Employer seeks to get companies to offer new-car rebates

Nils Rosaen Sr. doesn't have a mission statement on the wall and he doesn't have a title on his business card.

"I tell people to make up their own title and put it on the card. That's how I feel about titles," he says.

Rosedale Products Inc., his small family-owned company that makes filters for industrial liquids, has grown over 25 years, adding offices in Texas, California and Beijing. He's says it's because he's simply outlasted his competitors and remained independent. "If you last, you end up winning," says Rosaen.

The son of a Swedish immigrant, Rosaen (pronounced Rose-aine) employs 80 people in Scio Township, mostly in manufacturing, but also in engineering, sales and accounting. In recent years, he has watched as more and more out-of-work engineers from the domestic automakers have come to him, seeking jobs.

Rosaen doesn't waste time debating the politics of buying a foreign car. The government alone can't fix the problems the domestic automakers face. nor can the United Auto Workers or the auto makers themselves, he says. The problems, especially legacy costs, are simply too big.

"It's up to the individual companies to do something."

Rosaen did something.

Last month, he offered his employees $750. toward the purchase of a new Chrysler, General Motors or Ford car.

You might assume, as I did, that Rosedale does a lot of business with the Big Three; however, they composed only 10 to 20 percent of his $15 million in sales this year.

So far, two of his employees have taken his offer and purchased new cars - a Buick and a Ford - and he has since increased the offer to $1,000.

Combined with rebates from the automakers, Rosaen hopes the cash incentive will be enough to nudge employees to buy from the Big Three. More than that, he hopes other, larger employers will follow suit.

"It doesn't take much," says Rosaen, who drives a Cadillac DTS. "If one of (the domestic automakers) sells 1,000 more cars in Michigan, their stock price goes up and it's like a ripple effect."

Like the auto industry, Rosedale Products has had its ups and downs in recent years.

For two years, Rosaen suspended the company's match to employee 401 K plans because, he says candidly, "We were broke." Business has been better this year, so he reinstated it, with a 3 percent match instead of the 6 percent he used to offer. Employees must pay 20 percent of their health care costs.

I asked him why he bothered to offer rebates to buy new cars if the business isn't flush with cash.

"The benefit for me is, I guess, the publicity and maybe that gets the attention of someone with power and money, and it would do some good," he says. "It's just an idea."

It's an idea that could inspire others, as it did me, to remember that we're all in this together.

Business Editor Mary McDonough writes about local business issues for the Ann Arbor News.

Reach her at mmcdonough@annarbonews.com or 734-994-6861.