Oransi launches U.S.-made air purifiers from Radford

By the end of 2023, portable air purifier maker Oransi hopes to have products on the market designed and manufactured in its new Radford facility.

It’s the second attempt by CEO Peter Mann to build an American-made HEPA (high energy particulate air) air purifier since founding Oransi in 2009.

After initially selling China-made air purifiers, Mann contracted with a Connecticut company in 2013 to manufacture two Oransi-designed models. But that stopped in July 2021 because too few customers were willing to pay made-in-
the-USA prices, he says.

Now, Oransi sells four air purifiers made in China: two designed in-house and two through a collaboration between Oransi and a Chinese factory. Sold online and through major online retailers, Oransi’s purifiers cost $149 to $499. Consumers make up about 70% of Oransi’s customers, and the rest are businesses and government procurers.

Mann worked as a senior manager at Dell Inc.  in the early 2000s before co-founding WSA, a business operating as a series of e-commerce sites selling products ranging from tankless water heaters to generators and air purifiers. In 2005, he launched Alen Corp., an in-house brand of air conditioners and purifiers. Around 2009, he sold his interests in WSA and Alen to focus on building Oransi.

“I wanted to create a brand and develop products,” Mann says. “I knew the selling direct to the consumer side, but I wanted to do the whole manufacturing side.”

In 2015, Mann approached Moe Barani, founder of Radford’s Aspen Motion Technologies, about contract manufacturing for Oransi, but it didn’t work out. Time passed, and Barani and Mann reconnected. Barani left Aspen Motion in 2018 and launched Aviemore Technologies Inc., a Radford-based manufacturer of motion control products. The pair started talking again.

In April 2021, Oransi, then based in Raleigh, North Carolina, invested $5.6 million to establish a manufacturing facility in Radford. Four months later, Oransi and Aviemore merged. Barani became chief technology officer and the pair began studying air purifiers from the ground up.

“So, we’ve looked at every component, and reengineered pretty much every component that we are going to use in our new air purifier,” Barani says. “So, it’s not just the motors and the drives — it’s the whole system.”

Oransi’s first air purifier manufactured in Radford will be in production early in the second quarter, and a second purifier will begin production late this year or in early 2024.