For Raj and Marta Bhathal, son Alex and daughter Lisa are their “exit plan.”
Raj Bhathal is chief executive of Tustin-based swimsuit maker Raj Manufacturing Inc.
Wife Marta Bhathal is chief operating officer. Alex Bhathal is executive vice president and takes care of production.
Lisa Bhathal Vogel handles marketing.
Raj, which employs about 400 people in Orange County, won the large company honor at the Nov. 18 Family Owned Business awards luncheon put on by the Business Journal and California State University, Fullerton’s Family Business Council.
Even as the senior Bhathals groom the company’s next generation, Raj and Marta said they’re not ready to hang up their swimsuits just yet.
“I don’t want to,” Raj said.
By the sound of it, Alex and Lisa like having their parents around.
“We value their opinions,we want their opinions,” Alex said.
“Senior management knows things through osmosis,” Lisa said.
Transition Plan
The plan is to add more mid-level managers to free up Alex and Lisa’s time so that they can learn some of the responsibilities their parents now handle.
In reality, Raj and Marta don’t have a hard and fast plan to pass the reins.
“We don’t have an ownership plan,” Marta said. “It’s a gradual stepping back.”
But Raj and Marta said if they had to leave tomorrow, they would be comfortable turning the company over to their kids.
“We’re so pleased with their performance,” Marta said.
The siblings also have earned the respect of other senior managers, she said.
The elder Bhathals gradually are pulling back, in part because Raj Manufacturing is an established, well-oiled machine.
Raj spends more time golfing.
He said he used to have to drag Marta out of the office at 8 p.m. Now she said she comes in around 9:30 a.m. and leaves by 6 p.m.
Raj Manufacturing makes, sells and distributes swimsuits under license from Irvine-based O’Neill Clothing, St. John Knits International Inc. of Irvine and Los Angeles-based Guess? Inc.
It also has its own lines, Athena Collection, Athena Pick Your Fit and Rajman.
The company has many long-time workers as well as a wave of younger ones.
“Alex and Lisa are bringing younger people in,” Marta said.
Raj came from India to study engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Later he went to the University of Arizona, where he received his master’s in business administration.
Then he and a roommate headed for Manhattan Beach.
He planned to go into aerospace,not swimsuits,but found himself up against a hiring freeze.
Walt Disney Co. offered him a management position in Anaheim, but he only had a bike at the time and couldn’t make the commute.
So Raj found a job at Rose Marie Reid Swimwear, walking distance from his Manhattan Beach apartment.
He met Marta at a party in Manhattan Beach. After six months, he proposed.
Five months later, they were married.
Marta, born in Long Beach and raised in Newport Beach, was a physical education supervisor for the Compton City School District.
They decided to start Raj Manufacturing in 1967 in Santa Ana, inspired by what Marta saw as a need for fashionable swimsuits from her time in Newport Beach.
In 1978, Raj Manufacturing moved to Tustin, where it has 100,000 square feet of production space.
Virtually all of the company’s swimsuits are made in Tustin, though the family has been mulling options, such as moving production or expanding elsewhere.
Business Climate Issues
Raj has been a critic of California’s difficult business climate, which he said could force the company to make products somewhere else.
For now he’s waiting to see how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reform efforts play out.
The Bhathals said they lead the company by example. The family just works hard, Raj said, and “they follow us.”
If there is a deadline, everyone rallies, Lisa said.
“You’ll see mom and dad down in the factory with their sleeves rolled up,” she said.
Raj Manufacturing is a stickler for fulfilling orders on time, Lisa said.
It boasts greater than 99% on-time shipping, she said.
The secret to getting along: checking egos at the door.
“We have excellent communications,” Marta said.
The company has an open door policy, literally. Raj’s door is open, so no one has to knock. But to get his ear, people often have to wait in line.
The family’s philosophy is when they are at work, they’re not the owners.
“We work for the company. We don’t own the company,” Raj said of the family’s mentality at work.
Another rule: Don’t bring business home.
“There is life elsewhere,” Marta said.
Lisa said she struggles with that rule sometimes.
“I always feel like we have to work harder,” she said.
Alex added: “This is our family business and we have a passion for what we’re doing.”
There are no rules against arguing, and they do plenty.
“We’re very passionate people,” Lisa said.
“One thing that’s very clear is everyone has the same goal in mind,” Alex said. “We argue all the time how best to achieve that goal.”
Lisa said she always intended to work for the family business.
She started work the first Monday after she graduated from the University of Southern California.
During college she interned as an assistant buyer at Foothill Ranch-based retailer Wet Seal Inc., and said she found herself empathizing with apparel makers.
“When (Wet Seal buyers) told me to get a discount on a price, I could always hear my parents,” she said.
Lisa’s been with the company for 11 years.
‘Fun Industry’
For Alex, who’s been with the company for six years, it was different. He worked in sports, real estate and then decided to go back to school, attending the University of Southern California for a master’s in business administration.
Surrounded by like-minded business students, “a little light bulb went off,” he said.
Alex said he saw the company in a different way, as a good company in a fun and interesting industry. “And I thought that I could make a difference if I came here,” he said.
His dad, always quick with the wit, added swimsuit models were an incentive.
Who’s the next generation?
Lisa, who now has a son, said she hasn’t thought that far ahead.
“I really hadn’t thought about it until I was at the luncheon,” she said of the Business Journal event.
But she could envision passing the business on to her kids. She’d also like to have a daughter, who she could see as a swimsuit model, she said.
