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The Bobelock Case Company
is named after the Bobelock family who are still involved in the complete
manufacturing of these cases. Steve Bobelock, the current owner and
third generation in the case business personally inspects each case
to insure the quality that Bobelock customers have grown to inspect.
In his own words Steve retells the early years.
"It was really my Mother (Mary Bobelock) and my Godfather who carried
on American Case Company. I struggled to try to keep it going. It
was not until I went to California and left to start my own company,
under my own name, that it became a viable business. That took working
from 5am to 8pm everyday plus seven days a week to keep it going.
In 1993 I had no choice but to move it out of the U.S. or go out
of business."
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Today Steve runs a "state of the art" small
factory employing 50 local case specialists in the area of Bataan.
Some of you may remember this name because it was the location of
the infamous Bataan Death March in World War II where many American
POWs were forced to walk through the jungles and many failed to return
home. In their honor and to keep the memory alive, we have named one
of our luxury violin cases The Correigador.
Unlike much of what you may imagine or have heard about Americans
abroad, we feel that there are many benefits that we bring to living
and manufacturing our cases in the Philippines. As Steve mentioned
above, he had to make the decision of leaving California to continue
to manufacture cases. The main reason for this was escalating costs
in running a factory in the U.S. Here in the Philippines, Steve was
able to build a brand new manufacturing facility and to employ ten
times more the amount of case makers. This meant local jobs for people
who otherwise would have had to leave their families and their homes
to find work. This has helped to strengthen the local economy by providing
competitive salaries for everyone. In addition, we provide for medical
clinics to be built from which local doctors are able to provide medical
services, provide books and school supplies to the local schools,
provide healthy daily meals to our employees, provide monthly gifts
of rice (a staple food product), provide housing which we build for
employees, provide for college funding for children of our employees,
donate generously to local historical projects including the rebuilding
of the mile markers along the Bataan Death March routes, and adhere
to the labor laws and conditions of American business practices. In
return, our employee base has grown from a few to many who have chosen
to stay with us since our arrival in 1993.
Our cases have been time tested to keep performing for many years.
All of our cases are made entirely in our modern factory, assuring
the quality control needed to deliver the best protection for your
stringed instrument. After rigorous inspection and the necessary time
in the drying rooms, our cases leave the factory in the Philippines
to make the six-week trip to our distribution center in Pennsylvania.
Located in rural farmland, Bruce and Victoria Weaver are the sales
team that makes sure that your order is re-inspected and sent directly
all over North American violin shops, makers and luthier schools.
Today our fine line of cases is constructed from the best materials
available worldwide. We import velvet and silk material from Germany,
our wood from North Carolina, our locks from Germany, other hardware
from New Jersey, bow spinners from Maryland… well you get the
picture. We buy from small businesses just like us whose owners have
worked hard and long to make a product that will last. We have built
relationships with these businesses so that together we can build
a case that reflects the best in ideas and materials. While not the
worlds' largest maker of violin cases, we pride ourselves on making
the best value for the serious player. The range of cases we make
should meet the needs of the most discriminating virtuoso as well
as the beginning student.
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