Industrial Revolution

visiting the Spork factory

2009-10-10T16:52:00.001-07:00

Steve and I appeared in an article in the Vastervik, Sweden newspaper during our attendance at the first Light My Fire distributor conference.

Happy Ultraclamp customer

2009-09-19T17:16:00.001-07:00

This pilot is using the Ultraclamp to shoot himself doing stunt flying, up to 4.5g!

IR PR

2009-05-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

IR appeared in a nice spot on TV last night.

Glow-in-the-dark Ice Cream Ball

2008-06-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

First video I've seen of a glowing ice cream ball. Enjoy!

Backpack Gear Test

2008-05-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

There's a website doing reviews of a number of our products, including the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker and, more recently, the Ultrapod Digital.

And the winner is...

2007-10-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Industrial Revolution is #11 on the list of 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in Washington State. Phil took a little video of me as I went up to collect our plaque.

Resources for LFM Alumni

2007-09-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
If you found this post it's because you're looking for information on buying a business. Here are a few resources I recommend.

First, if you want to know about our products, check out the following sites, all of which are owned by the company:
http://industrialrev.com/
http://icecreamrevolution.com/
http://candlelantern.com/
http://lightmyfireusa.com/
Follow the links on these sites to see other products we sell, like Pedco tripods and the Swiss Spice Salt + Pepper shaker.

If you want to read about the first year in business, this blog is the way to go. It starts on April 1, 2005, the day we closed the purchase.

John Martinka was a tremendous help to me in both finding and buying UCO Corporation. He is a consultant specializing in helping people buy businesses. I'm about to hire him again for a new project.

Here's my business wanted handout. This was an excellent tool for me as I attended networking events. I eventually became confident that there was at least a 50% chance I could come out of a networking event (a business talk, meeting, social, etc.) with at least one good lead on a potential target company.

Here are the instructions for writing a Perceived Injurious Experience letter. I pulled it from the syllabus of the Negotiation and Conflict Management class at Sloan. I don't want to post the letter I wrote on the web, but I'm willing to share it if you're interested. Please just send me an email.

My purchase of Industrial Revolution was primarily funded by funds from my 401(k) account. This had the advantage of keeping the tax man from taking a big chunk of money as the funds exited the 401(k), but it left me seriously constrained in a number of ways (having to do with compliance with the ERISA laws). While I'm not sure if I'd do it again, I'm also unable to see another way that would have worked at the time. If you want to investigate this avenue, the company that helped me through the process is Guidant Financial Group. I also had some struggles with the company itself, but they were much newer when I did my deal. I would hope they've streamlined some of their operations.

The government provides some helpful resources. Go see the people at your local Small Business Administration office. The Service Corp Of Retired Executives (SCORE) is another good group.

I get a lot of magazines in the mail. The ones I've foundmost useful are the Puget Sound Business Review (they have about 60 local versions, so there's likely one for your metropolitan area), Fortune Small Business, and the New York Times Small Business section (which I look at online). I've been particularly happy with Fortune Small Business. It has lots of articles that relate closely to the challenges we face.

Here's the Indiana Jones clip that hits home for me. Leaving the security of Boeing felt just like stepping out from that cliff. I hope I'm throwing a bit of sand back across the bridge to help anyone who might want to follow.

Along those lines, I think of risk management as framing many of my decisions. Here's an interesting article about some risks MIT grads took (and the results).

If you want to contact me, email is the way to go. It's keith@industrialrev.com. I enjoy talking about my experiences and hearing about other's experiences. Please feel free to get in touch.

Tapering off

2006-10-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Although I've definitely enjoyed keeping this blog up to date, it's becoming more of a burden than I'd like. Other priorities are taking precedence. So, this note will give a quick status update, and then I don't plan to update it in the future. You'll just have to give me a call if you want to hear the latest!

Since before I closed on the purchase of the business, I've known that the accounting system would need to be replaced. The old one is small and insufficient for our needs in numerous ways. After more than a year of effort to choose and implement a new system, we threw the switch last weekend on Navision. We are now operating in our new system. Lots of little challenges have sprung up, but no show-stoppers. The change opens up enormous opportunities for us in the future.

Sales are exceeding all expectations. We should hit about $6M this year. That's about 5 times the sales of UCO in 2004. October will be the 8th time in the last 18 months when we've set a new record for monthly sales.

The shop is hopping. We've got a couple of new people helping out with huge new candle lantern orders. We've been working 9-hour days and Saturday to keep up.

It's all good! I hope you've enjoyed reading the blog. I've enjoyed sharing my adventure with you.

Keith

Does It Work? Yes!

2006-08-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Another winner of a video about the ball!

Ball video

2006-07-29T17:14:00.000-07:00

Nice video about the ball.

Little grilliput going BIG!

2006-07-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Pick up this week's Time Magazine (July 10th issue) to see the Grilliput on page 71. Or check it out online.

Also, the grilliput will be shown on Home and Garden TV's I Want That! show several times over the next week. You can find the schedule here.

SciFi

2006-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Check out the ball on SciFi.com!

Amazon!!!

2006-06-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com has placed the regular ball on the front page of their site! We are getting a burst of orders as a result. It's also in the upper right corner of the Sports and Outdoors page.

Candle lantern comparison

2006-06-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

The folks at Go Fast and Light (gofastandlight.com) carry both the UCO Mini and Coughlans Candle Lantern, two direct competitors. They've provided a short comparison on their lighting page.

The Couglan is lighter and cheaper.

The UCO is better made (thicker metal, glass, hooked hanger). The UCO has a larger glass surface area to let out more light. The UCO is more stable on a table top (weighted base with candle lock). We trust the locking mechanism on the UCO better (does not self open). The UCO can be handled by the base during use (Coughlan gets too hot). The UCO has a catch basin to prevent wax spills. The UCO locks the candle in place, Coghlan's moves freely inside the case. UCO has more options (reflectors, cases). The UCO has a better guarantee.

So ... it depends what you are looking for - light and sufficient, or a longer lasting, better designed, more livable alternative in the UCO. Both have their place.

Feedback Follies

2006-06-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Check out these two feedback emails we received via our website. They were sent three minutes apart. I've removed the incriminating contact information.

City: Manassas
State: VA

Comments/Questions: The ice cream ball sucks! This has to be the worse designed product ever. First, you say to clean the rock/salt container off after 10 minutes.. but a wooden spoon, etc. certainly doe not do the trick. Second, there is no way to actually get the ice cream out because of the poor design. I ended up, after 40 minutes of shaking, telling my 5 year old daughter that she was going to have to settle for a milkshake. What a shame that I wasted $19.99 on this stupid thing to take camping. There is no way in hell I taking this anywhere but back to the store I bought it at.

This message was sent from the Ice Cream Revolution contact us page

And then the second message, sent moments later:

City: Manassas
State: VA

Comments/Questions: If you would please disregard my other email. I am a boob! After reading over the outside of the box I realized that I had put the ingredients in the ball ass backwards. Very sorry. Please accept my apologies for my stupidity.

This message was sent from the Ice Cream Revolution contact us page

Ouch!

Funny spork review

2006-06-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

Survival geek reviews the spork.

USA Today today

2006-06-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

Check out the left side of the front page of section D (Life) but not section E (Life) of USA Today today. There's a picture of the grilliput and a flattering blurb including a quote from yours truly!

Spork review

2006-06-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

We're starting to see more reviews of the Light My Fire line. Here's a look at the spork.

Raleigh Mega review

2006-06-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

We're starting to get regular coverage of the MEGA ball. Here's one from the News and Observer in Raleigh, NC.

Mega Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker
The scoop: The brand-new "mega" version of Industrial Revolution's novelty ice cream maker makes double the dessert. Fill one end with ice and rock salt, and the other end with your ice cream mix (we used hot cocoa powder, whipping cream, vanilla extract and sugar) -- and shake it, baby. After 30 minutes of moving and grooving, you've got a frozen treat (think Wendy's Frosty).
Chill factor: After adding the ingredients, this thing is heavy. Rolling it back and forth was about all our weak arms could handle.
Tip: Originally designed for campers, this maker's ice cream is meant to be finished in one sitting. Refreezing is not a good option.
Details: $29-$39.95, online at www.amazon.com. In orange, blue, purple, pink, red, clear and green.

Review in TD Monthly

2006-05-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

Toy Directory Monthly (TDMonthly) reviewed the ball.

Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker by Industrial Revolution

Age: 3 and up
Gender: Girls and Boys
Price: $34.95

First Impressions
The kids in my preschool arts class went crazy with questions: “It is a ball?!" "How is it going to make ice cream?” “Is it going to light up?” “Wow! What a cool ball!” Since the Play & Freeze Ice Cream maker doesn’t look like an ice cream maker, it was very mysterious for them, and they all wanted to try it.

Skills Reinforcement
The Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker is a great tool for teaching kids to follow directions. It also develops their hand-eye coordination, large-motor skills and body movement. In addition, it reinforces the importance of accurate measurement when using a recipe. And, best of all, sharing is stressed during both the making and the eating of the ice cream.
Playability
It was easy to fill the ball with ice — the large opening allowed the kids to pour all the ingredients in without making a mess. The children loved rolling the ball and listening to the sound of the ice. And the recipe was easy to follow.
Recommendation
This product made our cooking project more fun than usual. I played the “Hot Potato” song and they rolled the ball, passing it to one another, so it was a game as well as a cooking project. I would say the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker is a “must-have” for educators. It’s also great for birthday parties. The only problem was that the ball makes only a small quantity of ice cream, so I had to buy some, too. I gave each child a small spoonful of the ice cream they had made, as well as some of the store bought. Of course, they all preferred the one that they had made.

Great local news coverage

2006-05-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

KOMO News, one of our local Seattle stations, did an excellent "Does It Work?" piece on the ice cream ball. Make sure you check out the video.

Parents Magazine

2006-05-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

Parent's Magazine has a nice bit on the ball in their June 2006 issue on page 26. Here's a copy.

Blueprint Magazine

2006-05-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

Blueprint Magazine is now available. It's a Martha Stewart magazine and this is the premier issue. They have an article about using camping gear to decorate the home and there's a picture of two women at a table with our candle lanterns in front of them. Unfortunately, the picture turned our yellow lanterns to a strange sort of orange color. And they positioned them on the table so that one seems to be growing out of another. There's another lantern hanging on the wall behind the women. That one is pretty clear.

The text doesn't add much value either. Basically, this is a disappointment. We hoped they would make better use of the samples we sent them.

Cult of Personality

2006-05-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

Generally I've avoided the limelight when it comes to the company. I want our publicity to be about the products, not the boss. However, I made an exception when the LFM folks wanted to write an article about the business. The article is much more focused on the two LFM grads, rather than just the products.

It's also probably the only time I'm going to be referred to as an emperor.

The LFM Emperors of Ice Cream

By Amy MacMillan, LFM-SDM Communications Assistant
May 1, 2006

He didn't know it when he graduated from Leaders for Manufacturing in 1997, but Keith Jackson had a frosty future ahead of him.

Steve Llorente (L) and Keith Jackson, both members of the LFM Class of 1995, on their factory floor with one of their most popular products, the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker.

Jackson already had an S.B. in Aero-Astro from MIT when he entered the LFM program in 1995. His friend and fellow LFM classmate Steve Llorente had a similar background and ambitions. Llorente possessed both an S.B. and an S.M. in Aero-Astro, and had experience working for Boeing's Helicopter Division in Philadelphia.

Armed with their newly-minted LFM dual degrees in engineering and management, the two set off for careers at the world's largest airplane manufacturer in Seattle . Only they gave it all up in 2004 and 2005.

For an Ice Cream Ball.

The Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker can generate a pint of soft serve ice cream – or margaritas!

Jackson left Boeing first. He loved building airplanes, but he knew he wanted to go into business for himself. He just wasn't sure what he wanted to do.

He spent six months researching companies until he found Industrial Revolution, a small company formerly known as UCO. UCO had been making top quality outdoor products since 1973. It was most famous for its candle lantern, a lightweight lantern that had been used by campers and outdoor enthusiasts for a natural, safe, and long-lasting light. Three million candle lanterns had been sold since 1982, and the company's annual sales were a healthy but stagnant $1.2 million.

Jackson was attracted to the manufacturing and distribution company's small size, stability, and proximity to his home in Redmond, Wash. It took him six months to close the deal and become owner and president of Industrial Revolution.

Llorente followed him a month later, becoming the company's Sales & Marketing Director. Llorente also thrived at Boeing, but he had always been intrigued by small manufacturing firms and wanted to work for a smaller company where he could make more of a difference. He drew on his LFM background for marketing information such as the 4 Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion) and now he "is the marketing department" at this small company of just 10 employees.

Jackson says Industrial Revolution has estimated annual sales to be $5 million this year. Much of it is attributed to the celebrated ice cream ball, an Industrial Revolution product that's been on the market since the spring of 2004, a year before Jackson purchased the company. However, some of the sales boost can be attributed to increasing sales of candle lanterns and finding new and innovative camping products to add to the company's growing product line. Within a few months of taking over at Industrial Revolution, Jackson and Llorente signed an agreement with a Swedish company “Light My Fire” to bring their innovative camping kitchen products to the United States.

Coffee can ice cream

In order to understand the phenomenal success of this ice cream creation, one must go back in time and give credit to those ingenious entrepreneurs – the Camp Fire Girls. For years, Camp Fire Girls have made their own ice cream using two coffee cans, some rock salt, ice and cream. They added the mix in one small coffee can, and then sealed it in a larger coffee can, which they would kick around until the ice cream formed about 15 or 20 minutes later.

Shortly before Jackson acquired Industrial Revolution, outdoor gear supplier REI approached the company, and asked it to design the ice cream ball. The creators came up with the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker, an 8-inch lightweight Lexan™ plastic ball with a metal cylinder where you add ice, cream, and rock salt. Seal the ball, and then shake, rattle, and roll it for about 20 minutes, until it's "done" and there's a pint of delicious soft-serve ice cream to eat.

L.L. Bean then put the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker in its catalog in five vibrant colors, and sales took off in the spring of 2004. Jackson says the company initially hoped to sell 6,000 of the product, but has now sold more than 100,000, mostly in the United States. Its sales now account for more than half of Industrial Revolution's sales, according to Jackson, who bought the company on April 1, 2005. "REI didn't think it would sell too many, but they vastly underestimated it," Jackson said.

The product has sold almost solely through intensive media coverage, rather than advertising, Llorente says. Consumer Reports ran a favorable article last July, and again in its December holiday gift list issue. The Play & Freeze has been on featured ABC's Good Morning America, and in other media outlets, including Parade magazine, Time magazine, The Washington Post and The New York Post.

It helps that the ice cream ball now comes in seven colors (from Tangerine to Cranberry) and has the right price point (it retails for between $29 and $34.95), Jackson says.

Some of ice cream ball phenomenon can be attributed to serendipity, but it's also a great product. "It's just so different from other products," says Llorente. "Typical ice cream makers are a lot of work, or they are boring. This product keeps people engaged in making a treat," he says. It's also not just pigeon-holed as a "camping" product, he adds. The family-friendly ice cream ball is also sold at hundreds of toy stores, high-end kitchen gadget retailers, large retailers, and of course, REI and L.L. Bean.

Adults can also enjoy frozen margaritas and other concoctions using the Play & Freeze, Jackson says. Industrial Revolution's web site features nearly two-dozen recipes for ice cream, frozen yogurt, and slushies.

The Play & Freeze has almost exclusively been sold in the United States and Canada, but Industrial Revolution just shipped the product to Great Britain, where Jackson expects it will sell briskly.

Llorente says the only "negative" feedback from customers has been that a pint isn't enough ice cream. But, the company has just remedied that with its 9-inch "Mega Ball" which yields a quart of ice cream in about 30 minutes, and is now available through L.L. Bean for $39.

Rapid growth

Before Jackson purchased Industrial Revolution, he spent many, many hours with the company's previous owner, whom he credits with running a solid business. His LFM degree has also assisted with the learning curve in becoming an entrepreneur. He cites reading a balance sheet and understanding a profit-and-loss statement as two pivotal skills he learned through LFM. Additionally, Mary Rowe's negotiations class proved invaluable when he ran into a stumbling block while trying to purchase the company. The previous owner suddenly backed out of the deal during negotiations, but Jackson persisted, using a Perceived Injurious Experience (PIE) letter (a skill he learned in Rowe's class) to help resuscitate the deal.

While Industrial Revolution has enjoyed tremendous growth with the ice cream ball, Jackson faces all the usual challenges of any small business owner. "Cash, cash, and cash," he answers when asked what the greatest concern is. "The company is very profitable, but growth eats cash. Profit is not the same thing as cash, and I remember learning this in LFM. It's been very challenging to keep the finances growing fast enough to support the growth of the business," he says.

