Posted on 07/11/2012 3:54:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin
ONTARIO (CBS) — These are tough times for Mag Instrument Inc., whose Maglite has defined quality flashlights in America for a half-century.
The company’s 82-year old founder and president, Anthony Maglica, who still spends part of his day working in the tool, dye, and mold shop, told KCAL9′s Dave Bryan the tough times really hit home when he had to send out pink slips.
“I should really reduce the staff down to between 400 and 500, but where are they gonna go?” said Maglica. “There is no jobs.”
Maglica says there’s more than the slow economy at work here.
For years, he has battled to gain the designation “Made in the USA” for his flashlights, which he says contain almost 100 percent American made parts and are assembled right here in Ontario – all but a handful of parts, he says, that either aren’t made in America or are prohibitively expensive in the US.
California has the strictest standards in the country for companies that want the “Made in the USA” designation, and supporters of the law say the law should be strict because it’s a truth in advertising issue.
“If it’s all made in the USA, then a company can say it’s ‘Made in the USA’,” said consumer attorney Tim Blood. “But if it’s only partially made in the USA, then a company is free to say, ‘Partially Made’ or ‘Mostly Made in the USA’, or ‘Assembled in the USA by American Workers’, that’s all totally fine.”
In fact, the Maglite packaging does have an American flag in the upper corner with the words “A USA Manufacturer”, but Maglica charges that in the global economy of 2012, its almost impossible to have every tiny O-ring made in the US, where they cost 25 times as much as China.
“All I’m asking, to be equal to New York State, to Washington, anywhere where I can put ‘Made in the USA’, but I can’t put it in California, where I make it,” said Maglica.
But this month, an attempt to soften the California rules, which had already pass the Assembly with no dissent, lost by one vote in a state senate committee chaired by Sen. Mark Leno, from San Francisco.
Supporters of the tough statute argue that without it companies would take all kinds of liberties with “Made in America”.
“If they want to be able to say, ‘Made in the USA’, and it’s worth it to them economically to say, ‘Made in the USA’, and they’re going to make money off it, they they can make that determination and they can actually have the parts made in the USA,” said Blood.
Maglica says the “Made in the USA” designation would give him a slight edge over the cheaper knockoff flashlights made outside the country, but he’s running out of time.
“I’m so frustrated, because it’s so unfair, that the guy that brings the stuff from China, all the junk, and I have no advantage over him at all,” said Maglica.
But Blood believes the designation goes much deeper than simply a superficial sticker.
“If it’s ‘Made in the USA’, it ought to be made in the USA,” he said. “It’s a jobs issue, it’s a consumer rights issue, it’s good for the economy, it’s good for the market, and the way you keep markets clean is to keep fraud out of it.”
Attempts to reach Leno and other lawmakers who voted against softening the state rules against the “Made in the USA” designation for comment were unsuccessful.
Loved mag lights. Carried two while on the EMS. Tough things. Replaced them with streamlites.
“Tool, dye....”?
It’s tool and die. Idiots at CBS...........
If the o ring is the only thing made elsewhere I certainly can still consider Maglight an American made product. Still it would be even better if the O rings were made here. I can’t imagine they would add that much cost to the individual product.
He should strike camp and move the whole shootin’ match to Idaho. We love guys like this.
FWIW, I carry BOTH a Maglite on my belt and a Streamlight in my shirt pocket. Great products. Recently converted most of my Maglite colelction to LEDs.
The stupid California lawmakers should decide if they want this guy to keep his business as good as it is (in terms of units sold), by them giving him a break, by him moving production to somewhere like Texas, or by him moving production to Asia?
1. Maglite was and is still late to the LED revolution. Even today, LED-powered Maglites are the minority.
2. Maglite still hasn’t upgraded their light sources even on the non-LED models. They’re using old, old Krypton-filled bulbs when even cheap Brinkmann models have powerful Xenon light bulbs.
3. He continues to manufacture in CA, the MOST expensive state in the US to do manufacturing in.
4. You pay a premium for the Maglite name even over other US made lights.
I don’t feel sorry for him; all of his problems appear to be self-induced.
That hit me like a slap in the face. Did CBS fire ALL the editors? And this glaring error has been up there for two days.
Yet another attempt by California to drive the economy to its knees.
No doubt they won’t rest until all America is as bankrupt as they are.
But, hey, you can always sit on the beach and strum your guitar.
Until the instrument is repossessed, anyway.
Streamlight and many other companies make a better light, but I have a great fondness for the 4 cell Maglight I carried when working corrections. You could pop a crazed miscreant in the bean with that sucker and it would really get their attention.
ABC - Anywhere But California.
Exactly what I was thinking. There's a whole bunch of folks in Pocatello that would welcome his manufacturing operation with open arms. Buck Knife left El Cajon for Post Falls. We have vacant factory floors in properly zoned areas and plenty of skilled labor.
Streamlight has that meet and beat too: http://streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=13
http://streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=248#tabs
I am in agreement.
Maglites needed to move in a major direction. Either by producing a top of the line high intensity light or moving in the direction of “illuminated weaponry”.
They could have made a flashlight that would have a literal flash mode: generating temporarily blinding pulses of light at night. Or maybe combine their light with a less than lethal weapon.
All you guys that think that Maglite should move probably didn’t notice that the owner is 82. Moving his company across country (and leaving his grandchildren behind) is probably too much to ask of a man who doesn’t have that many years left. And it isn’t cheap to move. It would take years for him to recoup his expenses, even if he were willing — not that it wouldn’t be a good idea in the long run.
Nice... of course a small flashlight would do if I had the collapsible PR-24 I was issued.
Someone once asked me “Is that a club?”.
“No, it’s a baton.”
“What do you do with it?”
“I club people.”
That 6 D-cell light is a monster! I’ve grown to like Surefire, although they are pricey...Stevie666
Instead, they’re producing the same old stuff they’ve been making since the 80s. It was nice then, and it’s still decent build quality now - but they’re selling a 1927 Ner-A-Car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ner-A-Car) in a market dominated by 2012 CBR1000RRs (http://powersports.honda.com/2012/cbr1000rr-new.aspx)
Maglite’s problem is that they *need* to move - either move the company somewhere else, move their product line into the present day (they are sorely behind the rest of the market - practically unchanged product lineup for the past 30 years) or possibly both.
They should have actually started doing this back around 2000, but they missed the opportunity then. Now they HAVE to do something or they will go under - and it will have been self-inflicted.
If I were the owner, and at 82, I’d be thinking about my legacy. Stay in Kali and end up with nothing but debt and bankruptcy, or - make one last big move and save the enterprise by taking it somewhere else. Easy? No. Expensive? Yes. But nothing offers a better opportunity to save something of your life’s work.
Seriously: are things going to get any better for Mag-Lite in California?
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