Dog Awards in the Making, Behind the Scenes

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Hodges' Rhode Island Factory

As always, the factory here in Rhode Island is abuzz with activity this week. Those of us who work here every day take for granted the size and scope of the facility, but when we watched a visitor take a tour recently (with her mouth slightly agape) we realized that many of our customers probably have no idea of how things run behind the scenes at Hodges Badge Company, the largest ribbon and awards manufacturers in the country.

Hodges Badge Company has two facilities: our headquarters in Portsmouth, R.I., and a second facility in Missouri (more on the latter factory in a later Good, Dog! post). We process roughly 40,000 orders and turn 12 million yards of satin ribbon into rosettes, flat ribbons and neck ribbons for medals annually. We also make more than 1 million medals and 100,000 exhibitor numbers each year. So, while a single order of ribbons doesn’t take up a whole lot of space, 12 million yards of that ribbon is a different matter entirely. Our Portsmouth warehouse and production facility alone is 45,000 sq. feet and has 100 employees (101 if you count our pup, McKell).

This week, one of the orders we’re finishing up is for ribbons and kennet, jersey, guernsey, holsworthy, and chatham rosettes for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and the Hudson Valley Dog Club. To create the rosettes, Hodges staffers pleat (ruffle) satin and form it into a circle.  The club logo is then placed in a gold bezel and glued into the center of the rosette.  Finally the rosette and streamers are  glued to the center.  (That is the short version.  We will detail the process in a future post).

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Rosettes for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers

Rosettes for the Hudson Valley Dog Club

Once finished, the items will be boxed and shipped to the Hudson Valley Dog Club for the final, and most important, step in our process: presentation to the Hudson Valley Dog Club’s winning dogs and their proud owners.

2 thoughts on “Dog Awards in the Making, Behind the Scenes”

  1. Hello,
    I’m writing on behalf of a dog shelter I volunteer at. We will be celebrating our 20th year in 2010 & I would like to know if you discount your prices for non-profits?
    We’re planning many events to celebrate.
    Our budget needs to account for promotions so I’d like to have an idea of this expense.
    Thanks, Cynthia

  2. Hi Cynthia,
    Thanks for your inquiry! Congratulations on the 20th anniversary; we’d love to discuss how we can help! More than 80% of our customers are non-profits with limited budgets, so we do understand and, while we don’t discount per se, we do have several ways to help non-profits save on orders. Please email Jennifer (jrocha@hodgesbadge.com) and she can explain specifics based on your needs. Very much look forward to working with you!”

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