Future Looks Bright for Sunbeam

Sunbeam's Owners Lynne and Fred Muzic

Build a good product and sell it at a reasonable price." That's a philosophy that has served many businesses on their roads toward success, and it's the foundation of Sunbeam Trailer Products' business philosophy. However, like so many companies in the RV industry, Sunbeam's has been a turbulent ride. But through the years, Sunbeam has ridden that rugged highway and today holds the distinction of being the oldest RV lighting company in the industry.

Sunbeam Trailer Products, Inc. of Huntington Beach, California, is owned by Lynne and Fred Muzic and manufactures 12-volt fluorescent and incandescent RV lighting. Ninety-five percent of its business is fluorescent lighting and 90 percent of that product goes to OEMs. In addition to the RV industry, Sunbeam also serves the marine and catering truck industries.

Originally, the business was purchased by Lynne's father who was the factory manager at Northrup Aircraft and was looking for something to do after retirement. Today, Fred is president and Lynne is director of sales.

Fred started working for Sunbeam in 1958 as a delivery boy. Wait, that sounds like an interesting story. How did the delivery boy end up marrying the boss' daughter and becoming president of the company?

Lynne laughed at the question. She said, "Fred was my brother's best friend. He was around a lot, and we became friends.

"We were going together when I was a senior in high school. Dad needed someone to make the deliveries, and he asked me how I would feel about hiring Fred. I said as far as I was concerned if he wanted to hire him that was alright with me. I was thrilled that Fred was given the opportunity."

After Lynne's mother passed away, Fred and Lynne bought the business in 1970. "Father wanted out," Lynne remembered. "And Fred had been running the business for three or four years before that anyway."

In those early years Sunbeam's business was manufacturing interior propane gas lights for RVs. Eventually, Sunbeam started making incandescent lights. During that time the company had over 300 accounts with warehouses in six states. Fred recalled, "Business was very competitive. Manufacturers would drop you for a penny. We sort of backed out of that market segment because the incandescent business was a terrible market. The gas light business sort of filtered away 16 to 20 years ago. We were paying $5,000 to $6,000 a year for product liability and in those days, that was a lot of money. We had an attorney on retainer and were constantly sending somebody $500 because they burned their arm on a light fixture.

"I said 'I'm getting out of the gas light business.' You could see the writing on the wall. If one big thing goes wrong you are wiped out."

Fred's first love, as far as the business is concerned, is and always has been product development. In the late 1960s Fred developed a ballast for a 12-volt lighting system and that got Sunbeam into the fluorescent light business. The ballast is the key to engineering a fluorescent light that will work with a 12- volt DC system, and coming up with a workable ballast wasn't as simple as it might sound. Fred explained it as black magic because theoretically it shouldn't work. But that didn't stop Fred. He said, "I'm the type of person that feels there isn't anything I can't do if I want to do it."

So with a new product and good business on existing products the Muzic's life couldn't be better. Fred remembered, "In 1972 we were making a lot of money. We bought two new cars, a boat, and an airplane which I used in business. At the time we were putting the merchandise in the six warehouses on consignment. We had a lot of product all over the country and we needed to check on it."

Then the 1974 gas crunch hit, and Sunbeam lost a lot of money to bad debts. Fred said, "It took a long time for the business to come back. It was like starting over again. We were just barely surviving."