Inventory is another issue. The Play & Freeze took off so rapidly that the two businessmen were unsure of how much inventory to stock. It's a delicate balance, Jackson says.

But, he's not complaining. "I love this. This is just want I wanted…a good challenge," he says. Jackson puts in his time in the office, but also works at home and on the weekends. He recently took four vacation days, but worked through most of them. "I'm excited and interested in this, and it's not like working for someone else," he says.

Jackson still misses making airplanes and the strong LFM network at Boeing, but he's in the right place right now. Llorente agrees. "Boeing was hard to give up, and now the large company safety net is not there, but it's easier to make a difference here."

Jackson's route from LFM to becoming a small-business owner may be a tad atypical, but he has no regrets. He emphasizes that his years at Boeing were critical to his success. "It gave me work experience that I can still call on, and it gave me money, too. I couldn't have come straight out of LFM and done this! I didn't have the money to invest," he says.

He's also careful to note that he purchased an existing company with growth potential. "This was a great way to go, because I didn't have to start from scratch," he says.

The Play & Freeze has been enormously profitable, but Industrial Revolution has many other products that it is promoting, including the Grilliput, a portable grill which is billed as "the smallest mobile kitchen in the world." Llorente and Jackson, however, are still focusing on the "Mega Ball," before worrying about further diversifying. Other products will take time to bring to market.

"The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream," said American poet Wallace Stevens, and these LFM alumni are certainly the emperors of a growing enterprise which will be around for many years to come.

Mealkit review

2006-05-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

A review of the mealkit appears in Inside Bay Area. I enjoyed the review, but the spork is only $3, not $6. Here's the meat of it...

Mess(y) Adventures

When I unpacked the newfangled lime green and gray plastic mess kit from Light My Fire, I was nonplussed. I like my Girl Scout mess kit. And besides, plastic melts. Convinced that this was a loser, I decided to test it out. I sent it on a field trip to Arizona with my trusted assistant, where it was filled and dropped and tossed around from meal to meal.

My assistant (OK, my daughter) reported that the kit performed quite well. The small bowl was perfect for yogurt. The medium bowl held just the right amount of cold cereal, and while the large, triangular bowl wasn't quite large enough to hold a Navajo taco, it sufficed. The strainer, she said, was perfectly useless, and the spork — a fork on one end, a spoon on the other — made people laugh. Although the plastic mess kit may not be a great pick to take on a camping trip, where open fires are the norm, it's a compact, useful choice for a road trip. The kit is $24. The spork is $6. For more information go to http://www.lightmyfireusa.com or call (888) 297-6062.

Sweat Magazine with a twofer

2006-05-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

Sweat Magazine wrote about the ball and the mealkit in a single article. They have a particularly nice picture of the ball.

The Fuel Faucet

2006-04-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

Even more unusual...a review of the fuel faucet! And in French no less! Click on the image for a full-size version.

La Pelota

2006-04-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

Time to polish your rusty Spanish...

Play & Freeze es una pelota con la cual podrás hacer helado en cualquier lugar.

No requiere de energía eléctrica.
Su interior se encuentra dividido en dos secciones. En la parte externa se coloca hielo junto a sal en roca y en la interna la mezcla para preparar el helado. Se cierra y se sacude (o juega con ella) durante unos 10 minutos, tiempo suficiente para que el helado adquiera la consistencia necesaria y pueda ser saboreado.

Se encuentra disponible en varios colores y cuesta US$ 29.95.

(Vía Shiny Shiny)

Early post about the Mega

2006-04-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Cincinatti Post has a nice article about the new Mega ball. This is one of the first (of what will be many) clippings about the ball.

Recent feedback

2006-04-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Some of the other folks in the company handle all the feedback. However, we recently changed the system so I have visibility of the feedback again. Here's a great one that came in today.

I usually don't find myself impressed with the ingenuity of companies much these days. There seems to be alot of combining things that we don't need combined (eg camera phones) and that is not really innovation, but combination....
Anyhow, I found the ice cream ball to be an amazing idea. My wife purchased one for my birthday last year, and we made the best Vanilla ice cream that I have ever tasted. The real cream was fresh, the sugar was pure cane, and the vanilla was real too. Your product allows us to make ice cream that is free of preservatives and "artificial" anything. You should have these in every health food store in the country!
Thank you for your innovation and keep the good ideas coming! I have used a brass candle lantern for years and absolutely love it. Where can I get some of the beeswax candles near zip code 61569?
Thanks again,
Matt

New ball at Bean!

2006-04-12T03:11:00.000-07:00

L.L. Bean is now offering the new MEGA ball for sale on their website. Unfortunately, it's already in backorder status!

Video from Toy Fair

2006-04-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

Check out our folks at Toy Fair in New York showing off the ball, including their video!

Great spork review

2006-04-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

Gazette.com has a very positive review of the spork. "This one, in bright, inviting colors, is the spork I always wanted to invent."

Kidzworld

2006-04-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Kidzworld did a review of the ice cream ball. It includes a quote I've never heard before:

If you're a total freak, you can add a chopped sardines for sardine flavored ice cream - the possibilites are pretty much endless.

I knew the possibilities were endless, but still.

Grilliput review

2006-04-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

Montana Test made some nice comments about the Grilliput. It seems like they played with it at home but they haven't taken it camping yet.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION has one of the most impressive grills we have ever seen.

The GRILLIPUT

“What exactly is a Grilliput and how does it work?” These were just a few of the questions I had when I first laid my eyes on this strange looking grill. When I got my answers, I found the Grilliput is unique and amazing at the same time.

The Grilliput is an 11.4-inch long stainless steel tube grill. The carrying tube contains a smaller tube, 12 stainless steel rods, and 4 stainless steel legs. Everything you need to assemble the grill are contained and carried in the larger tube. It is a portable grill you put together, and then take apart when you finish with it. It weights 1.2 lb has a grilling surface of 9.1 in. by 10.2 in. We are amazed at the Grilliput; and so is everyone that picks it up. They all ask the same question, “Is that a grill?” You will have to see the Grilliput to appreciate the engineering that when into its design and function. We will give the Grilliput a tough workout; you will want to stay tuned!

Montana Test photos

2006-03-24T15:44:00.000-08:00

The folks at Montana Test have posted some nice photos of our products on their site. I took the liberty of copying them here. You can check them out here.

Montana Test

2006-03-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

We sent some products for testing to Montana Test. They've got a nice blurb at the top of their home page announcing their receipt of our products. They seem pretty excited to get them into the field for testing!

SLC LMF article

2006-03-17T15:37:00.000-08:00

The Salt Lake City Tribune published this nice little article about two of our new products. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Parade Magazine this weekend!

2006-03-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

The ball has appeared on Parade's website. It is, unfortunately, #26 of 28 items listed in the Bazaar for Better Living. Not quite front and center like I hoped. I'm also not sure if I should be nervous that the website address includes "web exclusives" in it's name. I'm expecting to see the picture in the magazine so I hope there's not just some generic pointer to the web site! I have high expectations which are going to be hard to beat!

Parade Magazine

2006-03-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

Make sure to check out the March 19th Parade Magazine (in your Sunday newspaper). We've been told that the ice cream ball will appear with a pointer to L.L. Bean.

Toy Directory

2006-03-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

An article about Toy Fair features the ball. Even better, the ball made the "Top Ten Toys at Toy Fair" list! In a related matter, we've purchased a spot in the Toy Directory.

White Tail Fanatic

2006-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

A nice blurb on the mealkit.

Mightylites

2006-02-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

I don't talk much about them because they're such a small part of our business, but we also make a line of stove stands that does reasonably well. One of our customers published a flattering review to a number of email distribution lists. He sent me a copy...

One item that I don’t travel without when I am carrying my stoves is my stove stand. They are back under the name MightlyLite Stove Stands. The stands are lightweight and are designed so your MSR or Brunton Stove. The stove slips/clips/snaps on to the base providing a platform for the stove.
It makes leveling the stove much easier as well as more stable. Some designs also attaché the bottle to the same base.
I use these because it makes the stove stable. If you need to move the stove you can lift up the stand and move everything. The heaviest one weights 4.3 ounces (3 designs). I don’t use my stoves without one. They only work for stoves with external fuel bottles.

Jim

Credit where due

2006-02-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

One of the multitudes of readers of this blog has made a request. Wait... maybe I should say "one of the readers of this blog...", or, more accurately, "the reader of this blog...". Anyway, this reader has asked that I acknowledge the support and assistance of his New York-based grandson with our booth at the International Toy Fair last week. Said grandson did in fact offer great assistance and it was nice that we didn't have to fly him cross-country to do it! Many thanks to you and your grandfather, without whom you wouldn't be here!

