WITH MAGNETS, SMALL IS BIG

Small is big!

Ask Roger Mainor.

Mainor, who is founder and president of Magnetic Collectables Inc., manufactures small items -- millions of them each year.

"We make magnets," said Mainor. "We make more souvenir magnets than anybody else in the United States."

Mainor's facilities -- at 1220 S. West End Boulevard in Cape Girardeau and at Fredericktown -- produce more than a million of the small, 2 x 3-inch magnets every month.

"I stumbled upon a good thing when I discovered magnets 20 years ago," said Mainor. "I was attending an advertising specialty show on the east coast, and was looking for some type of item to give my customers.

"Magnets were just beginning to come on the scene then," he added. "I was living in Pittsburgh, Pa., and was looking for some type of business I could get into for myself."

Magnets was it.

"I started by contacting major colleges and universities and producing their mascot logo on magnets," he said. "It was just a small business but it started growing."

It's still growing for Mainor.

Magnetic Collectables Ltd., today is the number one producer of magnets in the U.S.

"There are only two other magnet producers in the U.S.," said Mainor, general manager of the firm. "The two competitors, all located in Missouri, are half the size of Magnetic Collectables."

A magnet is an inexpensive souvenir that can also be useful, noted Mainor. "The majority of the magnets we produce retail for $2 or less."

The magnetic market for universities is still a big one for Mainor, and Magnetic Collectables still supplies many schools with magnets.

Mainor also has contracts with such companies as Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney, Star Trek and others.

"Licensed" products and characters are big business now, noted Mainor, who produces such "licensed" characters as Tiny Toon, Tasmanian Devil, Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tune items for Warner; Disney characters, and Flintstones for Hanna-Barbera.

"We've been producing some big orders of Flintstone characters," said Mainor. "Hanna-Barbera is expecting some big souvenir sales when the movie, `Flintstones,' comes to theaters." It will feature John Goodman as Fred Flintstone.

In 1987, Mainor introduced a Pope John Paul II magnet to his line.

"The pope was visiting in the U.S., and we thought the idea of his likeness on a magnet was a good one."

It was. The first run of pope magnets sold out.

"We sent the magnets to all of the cities the pope would be visiting," he said.

Another specialty magnet was that of William "Refrigerator" Perry, lineman and part-time running back for the Chicago Bears.

"Perry's magnet was 10 x 10 inches," said Mainor. "It was the largest magnet we ever made."

Magnetic Collectables has produced a number of "personality" magnets, including Terry Bradshaw, former Pittsburgh quarterback, and Lou Brock of the St. Louis baseball Cardinals.

The company has also produced a complete line of Star Trek characters.

Also big in the magnetics market are states.

"Magnets are available for every state," he said. "We also have a state collection display board." State magnets and display boards are "in-stock" items at the company.

The company has hundreds of designs, from "licensed" characters to advertising specialties, from speed boats to farm tractors and from cats to catbirds.

"We're selling to all 50 states," said Mainor. "We have distributors in 25 countries, including Norway, site of this year's Olympic Games."

The Mainors -- Roger; his wife, Nadine, and his father, Virl Mainor, -- produced magnets in Pittsburgh from 1974 to 1979.

"We passed through Cape Girardeau en route to a trade show in 1979," he said. "We stopped for dinner, and drove around the city. It was similar to the Pennsylvania countryside area, and we were looking for a milder climate. We wound up here."

The Mainors located in a 1,000-square-foot area on Silver Springs Road.

"We were still doing college magnets at that time," said Mainor. "Business was good and we hired our first non-family employee. I started experimenting with new designs."

Magnetic Collectables soon outgrew its Silver Springs Roads facility. "We later wound up at the intersection of Ellis and Good Hope Street, in a building formerly occupied by A.B. Dick Business Machines," said Mainor.

Mainor expanded the Good Hope location, but continued to run out of room.

The company is now located in a 27,000-square-foot facility on a 2.5-acre track on S. West End Boulevard, with a 10,000-square-foot structure in Fredericktown, some 30 miles away.

"We employ about 75 to 80 people," he said. "This is our busiest season."

Mainor's magnets, he explained, are completely magnetized.

Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and technology, a powdery vinyl compound is heated and pressed into brass molds, making the magnets three-dimensional. The magnets at this time are dark grey or black. They are then cooled and magnetized.

Most of the millions of magnets are in two colors, he said. "The first, or background color is sprayed onto the magnets. The second color is rolled on the raised surfaces.

"But many of the magnets are multi-color -- up to eight colors -- and are hand painted," he said. "That's the time consuming part of manufacturing magnets."

"The bulk of our painting is done at Fredericktown," said Mainor. "But, we do paint magnets at both locations."