By Paul Beebe, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Aug. 2--Earning a record profit when the economy is limping seems the stuff of wishful thinking.
But that's what Colorado Springs-based Powell Products Inc. did in 2002.
The maker of cosmetic applicators and swabs for the cosmetics, health care and high-tech industries, to all outward appearances, is on track to do well again this year.
'Last year was a big year,' said Stephen Robards, president of the privately held company. 'All of the divisions are doing well (this year). We are on track to grow in all the markets we serve.'
Powell, which moved to the Springs in 1992 from California, employs about 75 at its factory in the shadow of Interstate 25 and Garden of the Gods Road. The factory cranked out more than 220 million swabs and applicators last year.
More are on the way.
Powell plans to install additional machines early next year, boosting the factory's production capacity about 25 percent.
'It will mean more jobs -- 25 to 30 people,' Robards said.
In June, Powell and a joint venture partner bought a factory in China that makes brushes that are sold to cosmetics companies.
The factory, owned jointly with Anisa International Inc., an Atlanta-based cosmetic brush supplier, employs 300. That number should increase to 1,200 next year.
China is becoming a global manufacturing center. More than 760,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs have moved to China since 1992, according to the U.S.-China Security Review Commission.
Most of those jobs were in eight industries: electronics and electrical e...uipment, chemicals and petroleum products, household goods, toys, textiles, plastics, sporting goods, and wood and paper products.
The two Powell factories will not compete against each other. Much of the work done in China is labor-intensive.
Its brushes can't be made at the Colorado Springs factory, which is more automated, Robards said.
It is the diversity of Powell's markets that kept the bottom line strong last year, said Scott Herrera, director of Powell's clean room and medical division. When one market is depressed, other markets fre...uently are strong.
The cosmetics industry was in a buying mood last year, which compensated for weak sales to electronics firms, Robards said. That pattern is typical when the U.S. economy is struggling.
Women now account for at least 50 percent of all of the car-buying decisions. They buy fewer cars and more makeup when times are tough, Robards said.
The electronics industry is showing signs it is recovering. Orders from companies that manufacture computer storage devices have strengthened in the past month, after five years of weakness, Robards said.
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(c) 2003, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
