Time-clock maker Lathem keeps ticking in Atlanta

And it plans to grow.

“I think next year is going to be a good year -- and the years after that,” said Bill Lathem, president and chief executive of the company that bears his name -- more precisely, his great-grandfather’s name.

On a typical day, about 100 time-clocks slip off the assembly line at Lathem’s low-rise, nondescript plant near I-20, to be boxed and shipped to stores or customers. Most go to small companies, parking garages and banks. There, they will imprint the moment someone starts work or drives into a lot or cashes a check.

The company has hardly been static all these years, honing its production processes and lately adding new lines like wireless wall clocks and security devices.

But whatever products Lathem makes, it makes them in Atlanta with American workers -- as if executives don’t know which way the current is flowing. A half-century ago, manufacturing accounted for nearly one-third of all jobs. Now, it is about 10 percent both nationally and in Georgia.

During the past decade, more than 5 million manufacturing jobs -- roughly 200,000 of them in Georgia -- have disappeared, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Lathem, too, has felt the pain of slipping sales during the latest recession. Over the past couple years the workforce shrank from 130 to 105.

To cut costs, workers were told to take four hours a week off without pay. They were asked to volunteer for more unpaid time. Employees on their own organized a group to find ways to save tens of thousands of dollars in energy and other costs.

The combined savings have been significant -- and crucial to getting through the crisis -- but the time for emergency cuts is passing, Lathem said.

“I think we have bottomed out,” the CEO said. “Things stopped getting worse, and in the last 10 weeks, we’ve seen a positive trend.”

Lathem, in fact, expects a boom late this year, he said.

The company has signed deals that will make it the only time-clock vendor in both Office Depot and Staples, where its products sell for between $230 and $525. By November, the assembly line will need to be pumping out more time-clocks.

Lathem sells primarily in North America. And despite the array of cheap factories scattered around the world and the corporate giants that stride through so many markets, Lathem claims more than half that market.

Lathem’s chief U.S. competitor is Acroprint Time Recorder Co., a similar concern in Raleigh, N.C. Overseas, Amano Corp. of Japan churns out rival products.

Many a U.S. manufacturer has complained about competing with low-wage overseas manufacturing. Some have given up, while others have shipped manufacturing to Asia, where wages are typically a lot lower than even the modest pay at Lathem.

Outsourcing doesn’t always save money, argued Doyal Eubanks, Lathem’s vice president of manufacturing.

Even a low-cost supplier must mark up the item to make a profit, he said, and it’s not just the cost of outsourcing that can be a problem, he said.

“If you buy something from China and it doesn’t work, you are in trouble.”

Lathem buys some items like motors that are hard or expensive to make but also has its own tool-and-dye shop, he said.

“Anything we can make in-house, we do,” Eubanks said.

And from the Lathem assembly line, globalization doesn’t look so threatening.

After nearly 31 years making clocks, Jonathan Walsh, of Douglasville, said he’s proud to have helped prove that American-made need not be a misnomer.

“We are always competitive,” Walsh said. “That is why we are still here.”

He’s not just talking about the company’s longevity, either. At the birthday celebration last week, plaques were given to employees with the most seniority. Vicki Ferguson has been at Lathem 36 years — and she came in tenth. Number one: Doyal Eubanks, with 49 years.

The usual sounds of production fell silent during the birthday lunch, replaced by loud cheering for dozens of raffle winners and others being recognized for service. Palms were slapped, and there was lots of good-natured ribbing and mugging for photos.

If it seemed like an old-fashioned company picnic, that helps explain the company’s survival and its hopes for more success, suggested Ann Hooper, Lathem’s chief financial officer.

“I think it comes back to the family thing,” she said.

Not just the family ownership, but within the ranks as well, she said.

“A lot of people are related to other people who work here or used to.”

They include Hooper, whose father worked at Lathem and whose family now shares ownership.

Low turnover shapes the company’s culture, said Nila Rose of Villa Rica, an inventory control manager who’s been with the company 23 years.

“There’s camaraderie,” she said. “People have a good attitude, they work hard, they have loyalty and they try to keep the company successful.”

Bill Lathem said he sees that company culture as key to the way it conducts business. But not everyone belongs, he said, and he won’t tolerate a bad fit for long.

“We weed out the bad ones, too,” he said. “That’s part of it.”

During the mid-1990s, Lathem recruited a number of executives from large, nationally-known companies. Their big company expectations were not a match for Lathem.

“We ran ‘em out of here in about six months,” he said.

One exception is Bill Lathem’s wife, Donna, who worked for years in sales at IBM before coming into the family business. Lathem said even the CEO’s wife had to adapt.

“I told her, ‘Now Donna, things are different here,’ ” he said. “ ‘You’re going to have to make your own copies.’ ”