Making Things Around the USA

Once a year this newsletter celebrates vendors who make their products in the USA. Here are some familiar brands and some newcomers.

Pennsylvania

Channel Craft began as a one-man operation back in 1983 from the back of a step van / traveling wood shop. President and founder, Dean Helfer, drove from craft shows to folk festivals peddling his hand-crafted wooden Boomerangs. He would arrive at a craft show the evening before and set up his wood shop for the next morning ready to sand and sell his Boomerangs that were finished right before the customer’s very eyes.

As the years went on and sales grew, Dean and his crafters sought out a larger manufacturing facility than a step van to continue to produce the American Pastimes that had brought them this far. In 1991, Channel Craft settled into an old Army Corps of Engineers building south of Pittsburgh on the banks of the Monongahela River in Charleroi, PA.

40 years later, Channel Craft is still “Quality Crafting” Toys, Games, Puzzles & Edu-Tainment for thousands of specialty toy and gift shops right here in the USA. And, believe it or not, the returning Wooden Boomerang is still Dean’s best seller!

Georgia

The Grandparent Gift Co. started with a single sentiment and has grown to hundreds of gift items for all family members and all occasions. Owned by Teri Harrison, the Alpharetta, Georgia, has been in the gift industry for nearly 30 years. The company started selling USA-made greeting cards, framed prints and other sentiment gifts in the mid 1990’s. The company still depends on local printers and suppliers for components in over half their total gift assortment from US vendors. The company’s popular stained glass hearts are handmade in Heartland of the United States and assembled with the companies original sentiments in their Alpharetta, Georgia warehouse. The stained glass hearts join the company’s assortment of other popular handmade glass items made by small USA crafters. Each cross and heart offering stores a one-of-a-kind gift at great wholesale prices. The company is constantly innovating gift ideas and creating new American made gifts for the whole family and for all occasions.

Minnesota

Dutch House Confections is a small business in rural, central Minnesota. They specialize in homemade-style caramel candy. Their beginning goes back to 1997 when the goal was simply to make a little extra money. Today they operate in a 10,000 square foot facility and employ 10 people.

While expanding their operation they continued to focus on quality products and quality customer service. At tradeshows, you often hear buyers commenting that it is the best caramel they ever tasted. This comes through careful selection of ingredients and continued hands-on approach to production. Their current cooking equipment is capable of completing a batch in half the time used by Dutch House employees, but they learned that patience produces a tastier end-result.

Texas

Are you tired of bland and boring meals? Look no further than Cin Chili Company, a family-owned business with 19 years of experience in the industry. Our high-quality dry seasoning mixes, hot sauces, and unique pickle products including Passion Pickles habanero and ghost flavor and Pickle Sips in dill and sweet heat flavors are sure to add a kick to any dish. But don’t just take our word for it – we’ve won the CASI International Chili Cook-Off two years in a row and have been featured on The Food Network’s Throwdown With Bobby Flay: The Chili Challenge. Our commitment to quality means we will never sacrifice flavor for price. So why settle for boring food when you can spice up your life with Cin Chili Company?

…and more!

Below is a list of other US-made manufacturers who either entirely make their products in the USA or may assemble products in the US. Links to these can be found at GiftsWholesale.com, USMadeWholesale.com or in the CAMEOEZ.com directory.