The Kingston California Factory Tour

This editor was invited to tour one of Kingston’s five factories, their world headquarters in Fountain Valley, California earlier this month. Here is the account of the visit. We were not allowed to take any video and our still shots were limited to production of RAM and flash drives. Kingston is quite sensitive about security and goes to great length to protect their intellectual property and the privacy of their customers – some of which are major OEMs that would prefer you to think they use their “own” memory.  Part of Kingston’s incredible increase in sales to over 6.5 billion dollars last year came from massive OEM orders; OEMs who find that Kingston can produce quality RAM for cheaper than they can.

Kingston Technology Company, Inc. is the world’s independent memory leader. Many people think that it is a small company. It is not. Perhaps the Kingston website gives that impression. They manufacture system-specific memory for OEMs including Dell, they have their own branded ValueRAM and enthusiast HyperX RAM, and they specialize in all kinds of flash drives including a value-SSDNow series that uses theToshiba Micron controller that is excellent bang-for-buck for corporate users and for those wishing for a better computing experience over the relatively slow mechanical hard drive disk (HDD).

A tale of a corporation lost in the woods who needed the exact right size SSD for their employee’s notebooks found that 60GB was just too small and 128GB was too large as their employees tend to store their own videos and pictures on company notebooks. So they came to Kingston with a special request. And as baby bear found, 96GB was “just right” for corporate users. Since it is a great size, Kingston has now made them generally available to regular users including this Goldilocks. Expect a review on this product as we compare to our 128GB (not “+”)SSDNow V Series and also do a complete notebook “makeover” as we dump our slow 5400 rpm HDD for a speedy SSD and upgrade our system memory from 2 to 4GB.

About Kingston

Founded in 1987 with a single product offering, Kingston® now offers more than 2,000 memory products that support nearly every device that uses memory, from computers, servers and printers to MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones. In 2010, the company’s sales reached $6.5 billion.

With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in its people is essential, and each employee is a vital part of Kingston’s success.

Kingston serves an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.

At the Forefront of Memory: The History of Kingston

Kingston Technology grew out of a severe shortage of surface-mount memory chips in the high-tech marketplace in the 1980s. John Tu and David Sun were determined to find a solution. They put their engineering expertise to work and designed a new Single In-Line Memory Module (SIMM) that used readily available, older technology through-hole components. A new industry standard was born — and, on October 17, 1987, so was Kingston Technology.

Kingston’s profit

Kingston hit a high of $4.5B reported revenue for 2007 before slipping into the worldwide recession. Let’s look at just the last two years:

2010 – In 2010, Kingston reported revenues of $4.1B for 2009, the third-largest in company history.

iSuppli ranks Kingston as the world’s number-one memory module manufacturer for the third-party memory market with 40.3% market share, up from 32.8% in 2008 and 27.5% in 2007.

In August, Inc.com’s “Top 100 Inc.5000 Companies” ranks Kingston #6 in Private Companies by Revenue and number 1 in the computer hardware category.

In November, Forbes lists Kingston as number 77 on its list of “The 500 Largest Private Companies in the U.S.”

iSuppli reports that for the first half of 2010, Kingston now owns 45.8% share of the third-party memory market.

2011 – In 2011, Kingston reported record revenues of $6.5B for 2010, the highest in its 23 year history.

The “Mystery” of the Kingston red-half-head.

Many people confuse the Kingston logo with the Easter Island statues. It may be metaphysical but it is not mystical.

Actually the first Kingston ad that this editor remembers is one of a hinged head with memory being poured in which would have also been the late 80s. Now that is a memorable ad. Their business manager confirmed its existence but we have yet to find it.

The Kinsgton Red Head Timeline

1987 Kingston is founded; no redhead yet in sight.

1989 Ad agency develops “Improve Your Memory” ad that features hands installing memory into a partial head.

1990 First Kingston logo is developed. Using the ad for inspiration, it features a line drawing of modules going into an opened head.

1992 An artist named Fraser is commissioned to create a simple yet powerful version of the head that also reflects technology. He creates three or four comps; the one with a single head surrounded by computer equipment is chosen for the logo.

1993 – present His forehead has been modified and the computer equipment in the background removed but the Kingston Redhead, or “Rex,” as he is known to his friends, hasn’t changed much over the years. People everywhere recognize this icon as the symbol of the world’s independent memory leader.

Well, we have reached our destination at Kingston in Fountain Valley. It’s a nice Southern California day with typical Springtime cloudy coastal weather. Let’s take the tour.