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The foundation of the company, who we really are, is at once the culmination of people and assets; the confluence of values, personal purpose, and dogged insistence to simply do the right thing – consistently.
chill-n-go, Inc. is a fully integrated textile and leather manufacturing company. This includes pattern making, cutting of rolled goods and leathers, embroidery and laser etching, skilled sewing assemblage, QC, packaging and fulfillment. The company maintains state-of-the-art equipment including:
- Autometrix pattern and nesting software networked to computerized cutting
- BOSS laser etching (leather)
- Juki computerized, pattern, and standard sewing machines
- Pulse digitizing software networked to Tajima embroidery machines
What We Make
The company manufactures its proprietary chill-n-go® line of insulated products serving the wine & spirit industries, as well as providing OEM and on-demand promotional products manufacturing for other companies across a myriad of disciplines. While there are exceptions, generally the company uses quality high-denier nylons, polyesters and leathers to create custom cases, bags, and covers. An example of exception would be the OEM production of minister stoles in the religious realm.
Our Bent
We make tools – textile tools. We do not view our work as 'promotional'; while most products we make are adorned, this aspect is secondary to the design and purpose of the product itself. This view or priority spawns a mental mindset, the framework of which is anchored in quality and service.
In 1977 on the cutting floor of a San Leandro parachute manufacturer, an entrepreneurial young lady gathered nylon, insulation and webbing, then designed, cut and sewed the first one and two bottle capacity insulated wine bags. Little did she know that just months earlier the seminal event in wine history, The 1976 Tasting of Paris, was to become an unstoppable force that would propel wine and California akin to gold 130 years earlier – only it would take much longer.
The One and Two Bottle bags were granted design patents and the 1980's became a whirlwind of expanding styles and fabrics, winery and tasting room customers, patent litigation, marketing, and the trials and tribulations of 'Oh, that's a good idea' to 'Oh, business management?' All the while, the nascent Napa Valley was awakening.
The 90's decade brought NAFTA and China's entry to the WTO (2001) - the landscape was changing quickly and dramatically. An entire economy was shifting from a manufacturing base to a service base. The factory floor was moving – either to another country or another continent. We grappled with the same questions thousands of other small manufacturers did – in essence, stay or go? Or, change your business model from manufacturing to marketing – outsource the manufacturing process and labor.
2002 - We stayed – and shifted focus. The momentum of that Paris tasting had become a tidal wave. Wine evolved into big names, big business and like Sutter Creek, the Napa Valley and adjacent areas became magnets. It wasn't just production in California, it was distribution nationwide – and to a large degree, wine in the US was 'sold on taste'. The need, at the professional level, to efficiently and effectively carry wine drove our urgency, attention and resource allocation. To wit, our first earnest production of Wine on Wheels bags begins in 2003.
2010 - Many factory floors are empty. Not ours, and our wine and spirits business grows solidly and consistently in small increments. It becomes clearer that China can't do what we can do. Mostly by word of mouth, we begin finding clients who seek textile design and manufacturing solutions meeting specific requirements and customized to their content. These are not 'mass-market' items – the quantities desired are low by China standards, amounts and frequency needed can vary widely, likelihood of content and hence design change is high, warranting a short-order, short-lead-time environment.
2020 - At forty-something, chill-n-go® remains in our heart and soul. But in reality chill-n-go® is a specific textile solution for specific industries. For several years we've been proving there are others. Enter the Coronavirus pandemic. Immediate textile solution = masks. We make a few - actually, quite a few. All the while refining and further deploying our CNG Portal web application. This three-plus year development effort yields the single largest customer service and internal order processing advancement in our history. But the pandemic further drives and clarifies the effort to exploit 'textile solutions' in its broader spectra. Our new external website focuses on exactly that. What a year!!
Looking forward to the next writing of history!
1977 - Company founded San Leandro, CA
1978 - One and Two Bottle insulated wine bags designed and manufactured in SF Bay Area
1979 - One and Two Bottle bags receive US Patents
1980's - Napa Valley begins decades of explosion
1985 - Company relocates to Rancho Cordova, CA
1987 - Ownership changes – manufacturing expands into promotional market arena
1994 - NAFTA challenges domestic textile manufacturing – WTO & China in the wind
2000 – WTO on the horizon – dramatic shift begins from consumer items to W&S professional items
2003 – Chill-n-go begins earnest production of WOW bags
2006 – Management buys ownership
2009 – Plant expands into adjacent area
2011 – Further plant expansion as DSOD program grows
2017 - Development of the chill-n-go Portal web-application begins
2018 - Chill-n-go Portal goes live
2020 - Portal expands from DSOD/Re-Order app to full quote and new-order capability
Broadly stated, our mission is to avail efficiently assembled human resources and mechanical assets to companies seeking a custom manufactured textile solution. Above all else the focus is quality and service. Quality fabrics, threads, sewing practices, accoutrements, adornment. Service rooted in our belief that working with you, not at you, creates a lasting and reciprocally beneficial relationship.
The fuel that propels the mission is found in our purpose and values.
Core Purpose:
- Design/build Textile Solutions
- Provide associated efficiency services
- Educate for best decision
- Build long term relationships - earn confidence
- Fulfill personal & business potential
Core Values:
- Sense of Urgency
- Quality Manufacturing
- Honesty with Class, Character and Pride
- World-class personal customer service
- Responsibility to employees and community
Behind the machines and fabric some very unique individuals have shared a common bond and resolution. That bond and resolve stems from family - the overriding need and desire to create opportunities for their children that would not be possible otherwise. In several instances, 30 plus years have past. The kids have been raised; graduations, weddings, all the elation and grief, the accidents, the winnings, the fears and the relief - and behind all are good, honest, hard working people who make this company, this country, the greatest in the world.