Trek support

2006-02-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

We're sponsoring the trek of Brent Hooge through South America. Check out the sponsors list and the route at his web site.

Minnesota LMF review

2006-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

And another review from Minnesota:

GEAR JUNKIE: NEW PRODUCTS

BY STEPHEN REGENOLD

Special to the Pioneer Press

The Outdoor Retailer trade show is a twice-annual gathering of product designers, salespeople, retail buyers, athletes and other forms of outdoors cognoscenti. The Gear Junkie was there, too. Here's a peek at new products and prototypes from the show to watch for in the coming months.

...

Light My Fire: Originally developed for the Swedish Department of Defense, the Scout and Army are "Swedish FireSteel" sticks that shower sparks purported to be 5,400 degrees. When scraped against a metal object, the sticks shoot searing sparks that will ignite kindling in an instant. (I saw proof in a demonstration.) To boot, the fire sticks are waterproof, virtually unbreakable and long lasting. The Scout model, $11, provides 3,000 fire-igniting strikes; the Army model, $17, provides 12,000 strikes. (www.lightmyfireusa.com)

Kentucky Light My Fire review

2006-02-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

We're starting to see reviews in the media for the Light My Fire product line. Here's an excerpt from one:

OUTDOOR MEAL KIT
The Outdoor Meal Kit, designed by J. Nordwall and made in Sweden by Light My Fire, is marketed by Industrial Revolution of Redmond, Wash.
It was created to bring civilized dining to the outdoors. The mess kit is made of environmentally friendly, dishwasher- and microwave-safe polypropylene and polycarbonate plastic. It can be used to prepare and/or store food, and is small enough to fit in a backpack, canoe dry box or bike pack.
The cost is $24 and includes two plates, a spill-proof cup (with lid), a combined colander and cutting board, a "spork" (combined knife, fork and spoon), and a small waterproof box. There's plenty of room for a home-cooked meal, cheese and crackers, or salad. The kit is triangular and measures 7 inches wide and 21/2 inches thick.
For information, see www.lightmyfireusa.com.

Ham on the Street TONIGHT!

2006-02-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Play & Freeze will air on The Food Network’s Ham on the Street February 15, and will re-air the 16th, 19th (twice), and 20^th. Looks like fun to me!

High Quality Campers Dream Page

2006-02-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

I get lots of notices from Google about sites that are mentioning the "Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker" or the "Campers Dream Ice Cream Maker." This one is unusual because it has a remarkably good selection of other links to sites that have discussed the ball. Check it out here.

Light My Fire designer

2006-02-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

Our partners in Sweden at Light My Fire have been using the design services of an exceptional design engineer named Joachim Nordwall. They provided us a copy of his CV (European for resume) and I thought you might find it interesting...

JOACHIM NORDWALL BORN IN SWEDEN 1971

1992 - 95
Art Center College of Design (Europe). Major: transportation. Title: BA. Switzerland

1995 - 96
Honda R&D / automotive design studio Frankfurt / Germany
A 6 month consultancy project. Worked on Honda Civic 5-door exterior.

1996 - 01
Electrolux industrial design studio Stockholm / Sweden
Worked with white goods and responsible for the design for small appliances.

2001 - 02
Electrolux industrial design studio Sydney / Australia
Senior Designer, responsible for the design for dishwashers.

2002 -
Running a design consultancy business, J. Nordwall Design, in Stockholm / Sweden
Responsible for the design of Koenigsegg and Light My Fire over all

SKILLS:
Sketching, model making, Alias software
Languages: Swedish, English, German, French

CLIENTS:
BMW DesignWorksUSA, Munich / Germany

Koenigsegg Automotive, Förslöv / Sweden

Electrolux Home Products, Stockholm/Sweden, Pordenone / Italy
SNTG Europe AB. Halmstad/ Sweden

Springwater International. Stockholm/ Sweden

Light My Fire AB. Stockholm / Sweden

Gearfox Transmission Concepts s.r.l. Crevalcore / Italy

Realfood Sweden AB. Stockholm / Sweden

Detective Marketing AB. Stockholm / Sweden
Atlas Copco AB. Stockholm / Sweden
Beluga restaurant, Bo Wenneberg AB. Stockholm / Sweden
SpineLab AB. Stockholm / Sweden
Nilsson Special Vehicles. Laholm / Sweden
Tevebox AB. Värmdö / Sweden

DESIGN AWARDS:
Svensk Form and the Red Dot Award 2001,
being part of the design team for the car: Koenigsegg CC,

Good Design Award 2001, Chicago Athenaeum
for the Electrolux products “Generation 3000”.

url: www.jnordwall.com

Trade Shows

2006-02-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

Things are hopping here! We had a great time in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer trade show two weeks ago. As a result of positive feedback on the ball, we took it to the enormous Spring Fair in Birmingam, England, last week. This week we've got two people showing the ball at the annual Toy Fair in New York City and in a couple of weeks from now, we'll be showing the ball and Mealkit at the Home and Housewares show in Chicago. These shows are generating a tremendous amount of interest and excitement in our products and bode well for a great year ahead!

Outdoor Retailer

2006-02-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

We're just back from the Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City. It was an enormous success. We connected with with dozens of customers! One buyers group breakfast mentioned us during their "what are the must-see booths" discussion! We had numerous press visits, including a very long demonstration of ice cream making with a big Japanese outdoor magazine, BE-PAL.

Also at the show we were given an opportunity to present the ball at a huge tradeshow in England this week! So tomorrow I get on an airplane and head for Birmingham, England.

Gifts for celebrities

2006-02-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

The Play and Freeze will be in a gift package at the 2006 Writer's Guild Awards show. And, of course, that includes a press release!

By the way, the "I Want That!" segment on HGTV was excellent! It was like a three-minute commercial for the ball. Very nice!

I Want That! TONIGHT!

2006-01-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that the ball will be on I Want That on HGTV. The initial airing of the episode is tonight (8:30 Eastern / Pacific). This afternoon their website went live showing the products that will be featured on the show. In a wonderful break, on the website the first of the sixteen products that will be shown is our ice cream ball! So anyone who visits the products page for the show will immediately see a picture of the ball with ice cream coming out! Beautiful! It's also got a full list of the relevant websites, starting with icecreamrevolution.com and then showing all our primary customers.

Joshua Tree with product

2006-01-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

One of our advisors took some Light My Fire products on a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Nice pic!

Home and Garden TV

2006-01-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Anyone with access to Home and Garden TV...

FYI: "I Want That!" Episode #304 will debut on Wed, January 18th @ 8:30pm EST/PST on HGTV. And, it will re-air on Thur, January 19th at 12:30am EST/PST and Sun, January 22nd @ 1 pm EST/PST.
Please note that HGTV can change the show time at a moment's notice! As we get closer to January 18th, it's a good idea to check the "Program Guide" on HGTV.com for the specific time when this episode will be on TV. Here's a link to that page: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/program_guide/0,1783,HGTV_3658,00.html
**Based on our other clients that have had products appear on the show, they have noticed an increase in sales.

People Magazine!

2006-01-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

The December 5, 2005 issue of People Magazine showcases (well, not really showcases, but we're in there) one of our products. The ice cream maker, you say. No. The Candlelier, that's a nice product. Nope. A 3-pack of regular candles? Yes!

On page 131 begins an article about Sela Ward, Emmy-award-winning TV actress. Page 132 talks about her family's discussion about how to help the victims of hurricane Katrina. They were unsatisfied with the emergency kits they found on the market and decided to create and sell their own. And when I say they, I mean their 11-year-old son, Austin. He's shown on the website as the president of the company. So, long story short, our candles are in their family packs and the deluxe car pack. And therefore they appeared in the picture in the story showing the basic family pack!

Home and Garden TV

2005-12-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

The Play & Freeze is scheduled to air on HGTV’s I Want That! on January 18th, 2006. (FYI: HGTV can change the show time at a moment's notice.)

Winner!!!

2005-12-21T11:11:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure exactly what it means, but TOTALToys, Inc. has told us that we won an award!

VENDOR REP OF THE YEAR: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Last Minute Gift Guide

2005-12-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Good Day LA listed the ball as the first "last minute gift" on their list.

Great ball review

2005-12-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a great review of the ball from the Mom's Network...

