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Sprinkler company moving production line to China

Posted July 19, 2007 11:00 pm

ANITA SZOKE

L.R. Nelson Corp. eventually will move all of its production lines to China, but the sprinkler company will keep its corporate headquarters in Peoria, company chairman Dave Ransburg said Friday.

L.R. Nelson has been shifting its production functions to its facility in China over the past couple of years, and the remainder of the production portion of the business will be moved to China over the next 18 months or two years, Ransburg said.

"We've already moved a good deal of production over there," Ransburg said. "There wasn't much (production in Peoria) here anyway."

About 50 to 60 employees in production and indirect labor, such as forklift truck operators, will be affected by the move, said Ingrid Baker, L.R. Nelson's vice president of Human Resources.

The plant employs a total of about 100 hourly employees in distribution, manufacturing and indirect labor, and about 90 employees work in the office, she said.

The 315,000-square-foot Peoria facility still will be a distribution center. After the move to China, about 30 to 40 workers will remain in Peoria and work in the distribution center.

L.R. Nelson had employed as many as 1,000 people in 1998, including seasonal employees in addition to 450 full-time workers, according to Journal Star archives.

Ransburg said moving the production line to China is necessary to survive in a highly-competitive industry.

"The problem is it's so competitive. If we don't move it, our customers will move it, they will go to somebody else," Ransburg said. "We feel we don't have a choice."

Although production is moving to China, the company's headquarters and management will remain in Peoria, Ransburg said.

"The headquarters will still be here. We will still have a big operation here," he said. "What's happening, unfortunately, is the cost there (in China) is so much less."

L.R. Nelson's history reaches back to 1904, when Lewen R. Nelson created and patented a coupling device for garden hoses, according to the company Web site. It sold so well that in 1911, he formed his own company. The business remained in the Nelson family until the 1970s.

Ransburg bought the company in 1972, and focused it on research and development. In August 2001, Nelson reorganized its company into two separate business units, one focused entirely on retail lawn and garden products and the other devoted to its professional irrigation products for residential and commercial applications.

Sunterra LLC, an additional strategic business unit of Nelson, was created in September 2001, focusing on the sales, marketing, and distribution of decorative home and garden products throughout the United States.

Today, L.R. Nelson manufactures more than 1,000 products for lawn, garden, landscape and turf for professionals and home consumers. Its products are sold throughout North America and worldwide.

Anita Szoke can be reached at (309) 686-3248 or aszoke@pjstar.com.

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