K’NEX® Brands and The Rodon Group Celebrate Nation’s Birthday Through Commitment to American Made

Hatfield, Pa. (June, 2012) – K’NEX Brands, the only U.S. construction toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love TM, and its sister company, The Rodon Group, a custom plastic injection molder, recently ramped up their advocacy efforts on behalf of American made products.

Committed to manufacturing in the United States at a time when most toys are made overseas, K’NEX has become America’s Building Toy Company–over 90% of its parts are manufactured by The Rodon Group. In business since 1956, The Rodon Group makes billions of parts each year in its 125,000 square foot eco-friendly facility and is one of the largest family-owned and operated injection molders in the United States. In addition to manufacturing K’NEX parts, The Rodon Group serves a diverse group of industries including consumer products, medical, construction, and pharmaceutical.

“Independence means having the flexibility and ability to control your own destiny. Made in the USA products are a fundamental example of the Independence we celebrate each year. The more we make here at home, the more we shape our own future, and that’s what independence is all about”, said Michael Araten, President and CEO of K’NEX Brands and The Rodon Group.

Both K’NEX and The Rodon Group; third generation, family-owned businesses located in Hatfield, PA; are active members of American Made Matters, an organization whose mission is to educate consumers about buying US-made products to help strengthen the American Dream.

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About The Rodon Group
The Rodon Group is an ISO 9001:2008 certified landfill-free, plastic injection molder. In business since 1956, The Rodon Group makes billions of parts each year in its 125,000 square foot facility. With over 105 injection molding presses, Rodon is one of the largest family-owned and operated plastic injection molders in the United States. Since 1992, Rodon has manufactured over 30 billion parts for the K’NEX building toy system, and is a subsidiary of K’NEX Brands, L.P. For more information, please visit www.rodongroup.com

About K’NEX Brands
Founded in 1992, K’NEX Brands, the world’s most innovative construction toy company, was established to make and sell what has become one of the world’s leading integrated construction systems for children. Winner of over 200 international awards and recognitions, K’NEX is America’s building toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love, and encourages youngsters to “imagine, build and play.” Since 1992, The Rodon Group, a subsidiary of K’NEX Brands, L.P., has manufactured over 30 billion parts for the K’NEX building toy system. For more information, please visit www.knex.com or www.rodongroup.com.

About American Made Matters
the mission of American Made Matters® is to educate consumers that buying US-made products strengthens the American dream. The American Made Matters® brand seeks to stop the rapid decline of manufacturing jobs in the United States of America and rebuild those jobs through a common branding identity and call to action. For more information on our organization, visit www.americanmadematters.com.

Made in America makes sense again, K’nex Brands CEO says

Article from Philly.com

The maker of K’nex toys has long manufactured many of its products in America, and it pushed that as a key marketing message in 2007, after safety concerns arose about toys made in China.

But the family-owned company in Montgomery County decided it needed to do more as the U.S. economy slumped, and it chose to move one of its key operations from China to the United States.

“It started as a moral decision,” K’nex Brands L.P. chief executive Michael Araten told the 375 people who attended a “Made in America” program presented by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue on Wednesday morning.

Repatriating $100 million in foreign investment back into the United States was based on sound business reasons, Araten said in an interview after the program. Though he would not disclose the dollar value of K’nex’s annual sales, he said it was up 10 percent from 2010. Through April of this year, it is up 22 percent, he said.

“If you looked at our profit-and-loss charts for the last three years, you would say, ‘What recession?’?” Araten said.

Today, 95 percent of the parts that go into K’nex construction toys are made in the United States, with most emanating from the company’s Hatfield factory, where it employs about 200 people.

Moving the operations led to a 25 percent increase in K’nex’s local workforce, Araten said, and also required the company to hire a number of vendors in a 100-mile radius who could do “things we’re not great at.” He estimated the employment ripple effect of K’nex’s decision to be several thousand jobs.

Joining Araten in a panel discussion were the entrepreneurs behind Devon-based Independence LED Lighting L.L.C. and Center City-based S.V.A. Holdings Corp.

Independence LED brought the manufacture of its energy-efficient LED tubes, designed to replace fluorescent lighting, back from China to a highly automated factory in Boyertown in summer 2010. Charles Szoradi, CEO of Independence LED, said that put it closer to its commercial customers in the Washington-to-New York corridor.

Bangladesh’s loss was Philadelphia’s gain when designer Sarah Van Aken opened a garment factory here. She described how her eco-friendly firm is following a “dirt-to-shirt” strategy using cotton growers and textile makers in North Carolina to control how her apparel products are made.

Contact Mike Armstrong at 215-854-2980 or marmstrong@phillynews.com, or @PhillyInc on Twitter. Read his blog, “PhillyInc,” at www.phillyinc.biz.