operates a sheet metal stamping and fabricating business as well as a business that markets ready-to-assemble decorative fireplace systems. Jensen produced its metal fireboxes in its Wisconsin plant; wood mantel pieces were fabricated in Guatemala. On the one hand, it needed to reduce the production costs of the metal fireboxes. On the other, the Guatemala factory could not handle high-volume production.
Jensen felt the costs could come down in China. After trying to source the wood mantels in China on their own and receiving a container of unacceptable mantels, Jensen turned to ITI.
ITI was able to align Jensen with the right Chinese factories to produce not only the wood mantels at a significant savings, but also the metal fireboxes at a cost below that which could be matched by Jensen’s own metal-stamping factory.
As a result, Jensen was able to expand their mantel business to the point that profits from this segment is able to carry its metal stamping business through industry downturns. Sourcing product in China through ITI allows it to hold their position in the metal stamping market while retaining its core employee force to perform high-margin custom work. |