Now making Ice Cream is literally a whole new ballgame for families. We found the new Play and Freeze Ice Cream maker to be a great gift idea for all. Much like a technologically advanced blue soccer ball, this homemade treat maker worked like a charm and the necessary ingredients didn’t send me all over town to get them.

Having something to do for all age groups was important to us and even a three-year-old was able to get involved in the mixing process. While each batch doesn’t make a ton, we also found this to be a big plus as each child was able to help in making their own versus each taking turns adding one ingredient, one mixing, etc.

The ball requires no electricity (so would be great for outings as well such as picnics and camping trips) and was definitely what we’d call a 4 out of 5 for originality in family fun or a “quality” time venue. The Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker can be found at stores such as REI (www.rei.com), www.LLBean.com, and www.IceCreamRevolution.com.

Revenue records

2005-12-02T03:33:00.000-08:00

Company revenue has far surpassed all projections. November alone was a crazy month with lots of candle lantern work (the most in several months) and all-time-record ice cream ball sales. Total sales were just short of half a million for the month. We also passed the $2M mark for total revenue since purchase of the business. We will celebrate both with a pizza party today!

We're also seeing records broken for our Amazon sales. Our previous record was 78 items purchase in one day. It happened when the ball appeared on Good Morning America. It was a very short-lived spike and the sales faded within three or four days. We almost broke the record on Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving is now known as "Cyber-Monday" since people get back to their high-speed internet connections at work and start their Christmas shopping). We had 76 sales. Tuesday was a bit lower. Wednesday was the winner, with 79 sales, breaking the old record. Thursday isn't quite over (due to Amazon's time-stamping process), but total sales are already over 100. We expect this rate of sales to continue until December 20th or so. What a ride!

Jay Leno

2005-12-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder...we've been told that the ice cream ball will probably be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday, December 9th. We were also told that Jay has veto rights over everything so if he doesn't want to show the ball, it won't go on. I guess we won't know for certain until the show is on!

Light My Fire Spork

2005-11-20T11:31:00.001-08:00

We're starting to see the Light My Fire line appear online. Backpacking Light has a very nice page dedicated to the spork.

Amazing November

2005-11-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

As of Friday, November 18th, we've shipped more product this month than in any previous month, and by a big margin, too. We'll ship a lot more before the end of the month. It's going to be a record breaker!

Martha Stewart calling

2005-11-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

Steve took a call from Martha Stewart today (well, one of her minions, anyway):

Hi, this is Steve.

Hi Steve, I'm calling from Martha Stewart. We saw your products and your web site and we think they're just great! We'd like to write an article about them for a new magazine Martha will be launching next year.

Great! How can I help?

Well, can you send us some samples?

Sure! What color balls would you like?

Balls? Um, we want to write about your candle lanterns.

Oh!

Very unusual but very exciting! They're going to write about using "outdoor" items around the home. We're going to send them a bunch of stuff.

Everything is excellent!

2005-11-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

The ball is in Time Magazine this week. We have requests in from Jay Leno and David Letterman to provide product for their shows (their people called my people). Our big customers are asking for more product than we can deliver because they're already selling out. And Martha Stewart's people called too, unusually, for candle lanterns! What a week!

Gene Simmons

2005-11-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

We're sending some ice cream balls for use on a new TV show. The one-page writeup was fairly entertaining, so I thought I'd share it.

“Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels”

A new series for A&E. For thirty years, Gene Simmons has been known as the fire-breathing, blood spitting, makeup wearing demon of mega-rock band KISS. With Gene as the face of the band, KISS has broken box office records set by the Beatles & Elvis, and is America’s number one gold record award winning group. He has managed to turn KISS into an empire, merchandising everything from KISS condoms to KISS kaskets. Although Gene may be the rock God of his own empire outside of his house, inside his house it’s quite the opposite.
Gene, the self-proclaimed “village idiot” of his household has been “happily unmarried” to Shannon Tweed, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year for 22 years. Although they have never tied the knot, they share two kids, 13 year-old Sophie, and 16 year-old Nick. Gene claims never to have wanted kids, but it’s his perfect kids who have taught him more about life than his 30 years of rock stardom ever could. This 13 episode series reveals the side of Gene that he has kept hidden until now, and shows how the most non-traditional, traditional family in America manages to make it work under the oddest of circumstances.

More press

2005-11-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

Consumer Reports magazine has listed the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker as one of the best gifts for this year. Time Magazine will be on newstands November 14th with their holiday gift guide, including the ball. And About.com just published a flattering article. The beat goes on!

The Passion of the Customer

2005-11-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

This customer wanted our candles but received knock-offs instead. He's very unhappy (which makes me very happy). We're monitoring the situation and will help out if possible. I've eliminated names to protect, well, myself.

TO: UCO COPORATION/Industrial Revolution

The substitute candles sent to us by M are a complete horror. They were sent in place of UCO candles and without our consent. The generics are sold by L. Yesterday, L's person told me their candles are not as good as UCO's.

We tested 5 of the generic candles sent by M during the last 12 hours, in two UCO single-candle lanterns, and in a glass candle cup.

1. No candle stayed lit because the wicks burned high and quickly and bent over into the melted wax. Then the candles put themselves out. This happend in the UCO lanterns and inside the candle cup.

2. The replacement candles made a mess of the candles and deposited immense quantities of black (soot) within them.

3. We are left with huge candle messes in both UCO lanterns.

4. Even when the wicks were trimmed, they repeatedly burned very high and extinguished themselves within the melted wax.

5. Because of the performances of the generic candles, the UCO lanterns are filled with hardened wax and require boiling water to clean out.

We did not authorise M to switch to a generic candle, nor would we have done that. This unauthorised switch is bad business. Even the shipping receipt states UCO CANDLES, as does the website as of today. This is totally false. We were baited by the low price $1.99 for 3 UCO candles, then the UCO product was switched to the other.

M says he is not charging for the switched product and he is refunding what we paid. This is no gift because we are now having to shop for another 30 UCO candles, at another cost, and another delay.

We paid for sterling products and were sent paste.

B

Honolulu, Hawaii

November 6, 2005

Hot Trails

2005-11-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

Hot Trails uses a custom-made (by us) version of our Mini Lantern to make a product for hunters. I thought the photo gallery would have more shots of the lantern in use. I was wrong.

Product love

2005-11-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my anniversary so I took the day off from work. However, I heard that a woman drove up from Portland to get her lantern repaired. Can you imagine? Someone who loves their product so much that they'll drive 200 miles one-way to get it fixed! We offered her a new lantern. I'm not sure what happened.

big week this week

2005-10-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

When I went hunting for a business, I specifically wanted to find a manufacturing firm. I've got so much background and training with process improvement methodologies that I wanted a chance to see if I could make a difference in a small company. Boeing was great but it was always difficult to tell if I had made a difference. Toss a cup of water into the swimming pool . . . now get just your water back out.

With a small company it's all up to me. That's not exactly right since my goal is to get everyone engaged, but I've got to get the ball rolling. This week the rubber hits the road. Several months ago I engaged a consulting firm called Washington Manufacturing Services (WMS). They're going to provide 10 days of training and facilitation on implementing lean manufacturing in our factory. The first two days are Tuesday and Thursday this week. We'll do four more days in December and four in January. We're closing the business for each day. Nothing else will happen except the training (one of my jobs is to put out any fires that appear). I'm very excited to start getting this toolkit into the hands of the employees. I think they're motivated anyway, but this week they'll also be getting bonuses based on our excellent 3rd quarter performance. That can't hurt!

So, I'm excited and nervous. This is the start of a big thing!

ball online

2005-10-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

In case you just can't get enough of this sort of thing...we're in West Tennessee Parent and Family!

General update

2005-10-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

My posting volume has dropped dramatically. It seems like we're getting into more of a groove and there's not quite so much entertaining and new stuff to talk about. Here are a few items we're working on...

Today we had an open house. Some of our friends (especially from Boeing) were curious about what we're up to. We had about a dozen people come to see the factory. It was great fun and I got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a year or more.

We're working with a team of four seniors at Seattle University from the Engineering Projects Center. We've got a professor and four students and we've had our first two meetings (one at school, one at the factory). Within a couple of weeks we'll settle on a project and they'll go to work. By next June we should have a design in place for another new product!

We're also working with an entirely different team at Seattle University from the Business School. These three marketing students are working to help us expand our candle lantern exports. It's a big world and there's not much data to support their research so it's a great challenge. This is the first step in our participation in the King County Export Mentor Program.

