Little big company: The Rogers-based Assembled Products Corp. quietly controls 75 percent of the world market in electric shopping carts.
Posted on Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sunday photograph by David Frank Dempsey Gilbert Guerra, left, and Jose Mora added the final parts to a shopping cart on the assembly line at Assembled Products Corp. in Rogers. The company produces more than 70 percent of the motorized shopping carts in the world.
ROGERS — “ We’re a great little secret, ” said Kent Langum, vice president of international sales and marketing for Assembled Products Corp., while walking through an assembly room at his company’s Rogers-based campus.
A secret maybe, as most Rogers residents probably couldn’t find Assembled Products Corp. even if they had the address — 115 E. Linden St.
But spend a few minutes talking sales and markets with Langum, and it becomes immediately obvious that there’s nothing small about the company.
Most people have at least seen the electric shopping carts that those with disabilities and some senior citizens use to get around grocery stores, shopping malls and department stores in. Well, odds are that those carts — no matter when or where you’ve seen them — were designed and constructed right here in Rogers.
“ Our Mart Carts are the No. 1-selling electric shopping cart in the world, ” Langum said. “ We have approximately 75 percent of the world market in electric shopping carts. Whenever I tell someone that, they look at me like, ‘ What ? Right here in Rogers ? ’ But it’s the honest to God truth. ”
Step inside any Wal-Mart Supercenter, and you’ll find Assembled Products’ Mart Carts. Visit a Kroger and the majority of other grocery store chains across the United States, and you’ll find the same. Museums, department stores and — most recently — a large number of shopping malls across the country and abroad have all signed on.
Why Assembled Products ? Well, for starters, the Rogersbased company was the first to invent an electric shopping cart. But Langum said the company’s dominance of the world market is attributed to quality and ingenuity.
“ Our motto has always been, ‘ If you can’t build the best, then don’t even do it, ’” Langum said. “ That’s what it all comes down to. We’re constantly working with new ideas, new markets and even new products. You’ll see our engineers on our carts looking at, studying, tweaking and experimenting, constantly. ”
On any given day, the main building on the cozy Assembled Products campus in east Rogers is rocking, with assembly-line employees carefully and efficiently churning out Mart Carts to be shipped around the globe. In addition to the carts seen at various retailers, libraries and other venues in the United States, the carts being assembled right here in Rogers are shipped to Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and beyond. In recent months, Langum has even spent considerable time in Dubai, a market Langum expects to be moving into in the not-so-distant future.
“ We designed the motor, the parts — everything top to bottom — and it’s all assembled right here, ” Langum said. “ Every cart in the world except ours takes two batteries. Ours takes just one, because our motors are so efficient. That’s one area no one else can even come close to us.
“ The Mart Carts we’re doing today are 100 percent total recyclable. It’s the only electric cart in the world that can honestly say that. ”
And to think it all started out of the garage at Bill Sage’s home in Rogers in 1983. The product caught fire quickly, and demand soon outgrew Sage’s tiny garage. Sage sold the company several years ago, but it has continued to grow, including four buildings on East Linden Street, as well as a couple in nearby Avoca. Marketing representatives are often on the road — in the United States and in the farthest corners of the globe — pitching the product the nearly 150 people employed by Assembled Products are busy creating back home. According to statistics in the latest Arkansas Manufacturers Register, published by Manufacturers’ News Inc., Assembled Products did nearly $ 30 million in sales in 2007 alone.
“ Shopping malls in Europe are really big business right now, ” Langum said. “ Even a lot of trade shows are coming to us. A lot of people don’t realize how well designed these carts are until they sit on one. Everything has been taken into account. You can drive one if you have severe arthritis — even if you only have one hand. ”
The order tickets continue to line up.
“ Like a good hamburger place, we make them to order — and we get a lot of orders, ” Langum said.
While the Mart Cart assembly line continues to roll, Assembled Products Corp. has successfully developed a host of other cart-related products — including devices capable of easily moving linens for an entire floor of a large hotel — that are enjoying a great deal of success. Assembled products Corp. has also spread its wings to include two entirely separate divisions of the company: Spray Master Technologies and Jotto Desk.
SMT manufactures and markets a complete line of commercial spray-washing systems and accessories for a variety of commercial settings and applications. The units are available in floor-standing or wall-mounted variations that allow the user to control water pressure as well as the ratio of water to chemicals or soap mixture, which has made the systems extremely popular with animal boarding facilities. An Animal Humane Society location in Colorado has an SMT unit designed with nine pumping units and 90 remotes. Local businesses such as New Hope Animal Hospital in Rogers and Camp Bow Wow in Bentonville have had the systems installed.
Jotto Desk produces mobile laptop computer mounts and equipment consoles, commonly found in police cars and other emergency response vehicles.
“ Our SMT systems are on ships all over the world, ” Langum said. “ If you go to Las Vegas, you’ll find them at Caesar’s Palace and MGM Grand. People tend to say ‘ Wow’ a lot when they hear what we do. Not many people realize this is going on in their own backyard, but we’re not the only company in northwest Arkansas quietly doing some big things. I’d say we’re one of many. ”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
