Bloomfield, NE

Practice Area:
Industrial Marketing - Product Development Company Profile:
Sweet Corn Products is a company located in rural Northeast Nebraska at Bloomfield, Nebraska. Ray Lush, the owner is an inventor of sorts and when he develops a product and begins selling it, he sells the distribution rights to a larger company to handle the manufacture and selling of the product. A major product introduced by Ray is that of "Ugly Nuts". Sweet Corn Products has 9 employees.

Situation:
Ray had developed an idea to use the same product style as a mesh fish basket andmake a small version to fill the need for a mesh basket to contain bird seed. This design would prevent other animals from eating the feed before the birds. In finding the fish basket manufacturers, he felt a small version could be made to satisfy his product design. Ray felt these types of baskets were only made in foreign countries.

Solution:
Ray contacted his NMEP field agent to request assistance in finding outmanufacturers information. Upon describing his situation, the NMEP field agent began researching for information on manufacturers meeting this request. The NMEP field agent started by going to a fishing store to find out distribution nams for an actual fish basket, a backwards research method was employeed. The fish basket found showed one brand of baskets as being made in China for a company in Missouri. In using a searchable CD-Rom program and in making "blind" phone calls to the city, a packager/distributor name was uncovered. In calling this business, information on an importer of these fish baskets was uncovered. This information was all shared with Ray.

Results:
Ray immediately contacted the importer and this lead him to do an Internet search to find out a list of manufacturers in China that would be potential suppliers. After much email communication to determine compatibility and reviewing 8 to 10 product prototypes, Ray selected 2 companies to supply him with the wire mesh bird feed baskets. In January 2000, Ray had 100 baskets air mailed to him. He attended a product show with these baskets. One distributor ordered on pallet of baskets on the spot and before Ray could get these ready to ship, the customer phoned to double his order. The first production run was in February 2000 and they expect to get their next shipment in May 2000 for 8,000 baskets. Ray is using local people as packagers and is purchasing the packaging materials from all Nebraska suppliers. Presently Ray is negotiating a large contract with a major lawn and garden supplier that would open his market to the world. Ray hopes to keep the packaging in Bloomfield and to hire 6 to 10 people from the local region. Ray is also in the process of getting his bird feeder basket patented to secure his market position. Ray feels this product has world wide potential and feels some day he will sell a million of the wire mesh bird feeder baskets.

Testimonial:
Ray felt the information and assistance he received from NMEP was critical to the success of getting this project going as quickly as it has. Without the information, Ray would not have proceeded with the project. Putting him in touch with the importer was thekey to him being able to determine the countries that supply the wire mesh baskets. Ray stated that in rural Bloomfield, Nebraska theremay not be a lot that can be manufactured there, however, they can market what every than want from Bloomfield.