The lean process improvements in the factory will get a big boost shortly. At the end of October we'll be closing the shop for 2 days for lean training. We've got our conference room reconfigured as a classroom so we're ready to go. We'll close up for 4 days in December and 4 more in January to do kaizen events in certain factory areas. This should be good!

Ice cream ball sales continue to climb a mountain (size extremely uncertain). Today's big question: how will sales in 2006 Q1 compare to sales in 2005 Q4. Higher? Lower? By how much? Betting is allowed and encouraged.

We may have found a new sales rep in the catalog world. His operation looks very professional. A huge improvement over the mess we got tangled up in earlier this year.

The accounting consultant continues his work to find a new system for us. I'm still aiming at a January 1, 2006 flip of the switch (if only it were that easy).

The mens room has flooded twice this week. Sales are nice and all, but fixing this has "floated" to the top of the list.

We're finishing up a nice order for Red Dot corporation. The job is right up our alley...it uses the exact same processes as the manufacture of the candle lanterns.

Steve is developing an updated product catalog. It's coming along very nicely. The result will be beautiful and functional!

One employee quit recently. We hired a replacement who seems to be doing a great job. We also converted a contract employee over to a direct employee. Another excellent addition to a great team!

Lemelson-MIT Program

2005-09-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

When we heard Woody Norris speak last week, he recommended the Lemelson-MIT Program website for anyone who wants to learn more about patents and intellectual property. I've checked it out and it's pretty good so I'm sharing it here.

MIT Review of our lean efforts

2005-09-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

A group of students in MIT's LFM program worked with us to review our lean implementation efforts. They published a short paper. Many of the facts are incorrect, but the general idea is there. If you're interested, click here [Microsoft Word, 4 pages].

Woody Norris

2005-09-22T19:47:00.000-07:00

Steve and I went to hear Woody Norris speak last night. He was amazing. His websites are worth a visit.

He demonstrated a technology called HyperSonic Sound. I can't really do justice to it with just words but it was one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. He had a gadget that could, my words, shine sound. He pointed it at a wall 25 feet away and the sound from his CD player came from that wall. As he pointed it around the room, the sound came from wherever he pointed. When he pointed right at me, the sound was loud and crystal clear.

Earlier this year, he won the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize given to prolific inventors. He's deserving.

misc updates

2005-09-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a wonderful week. Here are a few highlights:

Our CPA/accounting system consultant started his work. He's going to help us choose a replacement for MYOB, our current "amateur" accounting system. We plan to put the new one in place on January 1, 2006.
Another container of ice cream balls arrived in good condition.
An employee quit (for the second time, don't ask). A good employee, but probably not a good fit for the company for the long term. So this is a positive development.
Our first four pallets of Light My Fire products arrived, also in good condition. We've filled our first two orders!
A separate container of ice cream balls was delivered to the Port of Hong Kong for one of our customers. This is beautiful because we bought and sold the product without ever physically touching it. It sounds easy but it's actually been quite an undertaking to work out all the logistics. Still, it's the first time we've done this so it's pretty exciting.
Don't tell our other customers, but we sent some balls to Walmart (well, Walmart.com). Becoming a supplier to them was its own undertaking so shipping some product is excellent! Last week a big article in the Wall Street Journal discussed how difficult it is to become a Walmart supplier. "No Walmart buyer will ever call you out of the blue," said one entrepreneur (incorrectly, as it happens). And the article explained that it takes 6-12 months to get accepted as a supplier (also incorrect...6 weeks for us). Even then, they wait with fingers crossed for their first order. Do I sound cocky? I feel cocky.
We installed some large new shelving in our warehouse area. That created about another 250 sqft of storage space...space we needed today as it happens!
I have leased an additional 5500 sqft and immediately sub-leased it to a new tenant. They've got a neat little start-up and it will be exciting to watch their progress from up close.
Our Light My Fire partners have agreed to work with us on a public relations campaign. That's a big win and it will make the whole system more successful.
and the beat goes on...

Another review coming soon

2005-09-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Trailblazer Magazine (for horseback trail riders) took several ice cream balls on a recent outing. We'll get to see the reviews in their October issue. However, here's a quick note we received via email:

It was the #1 hit of all the products tested... We have great photos and a write-up in the October issue which I will send soon as it is off the presses in about two weeks.

What a simple, crazy ...wonderful!!! product.

Trading toys

2005-09-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

I traded ice cream makers for some of the products of other manufacturers at the New York International Gift Fair. Here's feedback from one of them...

We received your ice cream ball and have already made chocolate chip ice cream, Milky Way ice cream and Oreo cookie ice cream! They were all delicious -- but chocolate chip was the big favorite. We rolled the ball in the front yard, back yard, living room, dining room, every bed room and even in the attic. We had a ball all the way around.

Beautiful feedback

2005-09-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Not just a happy customer, but one who writes well, too!

I just wanted to tell you I have just purchased my new uco candle lantern a few weeks ahead of my camping trek accross snowdonia. I have been an owner of your fantastic simple candle system for 4 years now and in this age of so many hi tech gadgets for treking and mountain climbing I cannot find anything as comforting and reliable as your simple candle lantern. In the darkness of autumn nights the warmth and comforting glow within my tent cannot be beaten by any of the battery eating high cost alternatives. The experience of getting out into the wilds is all about natural beauty and simplicity which is reflected perfectly in this product!

Keep up the good work... If you want some photos of your lamp amongst the mountains just let me know...

Thanks
Gavin

We've asked to see the pics. Should be good.

Day off

2005-09-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

I took a day off today. Not to make too much of it, but I think this is my first day out of the office where I wasn't on a business trip. It was nice!

Industrial Revolution in the news!

2005-09-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Usually I get to tell you about the latest ice cream ball article. For a change, here's an article about us and our company instead of our products. It's from a small local paper called the Renton Reporter.

Program helps small businesses become exporters

By DONALD J. WARD, Staff writer September 06, 2005

Exporting is one of the keys to economic growth in the Puget Sound region. Although much of this weight rests on the broad shoulders of international corporations like The Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp. and Weyerhaeuser Co., the King County Office of Business Relations and Economic Development has implemented a program to help stimulate export capacity from small to midsize local businesses and to develop a market for their products overseas.

The Export Mentor Program is in its second year of operation. The heart of the program is its pairing of mentors, oftentimes a trade-savvy member of a large local corporation with a small- to medium-sized firm that is just getting its feet wet in the world of international markets.
So far, many of the results have been promising. Several local businesses and manufacturers have signed up for the program in hopes of expanding their business to meet foreign demand.
"We're looking forward to benefiting from it a lot," said Steven Llorente, director of sales and marketing for Redmond-based Industrial Revolution Inc. The company manufactures camping products and employs nine workers.
The company had exported products in small quantities in the past, but it was done almost by happenstance, and there was no real plan.
After signing up with the mentorship program, Industrial Revolution has forged business relationships that often would not have been possible. Llorente's business was paired with Andreas Udbye, the director of the World Trade Center in Tacoma.
"This is pretty high-powered help. A small company like ours would have trouble arranging that on our own," Llorente said.
A company that has already had success has been Orca Pacific. The SeaTac business specializes in water-treatment chemicals. The need to learn how to develop a feasible export plan arose after a bad experience shipping its product to Poland.
"Everything that could have gone wrong, did," said Aaron Kimura, company vice president. After experiencing difficulties with customs, language and setting up methods of payment, Kimura, who co-owns the business with his father, said that they needed get educated in a hurry.
During King County's first Export Mentor symposium in 2004, Kimura was teamed up with an overseas trade expert from Weyerhaeuser, Jennifer Spatz of Kent.
"From a mentor's perspective, it was very interesting," Spatz said. "I wanted to go through the exercise of helping a small company write a marketing plan."
She added that many small companies are initially unaware of the questions that must be answered when it comes to exporting: How do you ship a product? What will the packaging look like? Will the brand name conflict with the local culture?
Through the program, problems that seemed insurmountable before were instantly addressed. Sometimes a solution was as simple as learning how to read a credit application or learning how to evaluate risks and potential profit margins.
"The two-hour commitment was the best investment we have ever made," Kimura said.
Orca Pacific's initial business plan was to ship water-treatment and purification chemicals to China. That strategy was modified when it was soon realized that the company was unable to compete with China's domestic chemical producers that were already in place. With the guidance of Spatz, Kimura said that they were able to find a market for one of his company's secondary products, a specialty shampoo that's in great demand in Asian markets.
The company's exports have grown from nothing to $500,000 last year, and it's continuing to expand.
Kimura, who spoke with small-business owners taking part in the 2005 mentor program, said that even though he has had success, companies still need to do a lot of leg-work to realize the program's full benefit.
"Whatever you put into it is what you will get out," Kimura said. "They won't do the work for you, but the resources are available if you choose to go ahead."
Spatz, too, got something out of the program. She and her husband own their own business in Kent, International Credit Assistance Inc. The experience of serving as a mentor for Orca Pacific has paid dividends for her business-consulting firm.
Funding for the program has come in part from a grant by the U.S. Economic Development Administration and by the Port of Seattle and Davis Wright Tremaine.
* For information on the King County Export Mentor Program, visit www.metrokc.gov/exec/bred/ed/export/exportmentor.htm.

