In March 2021, OW Lee relocated its manufacturing facility from Ontario, California, to Comfort, Texas. The family-owned business invested over $20 million, which includes the purchase of the property and about $6 million worth of improvements to it.
But in mid-2022, the company put a pause on new production to sell through its excess backlog.
This move, according to Paul Rogers, the company’s vice president of product development, helped make the company more efficient and shift it to a new and stronger position today.
“When we moved, our line was a little bloated — about 85% of sales were made up of half our line, maybe even less,” he explains. “After Covid, our backlog got so long that our lead times were at 13 months. We realized that all of the extra product we were producing was just clogging up our production line, so we put that on pause and it helped us get back down to four to six weeks today.”
That means this upcoming season the company will focus heavily on new products, which Rogers says he’s excited to get back to.
“We also want to focus on not overextending ourselves and not coming out with three to four new lines like we did in the past,” he explains. “And we realize that we don’t need to do that — we need to focus on what we think is best for us instead of trying to make several groups that might appeal to everyone. Instead, we’ll focus more on groups that interest a majority of our customers.”
That was goal No. 1. Second, the company took a serious look at its fabric selection and decided it was time to change things up. The company will have new fabric books ready for market in July.
“I was in California last week for a sales trip and explained to our customers what we’re trying to do with fabrics,” he says, “and they seem excited about what we’re doing.”
Overall, Rogers says he’s glad the company is back to where it was — a position similar to when it had its facility in California, in the sense of product development.
“We feel comfortable developing new products here in Texas that we can produce and deliver on time like we’ve been known to do,” Rogers says. “We also want to make sure everybody knows that we’re gearing up for special orders. Our biggest goal right now is to maintain that four- to six-week lead time when the season hits, and we’ll be ready.”
