FW: NCTimes-Hunneman: Temecula: Bianchi to close plant

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From: <char.ayers@att.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:07:27 +0000
To: Charlene Ayers <char.ayers@att.net>
Subject: NCTimes-Hunneman: Temecula: Bianchi to close plant

Thursday, April 17, 2008
Last modified Wednesday, April 16, 2008 9:31 PM PDT

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Bianchi International, a renowned holster manufacturer that started in Temecula, is vacating the plant on Jefferson Avenue it has occupied for several decades, sources say. / STEVE THORNTON Staff Photographer


TEMECULA: Bianchi to close plant

By JOHN HUNNEMAN - Staff Writer

TEMECULA ---- An internationally known manufacturing firm whose company founder helped keep the Old West alive in Temecula will mosey out of town later this year.

Bianchi International, known worldwide as a leading manufacturer of high-quality handgun holsters and accessories, will be leaving Temecula, The Californian confirmed Wednesday.

Although company executives could not be reached for comment, several of the business's employees contacted by phone said Bianchi will be leaving its Temecula location.

The company's founder, John Bianchi, no longer owns the firm, but his family still owns the Temecula building housing the manufacturer. He said the company is leaving.

A Lee & Associates sign posted outside the company's 44,100-square-foot industrial building at Jefferson Avenue and Calle Cortez says the building is available for lease.

"We've been told the building will become vacant on Oct. 1," said Mike Strode of Lee & Associates.

Just how many jobs will be leaving with Bianchi's departure is unclear. Various business-related Web sites state the company has as many as 230 employees at the Temecula plant.

At its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the firm employed 350 people, Bianchi said.

"We were the largest employer in the valley back then," he added.

Bianchi International also has a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Calexico. However, Bianchi said he did not know whether the jobs in Temecula would be headed there or elsewhere.

"The company is continuing to grow," he said. "These days they manufacture product lines on three continents."

The Bianchi family sold their interest to a private equity holding company in 1987. John Bianchi stayed with the company until retiring in 1992.

Ownership has since changed hands, most recently in 1994 when Bianchi was acquired by Armor Holdings, a leading manufacturer of security and vehicle armor systems for commercial, military and law enforcement use. Last year, Armor Holdings was purchased by BAE Systems, a British-based global defense and aerospace company.

John Bianchi moved his company, then called Bianchi Holster Company, from Monrovia to Temecula in 1971. The company, which he started in 1958 as a small mail-order business in his gar age, grew out of Bianchi's desire to create a holster he could wear as a Monrovia police officer.

Bianchi retired from the police force in 1964.

"I took about $1,700 in retirement money, paid off my house, bought an economy car and started to build the business on a dime," he said.

Bianchi's design concepts for holsters were considered to be well ahead of their time. Millions of Bianchi holsters have been sold.

Originally made only of leather, over the years Bianchi holsters have been made of both canvas and nylon and used by law enforcement officers, private gun owners and the U.S. military.

"We developed a very strong cult following around the world," he said. "We had the right product at the right time and the right price."

Bianchi said he found a lot to like in Temecula when he first bought property here in the late 1960s.

"Temecula held a promise of a great lifestyle ---- a true country atmosphere," he said. "I liked the people; I liked their work ethic and it was a great place to raise a family."

Bianchi built his manufacturing facility on Jefferson Avenue ---- which eventually grew to 70,000 square feet ---- "from the ground up," he said. "There was nothing else like it here."

He also become enamored of the area's history.

A collector of Western guns and memorabilia, he opened the Bianchi Frontier Museum in 1982 next to his manufacturing plant in Temecula. The collection was said to be among the largest in the world.

However after several years, and with the museum not drawing as many visitors as needed to make it viable, Bianchi sold his entire collection to cowboy film and music star Gene Autry for a planned museum in Burbank.

The collection included many Temecula artifacts ---- including a large diorama Bianchi had built that depicts Old Town Temecula in 1914 ---- and local business and community leaders raised $20,000 to buy those items back.

Some of those i tems, including the diorama, are on display at the Temecula Valley Museum.

"There were many disappointed people in Temecula when the museum closed," he said. "But no one was more disappointed than me."

Bianchi was also a founder of the Temecula Historical Society, which put plaques on historical buildings in Old Town and worked with the county to establish ordinances to control the design of new buildings in the community and the modification of older ones.

Strode, a veteran of the commercial real estate market in the region, said manufacturing jobs leaving Southwest County is not uncommon these days. He added that most of the new jobs coming here are retail and service-oriented.

"That's what's going on," he said. "Manufacturing jobs need to have lower operating costs specific to labor. It's very expensive to operate here."

Bianchi said he will be sad when the company he founded closes in Temecula.

Over the years, more than 10,000 people ha ve worked at the firm, he said ---- some for a short period, others for 25 or 30 years.

"There's a tinge of sadness," said Bianchi, who is "on the other side of 70" and now lives in Rancho Mirage. "Many people believe the success we had fueled the growth and investment that eventually came to Temecula."

Contact columnist John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.


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