Logan, Utah-based automotive accessories maker Saddleman Inc. is moving 124 people from Garden Grove and Phoenix to a new 89,000-square-foot facility in Fullerton.
The company is consolidating its Wolf division based in Garden Grove with an existing one in Phoenix, said Keith Koski, Saddleman’s president and chief executive. The move involves 100 people from Garden Grove and 24 from Arizona and comes after Saddleman bought Wolf Automotive Inc. last August.
The company considered shifting operations to Phoenix but found a bigger facility in Fullerton at the former Hunt-Wesson site there.
“It made sense to have one plant,” Koski said.
The company has plans to expand its OC operation to 300 employees in the next two years.
“We wouldn’t have acquired (Wolf) if we didn’t think it would grow,” Koski said.
The company currently has six operations spread throughout the nation, from North Carolina to Ohio, and now on the West Coast.
Saddleman has been buying other accessory makers. In March of 1999 it acquired Downey Products Inc. a Charlotte, N.C.-based maker of Tonneau covers for pick-up truck beds.
“We are always kicking the tires at acquisitions. Sometimes they come through, sometimes they don’t,” Koski said.
Saddleman was founded in the early 1970s making saddle blanket seat covers, which is where the company got its name. Most of its business comes from selling seat covers, but the company makes various other car accessories. The LeBra division of Saddleman makes car bras. The company also has divisions that make dash mats, car graphics, seat pads and covers, floor mats and wheel covers. Saddleman has 780 employees and counts in $90 million in annual revenue. n
