For most people, messy kids just mean stained carpeting and mountains of laundry. For Rick Kellow and Beth Auehl, having messy kids sparked the idea for a multi-million-dollar business.
It all began one night in the family’s theater room.
“I went downstairs to check on the kids playing video games. There were spilled cans of soda and chips all over the place. I came upstairs and told my wife that we needed to buy a plate that holds both drinks and food,” Kellow recalled.
She assured him that nothing like what he was describing existed. He was incredulous, but after some research, he discovered that she was right.
Just a week later, Kellow turned his vision of a combination plate and cup into a plastic prototype. The dish was a hit with the family, but the $5,000 price tag for the creation of the prototype wasn’t, so, the idea to develop the prototype on a larger scale was shelved.
Although the plan to develop the prototype on a larger scale was shelved, the prototypes themselves didn’t gather dust. They quickly became the favorite dishes of the household. When their oldest child left for college, he took one of the dishes with him. His dormmates loved the spill-resistant design just as much as the family did.
This newfound popularity reignited the discussion about bringing the dishes to market. After careful consideration, Auehl and Kellow decided to invest $50,000 in an injection molding tool in 2015, enabling them to produce the dishes on a larger scale. They named their innovative product GreatPlate, and they began promoting it at tradeshows.
At their first show, they got contracts from Menards and CVS.
The sales were an amazing coup. They sold over 100,000 units, and GreatPlate performed well in stores. However, their big break proved to be short-lived as follow-up orders from these retailers did not materialize.
Years later, QVC discovered GreatPlate and the company’s fortunes changed again. After GreatPlate’s first appearance on the network, sales soared.
“I think we’ve done three and a half million plates with QVC alone,” he said. The strong response from QVC viewers led to guest appearances on the Food Network, the Rachael Ray Show, the Today Show and local newscasts across the country. Auehl makes regular appearances on the network to promote the dishes and Kellow says she has developed a fanbase.
According to the company website, to date, GreatPlates has sold more than $10 million worth of plates.
“It’s been about 9 years for us to become an overnight success,” Kellow jokes.
“For every deal that we got, we had 20 rejections. We would go to Walmart every year and they would say, ‘you’re selling this to us for a dollar and I can buy this for a quarter from China,’” he recalled.
Today, the company continues to grow with the help of its partners Pro Ex Extrusion, Horicon Bank, and investor Tim Algiers.
Oshkosh-based manufacturer Pro Ex Extrusion manufactures GreatPlates. The company makes the classic GreatPlate, as well as a version that allows users to insert a stemmed glass into the dish. Pro Ex also makes the company’s GreatCoasters and is set to begin production on the soon-toto-be-released platter-sized product designed for large meals.
“Right now, we can scale our process. We can double or triple our production in 90 days,” he said.
Another key partner in the growth of the company is the 125-year-old Wisconsin-based financial institution, Horicon Bank.
“We didn’t need money in the beginning because we bootstrapped it on our own,” Kellow said. “Mike Fleischmann from Horicon Bank reached out and said, ‘if you ever need anything, give me a call.’ And sure enough, we started to grow into large programs with QVC, we needed a cash infusion, and you couldn’t have found an easier guy to work with. If you don’t have a good bank behind you, you’re in trouble. That’s the biggest problem with entrepreneurs- how do you finance your receivable? In some cases, these larger buyers take you out 90 to 120 days. That’s pretty hard. Horicon Bank never blinked; they just said ‘okay’. To have that kind of support behind you, that’s one of the most critical pieces. Otherwise, you can’t fulfill the order.”
As their product line expands and their customer base grows, Auehl and Kellow continue to achieve remarkable success. A recent milestone was adding the Southern-based travel center chain Buc-ee’s to their roster of clients.
“One of our big successes right now is Buc-ee’s. They use us, and there are projections that they’re using half a million plates per year,” Kellow said.
Between the impressive list of retailers and the new products created to meet a wider customer base, the future looks bright for this Wisconsin-made innovation.
To learn more about this successful FaB Wisconsin member, connect with the company here.