Million Dollar Baby, a family-owned maker of cribs and other baby furniture, has specialized in selling moderately priced products since it was founded in 1990.

But after a period of rapid expansion in its early days, the Montebello company hit a wall. Then growth was further sidelined by the founder’s need to care for his ailing father. Then the recession hit.

But in recent years, Million Dollar Baby has returned to its fast-growing ways. led in part by the next family generation. Revenue climbed to $28 million in 2008 from $19 million the previous year.

It is one of the only companies to make the Business Journal’s fastest-growing list in two distinct periods of its history. The first time was in 1995; it returned in 2008.

Now, in the teeth of the worst recession in decades and after a series of recalls of cribs and infant toys from other manufacturers that has rocked the industry, the question is whether that growth can continue.

The Fong family that owns Million Dollar Baby (the name predates the Oscar-winning 2004 Clint Eastwood film) believes the company is well-positioned to withstand the turmoil in the economy and in the industry.

“People are still having babies and will need cribs,” said Tracy Fong, vice president of sales for Million Dollar Baby, and daughter of owner and Chief Executive Daniel Fong. “Our low price point should enable us to do well.” The company’s cribs sell in a range of $200 to $400, while high-end “designer” cribs can often go for hundreds of dollars more. (Like most cribs sold these days, Million Dollar Baby’s come in a box and must still be assembled by the customer.)

“Their cribs are at a good price point for people on a budget,” said Tricia Bonlender, co-owner of Room 4 Baby, a specialty store and Million Dollar Baby customer in Mesa, Ariz. “What my customers like most is that the cribs look high end, even though they’re in the low-cost range. You feel like you’re getting a crib for half the price.”

As for the crib recalls of the last couple of years, they mostly affected cribs whose parts were made in China. The largest recall, in September, affected more than 1 million cribs and was related to a design flaw that could lead to babies trapped in openings created when weak drop-side panels gave way.

Million Dollar Baby cribs generally don’t have drop sides that open up to allow parents to pick up their infant more easily; rather, one side is fixed at a lower level than the other.

Also, the company for years has contracted only with a pair of factories in Taiwan and never shifted production to cheaper sites in Asia. That arrangement predates the Fong family’s ownership of the company, which began in 1990.

Back in the 1980s, Daniel Fong and his family lived in Hong Kong, where Daniel Fong ran a trading company. They left the territory in late 1989, anxious about what would happen when China took over the territory from Britain in 1997.

“The Tiananmen Square massacre convinced me that it would be too risky to do business in Hong Kong, so we decided to come to the United States,” Daniel Fong said.

The Fongs settled in the San Gabriel Valley. Daniel Fong didn’t want to work for another company, so he started searching for a company to buy.

“In a Chinese newspaper that I usually don’t read, I saw this ad for the sale of a company making baby furniture,” he said. “I was looking for a stable business to get into and baby furniture seemed stable enough. After all, people are always having babies.”

The company was small, selling infant furniture to a few local stores and to customers in the Chinese community. The elderly couple that owned the company had a relative that ran a factory in Taiwan, which shipped furniture parts to the United States for final assembly; when Daniel Fong purchased the company, he kept that arrangement.

But that was about the only thing he kept. Daniel Fong immediately renamed the company Million Dollar Baby, based on a then-recent article he had read noting that new parents could expect to spend at least $1 million to raise a child through college years.

Daniel Fong also set about expanding the company’s wholesale business, targeting specialty boutiques instead of chains. That move went against the prevailing trend of selling to big-box stores such as Target and Wal-Mart.

Daniel Fong said the big-box stores would have forced him to lower his prices, which would have meant shifting production to lower-cost locales in China and Indonesia. “I didn’t want to do that because that risked lowering the quality of our products.”

The company found its niche and grew rapidly in the early 1990s, making the Business Journal’s fastest-growing private companies list and the Inc. 500 list. Daniel Fong decided to take the business national, opening warehouses in Atlanta, Dallas and New Jersey.

But this strategy proved to be too ambitious. The costs of far-flung operations grew faster than sales and Fong had to close the facilities in Dallas and New Jersey.

In 1996, Daniel Fong’s father was diagnosed with colon cancer and his mother suffered a stroke and passed away the next year. That meant Daniel Fong had to care for his ailing father, leaving the day-to-day operations of the company to subordinates until his dad died in 2000.

Sales at the company had stagnated, and it was already struggling when the recession of 2001-02 hit.

Shortly after that, Daniel Fong’s two children, Tracy and Ted, joined the company. Their first efforts were focused on expanding the company’s wholesale network, resulting in a second wind for Million Dollar Baby and its second appearance on the Business Journal’s fastest-growing private companies list. The list measures revenue growth over a three-year period.

This time, though, the growth strategy was different. Rather than setting up multiple sales offices, the Fongs now videoconference out of the company’s Montebello headquarters to reach out to potential retailers in other parts of the country.

That cost savings is proving crucial as a new recession has hit the industry full force. Demographics have changed, too: Births have fallen off from a 40-year peak reached in 2007, while people have less money to spend.

“Crib sales are down across the country,” said Lisa Casinger, editor of Kids Today, a trade publication.

The company has been trying to expand its line of ancillary infant furniture. So far, according to Tracy Fong, sales of these furniture items have not slackened.

Casinger said that sales in this sector are slowing, however and she expects a shakeout of infant furniture producers. Major juvenile furniture makers such as New Salisbury, Ind.-based Child Craft LLC are likely to survive, as will niche players like Million Dollar Baby.

The Fongs said they have no immediate plans to sell the company: The focus is on trying to get their products on the floors of major retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which they believe they can access without lowering product price or quality. Million Dollar Baby is also working on rebranding some of the product lines.

“We’re still in growth mode,” said Tracy Fong.

Million Dollar Baby

Headquarters: Montebello

Founded: 1990

Core Business: Manufacture and wholesale of cribs and other nursery room furniture

Employees in 2009: 46

Goals: To get its furniture into major chains such as Wal-Mart and continue to boost online sales

Driving Force: Demand for quality cribs and other infant furniture at affordable price point