PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The July 23 edition of the Providence Journal featured an op-ed piece from the CEO of an HVAC manufacturer promoting American-made products.

John Hazen White Jr. wrote the piece from his perspective as CEO of Taco, an American manufacturing company that has been in business since 1920.

“Many American companies in the last decade or two took their jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. While most of them found that, while producing goods overseas might have bottom-line advantages at first, those advantages have gradually disappeared or shrunk considerably as wage levels rose, commodity prices increased, and transportation costs weighed in,” White wrote.

In contrast, White wrote, “Some American companies never made the easy move to manufacture overseas. I am proud to say that Taco was one of those companies. Long ago, we made a commitment to our employees to stay where we began and to improve our manufacturing process so that we could manufacture competitively right here at home. We accomplished that, and we continue to work on perfecting it.”

White explained that Taco does not outsource any of its manufacturing and stands 100 percent behind all of its products. He also praised his company’s 500 employees, referring to them as Taco’s “most important constituency” and “some of the finest and most efficient workers to be found anywhere in the world.”

“Like me,” White wrote, “I know they are proud to be engaged in helping make an American company an enduring success.”

Publication date:08/30/2010