By Elaine Rassel
K-Products, Inc. celebrated 50 years of company history at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, September 6 at the Rowenhorst Student Center at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. This company-wide celebration included a special announcement about long-term profit-sharing. (This story was not in the history book of Marcus as it was celebrated after the book was printed.)
Originally, K-Products was located in Le Mars, Iowa. The company moved to its present location, Orange City, in 1968. When K-Products was founded, the company operated one plant; currently, it operates five plants in Orange City, Hawarden, Marcus, and Rock Rapids, Iowa, and in Canton, S.D. The company employs 1,800 people who attended the birthday celebration on September 6. K-Products provided buses for Canton, Hawarden, Marcus, and Rock Rapids to transport the employees to the birthday celebration.
Besides their 50th birthday, K-Products had other achievements to celebrate.
In the August 1996 issue of “The Counselor” magazine, K-Products was recognized as number four in the nation among promotional suppliers in 1995. K-Products was also named to the Multi-Million-Dollar Roundtable. Both honors recognize advertising companies for their level of annual sales growth.
K-Products was also recognized by “Stitches Magazine” for two awards. Out of the top 100 embroiderers in the nation, K-Products was ranked number six. This honor was based on the number of pieces stitched in 1995. Two K-Products’ Marcus employees were honored in the annual “Stitches Magazine “Stitch-Off” contest held June 8-9 at the APEX New York Show. Robin Harms, Cleghorn, was the first place winner in the Cap Division and Jan Brady, Marcus, was the second place winner. The first place art was created by Milissa De Yager, Orange City; the second place art was created by Lori Keunen, Alton.
“Apparel Industry Magazine” ranked K-Products as 91 out of 100 sewn product companies. This honor was based on annual sales revenue.
K-Products is a licensed distributor and manufacturer of promotional products for business-to-business use.
“Clear the building and lock the doors.” At noon Friday, Sept. 6, 1996, six large buses arrived at Marcus K-Products. Nearly all 284 personnel, plus one extra, boarded and headed for Orange City. It was party time! Time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of their parent business. The work forces from Canton, S.D., Hawarden, Rock Rapids and Orange City, along with the Marcus group, numbered nearly 1,500.
CEO Quentin opened the gathering with, “Hello, I’m Quentin . I’m in the hat field” as he removed his plant made ball cap. For those who don’t know, his surname is “Hatfield” and yes, folks according to him, he has family ties to the “Hatfields & McCoys, those feuding mountain boys”. He also celebrated his own 50 years of being the next day, Sept. 7.
K-Products began in 1947 in Le Mars by Thomas B. Kohout, making mostly caps. In 1968 they moved to Orange City and have expanded to five plants. The Marcus branch celebrated its 15th birthday this year and Quentin was manager here at one time.
The audience had an aura of expectancy and enthusiasm_they were well rewarded. As Quentin handed the huge staff the challenge of production “more, faster, and better’, they also handed out profit sharing checks as an incentive to achieve the challenge. Birthday cake, ice cream and beverage topped off the afternoon, with all groups socializing and showing their appreciation for a company that realizes its success is only as good as their workers.
The bus ride home had the employees contemplating what to do with their windfall. Quite a birthday party—all the guests went home with a gift!
(I was at this party and I do not remember what amount the check was!)
Mr. Kohout’s family didn’t seem to have an interest in the business and a few years after the party, the company was bought out by a company out of state. This company didn’t stay long and sold out to another, etc. until Staples came into the picture in 2007. K-Products, itself had a lot of competition. They had a good business with caps that went to Florida where college kids went on Spring Break until foreign caps arrived. Why pay the price of $5 (for instance) when you could get a cheaper one that didn’t make any difference if it got left behind or not? At one time, they had a plant in Mexico, but that didn’t last long. It was just the right time to sell and let others worry about the competition.