INVENTORS' DIGEST OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005
"I'VE SPENT TEN YEARS in the grocery
industry and the last 18 years as manager
of a 24-hour Walgreen's store," says
Jeff Kempher of Fruitport, Mich. "Over
the years, employees would cut themselves
with a box cutter; sometimes it
was so bad they had to go to the hospital.
I often thought that we needed to
get rid of open blade cutters." It wasn't
until after 9/11 that Kempher began to
think seriously about how to solve the
problem.
After he had a concept of a cutter
that didn't have an open blade, his next
step was to make a prototype. "I must
have tried 30 or 40 different styles," he
says, "and I used a lot of different materials
-- plastic, metal, aluminum, laminates.
It took quite a while but after I
thought I really had it, I sat on the idea
for about a year. I didn't know what to
do next."
One of the sales reps who called on
Kempher at his Walgreen's store was
Orville Crain, who owned a wholesale
distribution business. "One day I told
Orville that I wanted to talk to him
about something, and I took him to
lunch," says Kempher. "I told him
about my idea and showed him the prototype.
He said, 'Wow! I like it.' So we
kicked around ideas for what we could
do with it."
Another of Crain's business associates
was Matt Jacobs who owns a plastics
manufacturing company. The three
men formed a company to develop the
product. A local company tested the
prototype, and it needed some tweaking.
"The mold had to be changed
three times," says Crain, but, finally,
they got the product they wanted. In
July the first Klever Kutters rolled off
the production line, and the aggressive
trio lost no time in getting the word
out.
Crain persuaded the local paper to
do a story on the product while Jacobs
interested the local TV station in doing
a segment; the phone started ringing.
"A buyer from a major grocery chain
called us," laughs Crain. "I had tried to
get in there to talk to them but they
brushed us off. Now they were calling
us!" An insurance company called, and
they ordered several thousand with
their logo on the product. Lowe's
invited us to their trade show, and a
large chain of grocery warehouses is
interested, too." Also, Klever Kutter
will be sold through a national catalog
bearing the catalog's name, Reid Tool
Supply.
The Klever Kutter is made in the
U.S.A. "We didn't want to source it
in China for a couple of reasons,"
explains Crain. "First, we didn't want
them to take it, and this isn't a labor
intensive product. While the manufacturing
price might be a little cheaper
over there, there's not much difference
in total price when you factor in
the transportation costs."
From opening boxes to bags of
potato chips, the Klever Kutter won't
damage products and won't harm
people. How safe is it? On a recent
trip, Crain had one in his pocket and,
after being examined by TSA agents,
he was allowed to board the plane
with it. That could be the highest
safety endorsement they'll get!
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