Final thank you

Don Clark is in a niche market where customers are often willing to pay more for a product made in America.
That's one reason his company's sales have doubled in the last five years and rose more than 20 percent in 2008.
For many Americans, there's something unsettling about placing a veteran's burial flag in a case with a "Made in China" label, said Clark, president of Connelly Springs-based SpartaCraft, a major flag-case maker and the official government supplier of the flag cases sent to families of personnel who die while on active duty.
"People might be ambivalent about the origin of a lot of things, but when it comes to flag cases, they tend to want one that's American-made," Clark said.
And while the company has branched out into making military personal effects chests, display cases, custom home theaters and custom cabinetry, SpartaCraft's mission is still largely about honoring veterans and passing down the legacy of what they have done, Clark said.
More than 600,000 veterans die each year, and the family of each who served honorably is entitled to a flag from the federal government.
Clark said many of those flags end up being stored in drawers or closets and eventually forgotten.
When Clark joined Hickory entrepreneur Wade Moose as a SpartaCraft partner in 2005, part of his goal was to put more of those burial flags in SpartaCraft cases.
The company's sales have grown from $1.9 million in 2004 to a projected $4 million this year.
Flag cases remain SpartaCraft's core business.
The company will make more than 40,000 of them this year. They retail for $75 to $200.
A more recent addition to SpartaCraft's line are heirloom personal effects chests, which the U.S. Army now presents — in addition to flag cases — to the families of personnel who die on active duty.
A General Services Administration-approved vendor, all of SpartaCraft's products are listed on the GSA government procurement site.
The company sells to nearly 4,000 funeral homes each year, and is the preferred supplier of some of the industry's largest funeral home groups.
Its products are available in gift shops, frame shops, trophy shops, and through various catalog companies and online retailers.
Originally known as SellAmerica, SpartaCraft was founded in the mid-1980s by George Wurtzel, a blind Hickory woodworker who built a triangular wooden case to hold his father's memorial flag from World War II.
Wurtzel thought the government should give flag cases to all veteran families, and he convinced the Air Force that it should use the flag case he developed.
Soon, other branches of the military decided they wanted the cases, too.
Wurtzel contracted with Sparta Industries, an Alleghany County woodworking company and a division of the U.S. Tobacco Co., to make the flag cases.
Moose, who had helped finance SellAmerica as it grew, bought the business when Wurtzel moved back to his home town in Michigan.
U.S. Tobacco closed its manufacturing operations at Sparta Industries, sold the manufacturing equipment to Moose, and the company was re-established as SpartaCraft in Connelly Springs in 1994.
Moose also owns The Systems Depot, a $60-million-per-year electronics distribution company based in Hickory, and Elk Products, an $8-million-per-year electronics design company based in Hildebran. Those companies employ more than 160 people.
SpartaCraft has presented flag cases to all the living presidents, as well as the families of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Representatives of Betty Ford asked the company to develop 168 custom displays to hold the gun shells from the 21-gun salute ceremonies of President Ford to give to friends and associates.
Clark said that in addition to wanting an American-made product, many of SpartaCraft's customers value the workmanship that goes into the flag cases and other items the company makes.
On a recent morning at the Connelly Springs plant, workers transformed planks of walnut, oak, cherry and cedar into finely finished chests, cases, urns and pedestals.
On display in a showroom were examples of the company's custom home theater components and custom cabinetry. Those are areas of tremendous potential growth, Clark said.
"In a Wal-Mart world, it's all about imports and the lowest prices," Clark said.
"We believe in making it great, making it in America and making it custom."