East Greenwich Entrepreneur Wants to Create Jobs

A year ago SAS Marketing was working out of a 500-square-foot office at 58 Main St.

Today, with a total staff of 15 including outside sales, they are housed in the cavernous mill building at the foot of Division Street where there is room to expand.

Company President Jason Lague is partnered with Grant Cooper, vice president of sales, and Robert Vincent, vice president of business development.

Ten years ago, Lague worked for Optrel AG, a Swiss manufacturer of a welding helmet. Just as he was starting his new company they called and wanted to re-connect. Taking over sales and marketing, SAS grew the product line from $2 million in sales to about $3.5 million in six months.

At that point they sat down and Lague laid out his philosophy of job creation.   Optrel agreed to let him take over logistics and SAS began shipping to the markets in North, South and Central America from the East Greenwich warehouse. That meant more space in the mill building, two more employees and local spending on packaging and other materials.

Lague said they were able to prove to a European company they could set up an operation here and save money. 

With that success Optrel proposed SAS actually assemble the welding helmet, which is something that hasn’t been done in this country for 10 years and will result in the addition of five more employees.

Optrel provided an assembly station to guarantee product quality will be maintained and that work will begin in the first half of next year.

The next step is to actually produce material used for the helmets, which means a little manufacturing will be coming back to the state.  

Lague says the arrangement is producing cost savings on the European side and has been a good solution for Europeans trying to come here and their investment in SAS is good for the local economy.

Welding helmets provide workers with vision protection as well as protection from heat and sparks. Optrel’s helmet is a high-tech product that sells for around $400 and there are much cheaper products available. Lague describes the helmet as the BMW of the industry and says there is pushback on the less expensive models. A unique feature is the ability to customize a side panel with a company logo or other art work, which is gaining popularity.

During his start-up, Lague inquired of the Rhode Island EDC, but says they were unresponsive so he decided to do it himself; he has no government funding.  “This is all put together with foreign help and my own skin in the game,” he said, “and so far so good.”

In spite of skepticism by others, including some of his advisors, he thinks this is an opportune time to start a business. His opinion is that while starting a business is scary, rent and other start up costs are lower now and there are a lot of tools available.

He has also partnered with a company called Giro Flex, which makes a high-end office chair, and will use the same growth path. SAS is now doing sales and marketing and has the chairs in the warehouse for shipping. The goal is to move on to assembly and create more Rhode Island jobs.