Magnum brand inverters/chargers have been resurrected by DMX Power, a company started by former employees of the brand’s previous owner, Sensata.
DMX Power Vice President of Sales Steve Van Dyke said Magnum product manufacturing will begin the week of Aug. 11. DMX Power bought the Dimensions brand from Sensata.
“We are a brand-new company, but we have four ex-Sensata employees who left the company over the last year-and-a-half,” Van Dyke said. “We got together with an investment group and purchased all of the manufacturing equipment, the raw materials and finished goods, the intellectual property and the brand names. We have spent the last almost five months now getting all of that stuff to Minnesota and getting our facility ready to go.”
After five years in Mexico, Magnum product production is returning to the U.S. in a 40,000-square foot facility in Oakdale, Minnesota. The company hired 20 employees while securing its UL and ETL certifications.
“We are going to start with about 10 core inverter products,” Van Dyke said. “In the next three to four months, we will continue to bring all the other products back and have them up and running as well. The plan is that by the first of the year, we are back to manufacturing 100% of the products that we offered in the past.”
Van Dyke said priority has been given to several OEM models. The RV market accounted for approximately 35% to 40% of the brand’s past sales. Work trucks are a similar market portion, along with 20% in the renewable energy space.
“Luckily, we had an agency that bought a bunch of the inventory at the end of last year that allowed those OEMS to continue to use that product until we can get manufacturing up and running again,” Van Dyke said. “We were able to maintain those relationships, so we are excited about that.”
Van Dyke said Magnum customers were kept in the loop as the former Sensata employees worked to buy and revive the brand. He said the customers were patient as DMX Power worked through the process.
“We should have new product available to customers by the middle of August to the first of September, depending on the part number they are looking to buy,” he said. “We will prioritize our OEM customers and then start feeding our distributors and other customers.”
Van Dyke said most of the company’s RV OEM customers use models MS 2000 and 2012, both 2,000-watt inverter/chargers; MS 2812, a 2,800-watt inverter/charger and MSH 3012, a 3,000-watt inverter/charger.
“The reception from our customers has been pretty good so far,” Van Dyke said. “That is a nice benefit that we would not usually have as a brand-new company. We just want to bring everything back to the values and the quality and the service that Magnum and Dimensions were know for for a lot of years.”
