By the end of next week, the only light bulb factory in America will be fully operational and shipping from Fargo, North Dakota.
Tom Enright is founder and President of GoodBulb. He says he’s been selling light bulbs for 25 years, and he watched as all major manufacturers pulled operations from the United States and move them overseas. The last one closed in 2020.
He says many attempted to bring production back, but struggled to maintain economic viability. And Enright says that didn’t sit well with him – the light bulb was invented here, and made here for over a hundred years. He says he traveled the world to see how it was done.
"I was standing on the floors of these light bulb factories, and I was just in awe. I was looking at the line, and I would see 20, 30 people on a line making light bulbs. And my first thought was, why? And then, wait... we can do this. I can do this better. Why can't America do this? Why did we give up on this? It was just all these questions started happening."
GoodBulb committed eight years to developing their manufacturing process. The factory will begin churning out A19 LED light bulbs just in time for the 250th anniversary of the country.
"We just manufactured our first light bulb on June 12. Today the line is fully operational; we're still working on the tweaks and lining everything up. But by the end of next week, we'll be able to make 10,000 light bulbs in one day."
Enright says he was inspired to start his company after his young son overcame a health scare, and used that inspiration to give back to others. GoodBulb commits a portion of every sale to providing solar lanterns to families without reliable electricity and supporting disaster relief around the world. And Enright says he’s just getting started – another light bulb is already in development.
