By Pamela Kufahl, editor Club Industry
As Star Trac moves its manufacturing from to mainland China, the spotlight has shown even brighter on that country as a location for fitness equipment manufacturing. China’s low labor costs have meant a slight advantage for companies that have manufacturing plants or partners there, some suppliers say, but as China’s labor costs continue to rise, that advantage may be dwindling. Does that mean that the U.S. manufacturing market will see growth?Doug Johns, global marketing director at Precor, Woodinville, WA, says it could. “In manufacturing in general, the trend is going to be that America will have a more competitive position than we have had,” he says. However, rising Chinese labor costs were just one factor in the decision by Med-Fit Systems, Fallbrook, CA, to move its Nautilus manufacturing from Taiwan and China to its Independence, VA, facility earlier this year, says Dean Sbragia, CEO of Med-Fit Systems. Med-Fit bought that plant for $2.1 million from Nautilus after its purchase of Nautilus’ commercial business last year. “It’s kind of the perfect storm right now—weak dollar, rising Chinese prices, rising energy prices,” Sbragia says. “To have control over our development, design, engineering, manufacturing and distribution all under one roof and absorbing that overhead increases our margins and allows us to be more competitive. The more volume we do through our factory, the more manufacturing variances we absorb, the more competitive we can be in this market. It all makes sense to us to utilize that facility to its fullest capacity.”http://clubindustry.com/inside_manufacturers/fitness-equipment-manufacturing-stays-global-but-chinas-luster-fades-20110701/?cid=nl_nb