Miss Bardahl

2005-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

The restoration of a beautiful hydroplane was recently completed in one of our two buildings. You can check out Miss Bardahl here.

Nice comments from a customer

2005-09-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

One of our customers emailed Light My Fire about us...

I'm Happy to hear that you have formed a relationship with Industrial Revolution. They are a great company and should be a great fit with your products.

Feedback

2005-09-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't shared many of these recently, but we continue to get interesting feedback and requests for help on a daily basis. It will be interesting to see if anything changes with the new websites.

I need a replacement spring for the candle lantern. As I was changing the candle one night the spring, sprung loose, into the woods and we could not find the next day. How can I get one? Thanks

Red Envelope

2005-09-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

We're regularly adding new customers for the ice cream ball, but Red Envelope is a big one and they have a particularly nice picture of the product. Since there's a chance they'll fix the problem before you see it, I'll just mention that it takes 20 minutes to make ice cream, not 10.

Light My Fire

2005-08-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

More big news! When we were in Friedrichshafen, Germany, for the European Outdoor trade show, we met the team at Light My Fire Sweden. They have a great line of firestarter equipment (which meshes nicely, themewise, with candle lanterns). They've also started producing a mealkit and a spork. Until now, they have had only minor distribution in the US but we think their products will do very well here. Although they've been approached by a number of US companies, we've been working with them since we met to strike a deal to be the exclusive US distributor of their products. Today we came to an agreement! We have placed our first order and it will be on its way to us next week. By ship the products will take 3-4 weeks to reach us. A few samples will get here much sooner by air.

The Light My Fire products are a great addition to our catalog. I anticipate a long and healthy relationship between our two companies!

Million dollar day

2005-08-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is a big day. We're shipping a large order that will put total sales since the business purchase over $1,000,000! We made it in less than 5 months! Compare this with the projections we made to support the purchase. We estimated 8-10 months to reach $1M. We're having a celebration in the factory on Wednesday.

New web sites!

2005-08-25T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today's big news: our two new web sites have gone live! Please take a few minutes to check them out. Feedback is not just welcomed, it's encouraged! Most of us are cross-eyed from looking at these sites so some fresh eyes and different opinions are welcome.

Candle Lanterns at candlelantern.com.

Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker at icecreamrevolution.com.

The Industrial Revolution corporate site will be last in line, due up in a few weeks.

TV coverage

2005-08-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've shown you a lot of the press coverage we've received on the ball. We also get a report (every week, I think) showing TV coverage. Occasionally it's interesting reading. I thought you'd enjoy a chance to see a sample...

Bacon's Listing Report
Date Range: 2005/08/05 To 2005/08/10

1. WAVE-NBC LOUISVILLE, KY
AUG 5 2005 5:00PM CT
WAVE 5pm News

[**05:14:25 PM**] WE HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION ON WAVE 3 DOT COM. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CHECK YOUR CREDIT INFORMATION. EN CONSUMER REPORTS TESTED THE U-C-O PLAY AND FREEZE ICE CREAM MAKER. IT'S A ROUND SHAPED METAL CYLINDER. SO YOUR ICE CREAM IS SHAPED LIKE A BALL.

2. WOWT-NBC OMAHA, NE
AUG 5 2005 5:00PM CT
Evening News

[**05:24:14 PM**] BUT EATING ICE CREAM IS A FAR CRY FROM MAKING YOUR OWN. CONSUMER REPORTS JUST TESTED A NEW ICE-CREAM MAKER THAT PROMISES TO GET THE JOB DONE, WITH SOME FUN, IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES. THE U-C-O PLAY AND FREEZE ICE CREAM MAKER IS A PLASTIC BALL THAT CONTAINS A METAL CYLINDER. FIRST, YOU FILL THE BALL WITH ICE AND ROCK SALT. NEXT, YOU MIX THE ICE-CREAM INGREDIENTS TOGETHER. ... YOU HAVE TO ROLL AND SHAKE THE BALL FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES TO MAKE THE ICE CREAM. TESTERS FOUND THE YOUNGEST ICE- CREAM ENTHUSIASTS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET THE JOB DONE. BUT CONSUMER REPORTS SAYS OLDER KIDS, LIKE AIDAN, BELLA, DANIEL, AND JASON, HAD NO PROBLEM. ... THE PLAY AND FREEZE DELIVERS WITH A PINT OF VERY GOOD, HOMEMADE ICE CREAM. "IT'S GOOD! "SO THE NEXT TIME YOUR KIDS SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM, THEY CAN HAVE A BALL MAKING THEIR OWN! WITH YOUR CONSUMER NEWS, I'M REBECCA KLEEMAN THE U-C-O PLAY AND FREEZE COSTS ABOUT 30 DOLLARS. CONSUMER REPORTS SAYS YOU CAN GET IT FROM L.L. BEAN, OR ONLINE AT U-C-O-CORP-DOT-COM. THE BASIC INGREDIENTS COST ABOUT THREE DOLLARS FOR A PINT OF ICE CREAM.

3. KDVR-FOX DENVER, CO
AUG 8 2005 9:00PM CT
NEWS@NINE

[**09:45:02 PM**] BUT IS THE PRODUCT A FAME OR A SHAME. WELL, THAT'S WHERE FOX 31'S KRISTAL GRIFFITH COMES IN. REPORTER: IT'S A FREEZE FROZEN TREAT THAT GREAT FOR A HOT SUMMER DAY. BUT CAN YOU REALLY MAKE TERRIFIC HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IN THIS BALL? WE ROUNDUP SOME YOUNGSTERS TO HELP PUT THE PLAY AND FREEZE ICE CREAM MAKER TO THE FAME OR SHAME TEST. THE 35-DOLLAR PRODUCT CLAIMS WITH SOME INGREDIENTS AND A WHOLE LOT OF SHAKING, WE'LL HAVE SOME HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IN ABOUT 20 MINUTES. SO WE STARTED MIX MIXING IT UP. ... THE DIRECTIONS SAY TO SHAKE FOR 10 MINUTES, THE PEAK IN. TIMER SET, WE START SHAKING. SHAKE IT UP BABY. COME ON, TWIST AND SHOUT. REPORTER: EVEN OUR FURY FRIEND IS HOPEFUL OF THE OUTCOME. ... THE MAKERS OF THE PLAY AND FREEZE SAY ON AVERAGE IT TAKES 20 MINUTES TO MAKE ICE CREAM. BUT YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT. BUT YOU NEED TO KEEP DRAINING THE WATER AND ADDING MORE ICE AND ROCK SALT TO KEEP IT COLD IF THAT DID YOU WANT WORK. ... YOU PUT THE ROCK SALT IN THE ICE TO MELT THE ICE AND SALT WATER CAN BE BELOW FREEZE SEWING IT MAKES IT MORE CONSISTENT AND COLD ALL OVER. I'LL BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR. I'M MORE OF AN EXPERT ON EATING IT RATHER THAN MAKING IT.

4. KABC-ABC LOS ANGELES, CA
AUG 9 2005 4:00PM PT
Eyewitness News

[**04:57:52 PM**] ICE CREAM: ICE CREAM IS THE PERFECT COOL TREAT ON A HOT DAY. WE TEAMED UP WITH CONSUMER REPORTS TO TEST OUT AN ICE CREAM MAKER THAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN TO USE. IT'S THE UCO PLAY AND FREEZE ICE CREAM MAKER. IT MADE A PINT OF VERY GOOD HOMEMADE ICE CREAM. IT COST ONLY $30. A PINT OF ICE CREAM COSTS $3 MORE.

Export Mentor Program

2005-08-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

We've been accepted into the King County Export Mentor Program. We've been assigned a mentor (we're the protege). He looks like a homerun to me! Here's a bit from his resume (I wish I knew how to do accents). I'll leave out his name to give him a bit of anonymity. Over the next year, he'll be helping us plan and execute an exporting strategy.

