A well-deserved honor for Wahl Clipper

When Leo Wahl took his new idea – an electric hair clipper – and began manufacturing it back in 1919 in Sterling, he was dreaming big.

Nearly a century later, his big dream has fostered a big company that is redefining the word “success” in 21st-century American manufacturing.

Wahl Clipper was honored Monday as part of Walmart’s “Made in America” initiative, in which the giant retailer pledges to buy billions of dollars of American-made products over a 10-year period.

Among those items are the consumer personal care products made by Wahl Clipper, led for the past 20 years by CEO and President Greg Wahl, grandson of the founder.

Wahl Clipper’s challenges with foreign competition have been stiff in recent years, and its success is not preordained.

It has taken talented leadership at the highest levels to meet those challenges.

Walmart chose to single out Wahl Clipper to highlight the company’s new Sterling facility and the local investments Wahl continues to make.

During Monday’s program, Greg Wahl spoke of the company’s recent history. Here are several quotes:

• “With globalization, competitors much larger than us were sending jobs to the Far East, and while others were outsourcing, we were winning awards for exporting our products.”

• “International playing fields aren’t always fair, but we fought to succeed.”

• “There’s a big difference between having an operational focus and being investment-driven. We thought long and hard about long-term success, and for us, it’s about people and process – we aspire to make the best products in the world.”

It takes some pretty fine people to make “the best products in the world,” and Wahl Clipper has shown its commitment to its workforce by protecting them from economic storms that afflict other companies.

Over approximately the past 50 years, Wahl Clipper has not laid off a single worker – a record for which Greg Wahl is justifiably proud.

In this day and age, that philosophy is unusual among manufacturers, and for Wahl Clipper, it has paid dividends. When you have employees who feel secure and valued, they’ll be happier and more productive.

And when you have a workforce in Sterling that has grown to about 1,000 men and women, that positive synergy can accomplish amazing things.

Walmart certainly is impressed by Wahl, and its purchase of Wahl products for sale at its sprawling network of stores gives the Sterling company a major boost by directly supporting about 100 of those 1,000 jobs.

It is said that an organization takes on the characteristics of its leader.

With someone as innovative, inventive, proactive and loyal as Greg Wahl is, and with the intelligent and talented leadership team he has assembled, it’s no wonder that Wahl Clipper has found a way to succeed.

What would Leo Wahl think of all this? We think he’d be as proud as proud can be.

We offer our congratulations to Wahl Clipper and our best wishes for its continued success.