An Inside Look at Oransi’s Reshoring Efforts with CEO Peter Mann

We’ve been working hard to get our factory in the mountains of Radford, Virginia online and have some exciting milestones coming soon. Getting the factory up and running has been a long process, but responsibly making our air purifiers in our local community has been an even longer goal of ours. 

In fact, the seeds for this idea were planted a long time ago, back when our Founder and CEO Peter Mann saw manufacturing jobs leaving his hometown in waves. Growing up in an electronics hub, he saw the high quality of the products his community could build. More often than not, it’s a stark difference to what you can buy now. 

Seeing those jobs leave motivated Peter to find a way to assemble our air purifiers in the US. It’s one of the reasons we also have US-based Customer Service too. 

We asked our CEO, Peter Mann, to describe in his own words why Oransi is working toward responsible manufacturing practices in the US, sometimes called reshoring, and what it means to him. 

Here’s what he said in his own words. 

When did you first think about establishing a factory in the US?

In 2013 we launched a couple of air purifiers that were made by a contract manufacturer in Connecticut. So, manufacturing in the US is not new for us.

What we’re doing differently now is reshoring with a focus on cost that is competitive with the imports. There’s research that shows more than 70% of consumers prefer products made here, however, most people don’t want to pay a premium for products manufactured in the US. 

We’re hoping to solve that problem by assembling high quality products that will be offered at an affordable price. Our goal is to achieve the best value for the price of a product assembled in the US.  

Why did you decide to make reshoring a reality? 

It became a reality when we discovered how to manufacture at a competitive price. In 2021 we merged with Aviemore Technologies, a motor and motion control company with proprietary technology. 

This motor technology gives us a competitive advantage with the motor and motion control systems in our air purifiers. This is the engine for an air purifier. Having this technology has assisted us in making reshoring a reality. 

Why is reshoring to the US important?

We used to make a lot of things in the US and during the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s a large number of jobs were lost to overseas manufacturers. 

This affected many communities like where I grew up in Syracuse, NY. My dad worked for GE and recalls going to Electronics Parkway where they made color TVs with 17,000 employees. All gone now.

Almost all parts were made in-house. They developed solid state imaging chips, the beginnings of GPS, electronics for broadcast transmitters, microwave circuits, and a variety of electronic components. 

One time my dad brought home a prototype of a pacemaker that was developed there. There is so much innovation that is lost when you don’t make things. In addition, by making products here we’re transparent in how we assemble our products and do so in an environmentally friendly way. Since we are vertically integrated we can keep costs low and limit stock outs. We can also repair products so they don’t end up in a landfill. 

Why did we choose the Radford, Virginia facility?

While not widely known, the Radford area is home to several motor and motion control companies making it a great location for Oransi. 

There is a lot of engineering talent in Radford and Virginia Tech is nearby, a leading engineering research university. It makes sense that we would want to be in this area to begin reshoring with our motor technology. 

How are we able to make our products affordable and assemble them in the US? 

Raw materials and components costs are similar around the world. The main driver of cost is labor. 

So, the key to being competitive on cost is to minimize how much labor goes into each product. One way to do this is via automation, however, the upfront costs are quite high. The other way to do this is to design the products in such a way that the assembly process is more efficient. 

This is the path we followed. We’ve focused on how to reduce the number of parts that go into putting together our products. This takes place during the design of the product. The cost for a product is all determined by the design, so we’ve spent a lot of time designing an optimal product upfront so we can make them affordable.

We’re happy to continue to share our reshoring efforts and be as transparent as possible with our customers. We want to bring everyone on this journey as Oransi continues to shift our efforts to assembling products in the US and making the most of our factory and location in Radford, VA.