Director World Trade Center Tacoma, Tacoma, WA
The World Trade Center in Tacoma is a trade promotional organization that provides resources and programming on international trade issues throughout the Puget Sound region. The director has 21 years of experience in international trade and transportation, holds an MBA from the University of Washington, and is a Certified Global Business Professional. As a former vice president of sales and marketing for a horticultural distributor in Norway, he has extensive experience with importing and exporting. He is able to provide mentoring assistance with strategic planning, marketing, sales, payments, and transportation/distribution issues.

Evil competition

2005-08-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Our Amazon store is a great success story for us. However, others are starting to sell the ball on Amazon as well. One company in particular seems to be fairly awful. While we're working hard to keep our negative feedback as low as possible (it's currently about 4%), this company just doesn't seem to care. Their negative feedback is currently 24%. They are selling a number of other UCO products as well and most of them seem suspicious. The prices are too low, the descriptions are strange (incomplete, etc.). I'm debating sending a note to Amazon, but this company may self-destruct anyway with their weird pricing and terrible service.

back from NYC

2005-08-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

We've returned from the New York International Gift Fair. It wasn't much of a hit from a sales perspective, but I met a lot of people and learned a good bit about the industry, so I still think it was a worthwhile trip. I say this even though I seem to have hurt my back rather seriously. At least I made it home!

Here's the sales summary (1 sale = 1 8-pack of balls):

Saturday - 2 sales (no ice cream)
Sunday - 1 sale (no ice cream)
Monday - 5 sales (made ice cream! fed customers and sales reps)
Tuesday - 5 sales (no ice cream, no Keith)
Wednesday - 2 sales (maybe more after I left)

My theory is that making ice cream on Monday had a big impact. Even though we weren't there on Tuesday, the sales agents were able to plug the ball more sincerely since they'd seen it work the day before.

What else did I learn?

The reps have a big influence on what their customers buy. If the rep is interested and thinks its a good fit for the customer, that goes a long way.
A reasonable commission is in the 10-15% range. Our commissions are in the right range.
Lots of places want free freight. Freight cross-country can be as much as $2 per ball for our bulky product, so I understand the problem. However, I decided to turn them down and told them that we were spending our money on a PR campaign instead. Not a popular decision all around but I liked it!
We need to pay a bit more and get space on the aisle. This was a particular problem because it was so bloody hot in our area. The air conditioning in the Javits center did not reach all areas equally. Strangely, it was about 10 degrees cooler in the aisle than in the booth by our product, even though the two areas were only 8-10 feet apart.
Making ice cream matters, but tiny little spoons allow one batch to go a loooooooong way!

My inner toy collector also had a field day. I cruised about 25% of the rest of the show and had a great time checking out all the new toys and gifts. It was like the world's greatest toy store except that you can only buy stuff in packs of 24.

The sales guys from ThinkFun had the space adjacent to us. They are the premier manufacturer of mass-market brainteasers, so I really enjoyed chatting with them and checking out their products. In particular, they have a new item called Gordian's Knot. It's not yet available but I had a great time playing with the prototype. I impressed the main sales guy when I got it apart without using the solution guide. Putting it together again was way beyond my skills but I managed it with the solution guide.

Oh, and my back... Tuesday, after my morning shower, I suddenly had severe mid-back pain (right side). I flopped into the bed (easily accessible from every corner of our hotel room) and ended up spending the day there. I think I must have over-compensated somehow for the pain on the right side because by the next day the extreme pain had moved to the lower left. I've dealt with this before and it has taken anywhere from days to months to go away. The fact that the pain moved (and didn't appear while lifting a sofa) gives me hope that I'll heal up in a few days. In the meantime, I stand crooked.

visiting Kirkhams

2005-08-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm typing this at 2:00am in NYC. Off to bed soon.

I thought I'd relate the fun we had visiting Kirkhams in SLC yesterday. We left the Outdoor Retailer show about an hour early and set out to find and visit this retailer in the SLC area. They're not only a customer for our candle lanterns (although they don't buy directly from us, rather through a distributor), but they're also one of the customers for our metal-working talents. We have made thousands of T-shaped fittings for them over the years, including many in the last few months since I've taken over. I knew the fittings were used in a tent sold by Kirkhams, but I wanted to see it for myself.

The tent line is called Springbar. There are about 14 varieties, almost all of which have a major structural element consisting of an aluminum tube passing over the top of the tent. The joints at the ends of the bar each use one of our fittings. We only make 2 sizes, but they use them for 14 different tents. Pretty clever!

You can see the fitting in the top center part of the picture below. The aluminum tube has been crimped in place on the fitting.

It was also fun to visit their candle lantern area. We bought several items on the "product development" budget for later examination. They were selling knockoff candles made for our lanterns. Although slightly cheaper, they seemed to be more uniform in look and feel than the ones we sell. There's definitely some room for quality improvement in our candle line.

We also bought a Cocoon XL, a neoprene protective cover for the Candlelier. This was a real treasure to us because we haven't sold them in a few years and we don't have many examples. We'd like to reintroduce some sort of protective bag for the big lantern so it was a delight to find this.

Finally, I will recommend against Ono's Hawaiian Food in SLC. Although the food was indeed ono (it tasted good), it wasn't particularly Hawaiian. I was hoping for laulaus, lomi salmon, kalua pig, etc. Good barbeque, but none of the other delights.

update from Salt Lake City

2005-08-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

What a great day. We had a bunch of great experiences. As usual, it will be a couple of months before we can tell if any of this will bear fruit. However, here are a couple of notes...

We talked to a Chinese bag manufacturer. We want to get a bag custom designed for the ice cream ball. When we first approached the booth both of the reps in the booth came up to talk to us. Both were Chinese and both seemed to be having a terribly difficult time with English. This is not to criticize . . . their English is orders of magnitude better than my Chinese. The interesting part was that one of the reps seemed to be learning English as we talked. By the end of the conversation, she was understanding us just fine and speaking very clearly. We're not sure why she started out "playing dumb" but it was so convincing we almost left rather than try to work through the language barrier. It was a curious opening gambit.
We met for a while with the founder of peak62.com. Peak62 was just launched in November 2004. The site is expanding fast and seems to be doing very well. Marty, the founder, has a wealth of knowledge about the industry and retailing in particular. He was so attached to a couple of his previous employers, that he kept saying "we" when he referred to them. It was fun and fascinating to get such a data download from someone with far more experience than me.
Never buy anything from saylors1978. They're sellers on Amazon and, seemingly, many other sites. They listed two balls for sale on the Amazon page where our products are shown but they had a vaguely unpleasant comment attached, "kids tired quickly of this...want to sell it." Steve immediately purchased both balls. Strangely, two days later they refunded his money and claimed to have "listed the wrong product". Less strangely, they've got terrible feedback ratings (1.6 stars out of 5) and other comments from other buyers reflecting the same weird behavior.
One of our big distributors showed us sales data on our products. The ice cream ball is a hugely successful product for everyone, including this customer. Other than that, sales were basically flat. They asked that we reduce our lot size so that they can hold less inventory. Our rating was 130 and they want us to get up over 200.
One customer suggested that we should "reinvent" the candle lanterns. I think there's some truth to that. At the moment, we aren't spending any money (and not much time) on marketing those products. They need more attention.

And more fun stuff happened, but I'm just too tired to write any more. Night.

SLC

2005-08-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

Arrived safely in Salt Lake City last night. Good dinner (too salty) and lots of shop talk. We leave shortly for the show. The waitress last night had an Outdoor Retailer badge. She mentioned that there are 20,000 people in town for the show. More than I would have guessed!

Espaces magazine

2005-08-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

We had a review in Japanese, now one in French...

Translation: After a long day of hiking, full with sunshine, does a mad desire for ice cream grip your taste buds? Because there isn’t an ice cream man in the middle of the forest, UCO decided to “join the fun with the functional”. Take some ice cream and some ice (carefully preserved in a thermos or bought at the camp store!), add sugar, salt and— according to taste— fruit, chocolate or vanilla. Mix everything in the ice-cream maker. Next, shuffle the ball for ten minutes or so, playing around with it, until you get a sultry desert…all without electricity. The old adage never tasted so good!

Salt Lake and New York

2005-08-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

More travel this week...
Tomorrow I leave for Salt Lake City to attend the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market show. I'll fly straight from SLC to NYC to attend the New York International Gift Fair. I'll be away from home for about 8 days. I'm ready for a vacation already!