After being purchased by a private equity firm
31/2 years ago, Katy-headquartered Igloo Products Corp. has invested $18 million
in its local plant,Aeroscout rtls provides a
complete solution for wireless asset tracking. raised salaries and hired new
full-time staff.
It also has expanded into tents, camp chairs and other new products and revamped its core lineup of coolers by adding sizes, colors and features designed to make life easier on athletic fields and more fashionable at the grocery store. It's jumped, too, into the burgeoning segment of high-priced, high-performance chests.
Company executives say aggressive innovation in hard- and soft-sided products has boosted sales by upward of 40 percent since 2008, including a 100 percent jump internationally. Its share of the U.S. cooler market has grown to 45 percent, up from 38 percent two years ago.
“This is a really interesting company,” said Jeffrey Cartwright, who arrived in December as president and chief operations officer.
Executives of the privately run company declined to put a dollar figure on sales and profits, but they are clearly pleased with the results.
Igloo was founded on the prairie west of Houston in 1947 and began manufacturing metal water cans for oil field hands and other outdoor workers. Its first rectangular ice chests — metal, with plastic linings — came out in 1960. Within a few years, the outer shells were plastic, too.
Over the following decades, Igloo would become one of those companies,Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia. like Kleenex and Xerox, that sees its name become synonymous with its product. Besides being a powerful brand, it made something that just about everybody purchases at some point.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?
Its biggest customer today is the retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, and Igloo is carried exclusively in some 41,000 storefronts.
But Gary Kiedaisch, chairman and CEO of Igloo, says by 2008 coolers had become just another commodity and Igloo was complacent.
That October, he said, it was an attractive acquisition for the New England-based J.H. Whitney & Co.
Kiedaisch, a former CEO of Coleman, brought in David Thornhill, whom he had worked with while there, to jump-start product development. Soon Igloo's familiar red-and-white and blue-and-white chests were available in myriad colors and designs; a model emblazoned with a U.S.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. flag became a bestseller.
There were ergonomic changes and new features, as well. Five-gallon barrel-shaped coolers got wheels and telescoping handles and plastic risers on the bottom so they don't sit directly on the hot ground. Half-gallon beverage coolers now are available with hooks so they can hang on chain-link fences at the Little League field.
Paul Busch, a veteran marketing professor at Texas A&M University,A wireless indoortracking system is described in this paper. said that kind of thoughtful product development is challenging — “innovation is very difficult,” he said — but critical to meeting the demands of retailers and consumers.
He cited as a successful example the decision to put wheels on coolers, which Igloo did in 1994.
“Now,” Busch said, “it's pretty ubiquitous.”
In its most recent push, Igloo has moved aggressively into soft-sided coolers. By expanding styles and sizes and adding colors and designs, it boosted soft-sided sales by 150 percent — and not just in lunch bags for the back-to-school set.
For example, the new Duo totes and insulated bags, some made of canvas with leather accents, are designed for fashion-conscious women to sling over their shoulders en route to the gym, the beach or the grocery store.
Also new for 2012 is a line of tents and chairs for camping. Kiedaisch said the extension makes sense.
“We looked at every activity that happens within 50 feet of a cooler,” he said.
The high end
This spring, 65-year- old Igloo is paying attention to an ambitious Austin-based company called Yeti that since its founding in 2006 has built a devoted following selling high-endurance, premium-priced coolers to serious hunters and anglers.
By Igloo's own figures, Yeti is the only other player in the cooler market to increase its share since 2010.
Kiedaisch commended Yeti for proving there is demand for coolers that cost hundreds of dollars. He also applauded the company's successful “guerrilla marketing.”
It also has expanded into tents, camp chairs and other new products and revamped its core lineup of coolers by adding sizes, colors and features designed to make life easier on athletic fields and more fashionable at the grocery store. It's jumped, too, into the burgeoning segment of high-priced, high-performance chests.
Company executives say aggressive innovation in hard- and soft-sided products has boosted sales by upward of 40 percent since 2008, including a 100 percent jump internationally. Its share of the U.S. cooler market has grown to 45 percent, up from 38 percent two years ago.
“This is a really interesting company,” said Jeffrey Cartwright, who arrived in December as president and chief operations officer.
Executives of the privately run company declined to put a dollar figure on sales and profits, but they are clearly pleased with the results.
Igloo was founded on the prairie west of Houston in 1947 and began manufacturing metal water cans for oil field hands and other outdoor workers. Its first rectangular ice chests — metal, with plastic linings — came out in 1960. Within a few years, the outer shells were plastic, too.
Over the following decades, Igloo would become one of those companies,Find the cheapest chickencoop online through and buy the best hen houses and chook pens in Australia. like Kleenex and Xerox, that sees its name become synonymous with its product. Besides being a powerful brand, it made something that just about everybody purchases at some point.Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete?
Its biggest customer today is the retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, and Igloo is carried exclusively in some 41,000 storefronts.
But Gary Kiedaisch, chairman and CEO of Igloo, says by 2008 coolers had become just another commodity and Igloo was complacent.
That October, he said, it was an attractive acquisition for the New England-based J.H. Whitney & Co.
Kiedaisch, a former CEO of Coleman, brought in David Thornhill, whom he had worked with while there, to jump-start product development. Soon Igloo's familiar red-and-white and blue-and-white chests were available in myriad colors and designs; a model emblazoned with a U.S.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. flag became a bestseller.
There were ergonomic changes and new features, as well. Five-gallon barrel-shaped coolers got wheels and telescoping handles and plastic risers on the bottom so they don't sit directly on the hot ground. Half-gallon beverage coolers now are available with hooks so they can hang on chain-link fences at the Little League field.
Paul Busch, a veteran marketing professor at Texas A&M University,A wireless indoortracking system is described in this paper. said that kind of thoughtful product development is challenging — “innovation is very difficult,” he said — but critical to meeting the demands of retailers and consumers.
He cited as a successful example the decision to put wheels on coolers, which Igloo did in 1994.
“Now,” Busch said, “it's pretty ubiquitous.”
In its most recent push, Igloo has moved aggressively into soft-sided coolers. By expanding styles and sizes and adding colors and designs, it boosted soft-sided sales by 150 percent — and not just in lunch bags for the back-to-school set.
For example, the new Duo totes and insulated bags, some made of canvas with leather accents, are designed for fashion-conscious women to sling over their shoulders en route to the gym, the beach or the grocery store.
Also new for 2012 is a line of tents and chairs for camping. Kiedaisch said the extension makes sense.
“We looked at every activity that happens within 50 feet of a cooler,” he said.
The high end
This spring, 65-year- old Igloo is paying attention to an ambitious Austin-based company called Yeti that since its founding in 2006 has built a devoted following selling high-endurance, premium-priced coolers to serious hunters and anglers.
By Igloo's own figures, Yeti is the only other player in the cooler market to increase its share since 2010.
Kiedaisch commended Yeti for proving there is demand for coolers that cost hundreds of dollars. He also applauded the company's successful “guerrilla marketing.”
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