Clarke Products Inc.

C larke Products, Inc. is a privately-owned, bath- ing product company that designs and manu- factures innovative and sophisticated showers, bathtubs, sinks,wash basins, and whirlpool products in its 210,000-square-foot facility inWaco,Texas. Recently, Business ViewMagazine spoke with Com- pany President & CEO, Donald Clarke,who talked about the firm’s beginnings, as well as its evolution into the country’s premier manufacturer of acrylic and solid surface bathing products.The following is an edited transcript of that conversation. BVM: Can you talk about when you started Clarke Products, and how the company has grown since then? Clarke: “I bought the assets of a bankrupt com- pany in 1984. Prior to that time, I had run sales and marketing for Jacuzzi Corporation. So, I was exposed to the whirlpool bath business at Jacuzzi,when I decided to start my own company. “I had sensed a need for a more affordable prod- uct in the therapy tub area.One of the things I had learned and observed at Jacuzzi was that even though Jacuzzi was this recognized name, it was incorrectly recognized as anything that had swirl- ing, pressurized water; it was not associated with a company. So, I reckoned that there was an opportu- nity for other brands to exist other than the big guys that were dominating the business at that time.