Tiger Lights, Faced with Fire, Tariffs, COVID, Enters Year With Optimism
By Kristi Ruggles
We faced individual challenges in 2020 that were wrapped inside our all-consuming shared challenge. Sometimes there was a cause-and-effect relationship between what everyone faced and our personal thing. Other times though, our thing was a random addition to what could feel like a pile of troubles.
That was the case at Tiger Lights in Oregon, where an unprecedented wildfire season claimed lives, destroyed homes and businesses, and ultimately burned more than 900,000 acres.
Two of the wildfires—Beachie Creek and Holiday Farm Fire—crept within 15 miles of the homes of the owners and an employee at Tiger Lights, an Association member company based in Tangent, Ore.
Fifteen miles, in the context of two blazes approaching from different sides and creeping outward to torch about 367,000 acres, is just too close.
There were days that ash fell from the sky and covered their cars like snow, Mikkelsen said. The smoke created a fog that made it dangerous to be outside without a respirator. During our shared crisis, when bringing outside air inside is good, businesses in Oregon had to seal their buildings against an oppressive smoke.
“It got bad in early September,” said Dana Mikkelsen, a lifetime Oregonian who owns Tiger Lights with Randy Raschein, her dad. “We had a terrible windstorm, and the fires went from five acres to hundreds of acres quickly. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
Through it all, the company remained open and relatively unaffected by events erupting around them.
“We are good. We are lucky,” Mikkelsen said. “We have a finely tuned machine here.”
That fine-tuning is not the result of decades in business but rather lessons learned quickly.
Tiger Lights, which manufactures LED lights for agriculture, industrial, and off-road vehicles, launched in 2013. Raschein began the business based on a need he saw during his decades as co-owner of Farmland Tractor, a tractor salvage company. The equipment he saw needed better lights.
“He just started bringing in samples and looking at better ways to do things,” Mikkelsen said. “He wanted to see where things might go, and they took off. Some of the first lights he developed are our bestsellers.”
The company’s original niche was in creating new lights for old tractors, and that has remained a mainstay. Tiger Lights has also expanded to create light kits for new tractors, which she said the company typically sells for less than 25 percent of what farmers would pay if they bought the light kits from the tractor maker.
The company has set a pace of introducing six new products a year, which has led to an expansion both in production space and sales.
Tiger Lights started in 2,000 square feet of space it shared with Farmland Tractor, which Raschein and other family members still own and operate. From there, it moved into its own 5,000-square-foot building, which it quickly outgrew. In mid-2020, it claimed a 23,000-square-foot space, which leaves ample room for the future.
The family sells its lights in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It works through wholesalers and is expanding to serve original equipment manufacturers.
Mikkelsen shared her thoughts with Ag Innovator on both the shared challenges and individual challenges Tiger Lights faced in 2020.
Q: How have trade disputes affected the company?
A: The majority of our lights have an aluminum housing, so the tariffs have had an impact on us. In 2018, we had a 10 percent tariff. It has been over a year now that the tariff has been 25 percent. We have tried to absorb the cost the best we could, but we implemented a very minimal price increase in 2020. Our suppliers have been good about working with us on prices, too.
Q: How did you respond to COVID-19?
A: We are in Lynn County, which is considered one of the hot spots in Oregon, but we haven’t had any real issues. We considered ourselves somewhat essential and continued to operate as normally as possible.
We locked our doors and did not allow visitors or customers. We have eight employees in a big, open warehouse, so it was easy for everyone to keep their distance. Oregon is still locked down. Walk-in traffic to our showroom was never a huge part of our business, but that remains closed, and we are doing everything by phone and online.
Q: Are there ongoing effects of the wildfires?
A: In terms of our business, things are back to normal. We experienced shipping delays because of the smoke, but that was brief. The landscape will not look the same in my lifetime, which is a sad reality for Oregonians, and of course the people who lost homes, even neighborhoods, this is far from over for them.
Q: What’s ahead for Tiger Lights?
A: We have a few different projects in the works. I think we are just going to continue to build our company by developing quality lights that farmers know they can trust. We also hope to expand our presence in the industry through organizations like Farm Â鶹app Manufacturers Association. We made it to our first convention in 2018 and are looking forward to meeting more members when things get back to normal.
Regardless of what’s ahead, Mikkelsen said she, her family, and the companies they own will face it with the resilience they see in the industry they serve.
“I am optimistic as we enter this new year,” she said. “Farming is not going to slow down. They are vital, and they are resilient. They roll with the punches, and we will, too.”
Tiger Lights has been a member company since 2016. Learn more at tigerlights.com.