How To Make $400,000 Selling Ice

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http://www.iceculture.com

In a sleepy southwestern Ontario town no larger than an intersection marked by a family diner, a small company is doing very big, and very cool, business.

Iceculture Inc., known for manufacturing and selling ice blocks and sculptures, has carved out its biggest single contract ever: $400,000 to build an all-ice restaurant, called Chillout, in Dubai, the first of eight projects the family-run company will produce for Sharaf Group, a Middle East consortium. "This is the single-largest, most lucrative project we have ever undertaken," says Iceculture owner Julian Bayley, a former Fleet Street journalist.

Raising Iceculture's profile internationally may be the greatest benefit of the deal. Despite growing global competition in the ice trade, few businesses have the staff Bayley can throw at a project; a recent Toronto wedding featuring massive ice displays required 22 employees to set up. That, claims Bayley, is Iceculture's competitive advantage. The company's ability to make super-clear ice through a reverse osmosis filtration process that eliminates air bubbles is also in demand.

Bayley, 69, started making ice 18 years ago, when he ran a catering business. The quality of his ice punch bowls impressed ice carvers, who began requesting blocks of ice for their work. This led to clients in the events industry commissioning Iceculture to make elaborate displays, such as beaded ice curtains and ice lounges. As word spread, Iceculture found demand for its creations as far away as Australia and South Africa. But the Dubai project is special. "They are aiming for the wow factor," says Bayley. "They just do not see ice like this in the Middle East."

The ice for the Chillout restaurant will be shipped in freezer trucks from Hensall, about an hour's drive north of London, Ont., to freezer containers aboard ships in Montreal that will embark on Feb. 3 on a 6,500-nautical-mile voyage to Dubai. In total, four containers, each holding about 23,000 kilograms of Ontario-made ice, will set sail to the Middle East. It will take nearly a month to get there, and the $150,000 worth of ice will take eight Iceculture workers about seven days to assemble into an 1,800-square-foot eatery that will open in the first week of March.

Chillout, anchoring a new mall being developed by Sharaf, will be constructed in a large freezer, as Dubai's temperature reaches an average of 28uC at that time of year. Ice will cover the walls and floor of the restaurant, concealing the freezer's appearance. Customers will lounge on ice furniture, cosy up to an ice bar and drink from, you guessed it, glasses made of ice. But they will hold non-alcoholic cocktails: Dubai, excuse the expression, is for the most part dry.

Other large Iceculture clients include NASA--which uses pure ice chunks, cut to exacting specifications, to test ice damage to its shuttles--and Boeing. Though it's the Dubai deal that has the potential to really boost the company's prospects. "This is such an unusual project," says Bayley. "If we do this right, it could mean a lot more business for us." For Bayley, who has gone from sculpting ice punch bowls to dining in the desert on ice, success is a dish best served cold.

[Via - Canadian Business]

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Quality Diet's Tips
Local entrepreneur not too busy to get Cleary business degree

Upstart Aims to Soup Up

Filling a natural niche
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From The Wall Street Journal Online

Instant ramen noodles, long hawked as a cheap, quick food for college kids and others with lean budgets, are going gourmet.

Last fall, Union Foods Newcorp. of Irvine, Calif., launched several ramen-noodle products, including Gourmet Snack Noodles Soup and Mamma Mia microwaveable noodles, that are low in sodium, have no monosodium glutamate and no trans fats. The company also is pushing new noodle lines infused with vegetables, as well as ones with spices and sauces that appeal to different ethnic tastes.

Union Foods, one of the smallest players in the ramen-noodle market with an estimated 5% market share according to the company, is betting that its souped-up noodles will differentiate its offerings and help it better compete with larger rivals, Nissin Foods (USA) Co. and Maruchan Inc., at a time when growth has stagnated in the dried-soup foods category.

The company is hoping to lure, among others, people who once feasted on ramen noodles in their youth but are now looking for a healthier alternative. To that end, Union Foods hopes to eventually use its healthier -- and more expensive -- products to shift away from lower-cost retailers and into higher-end stores like those of Whole Foods Markets Inc., which specialize in more healthful fare.

"There's been such a view that ramen is really low-end stuff, and we don't believe that our products should be in that low-end market," says Victor Sim, chief executive of Solafide Inc., a private-equity firm that acquired Union Foods in June 2005.

As Union Foods' experience shows, small companies can find it difficult to compete in a niche market when their products become commoditized and the industry is dominated by one or two large, low-cost producers. And while launching a new product line is a way for companies to differentiate themselves, the move is fraught with uncertainty. In tweaking its products and marketing message to make an impact on the industry -- and make a profit -- Union Foods will have to walk the fine line of capitalizing on its traditions while promoting what's new.

"I think the challenge...is finding a balance in retaining taste and retaining affinity to your consumers and offering them a better product and making them feel better about their choices," says Debra Joester, president and chief executive of Joester Loria Group, a New York-based licensing and branding firm. She says the name change to snack noodles with no reference to ramen could alienate some consumers.

Quick and Cheap

Instant ramen noodles -- which typically come in a cup or a square package that costs 10 cents to 50 cents a pop -- is well entrenched as a cheap, quick meal: just add hot water, some packaged ingredients and let it sit for three minutes. But it's also known for being chock-full of savory but unhealthful ingredients, such as trans fats, sodium and monosodium glutamate, or MSG.

The U.S. is the world's fourth-largest consumer of ramen noodles, with 3.9 billion packages sold in 2005, according to the Japan-based International Ramen Manufacturers Association. China is No. 1. But U.S. ramen sales have been sliding due to the explosive growth of ready-to-serve soups that are more convenient for consumers.

In comparison to those ready-to-serve and condensed soups, sales also have been hurt by ramen noodles' "limited palette" of popular flavors -- beef, chicken and shrimp -- according to a report by Mintel International Group, a consumer research firm. Until recently, instant ramen noodles hadn't changed significantly since they were created in Japan in 1958 by Momofuku Ando, the recently deceased founder and chairman of Nissin Food Products Ltd., a market leader in the ramen category.

At Union Foods, though, big change is under way -- which the company hopes will boost sales. The company says it broke even last year, with revenue of $20 million to $25 million. Mr. Sim expects 2007 revenue to climb to $25 million to $30 million, with $5 million to $10 million in profit.

In addition to taking the unhealthy ingredients out of its noodles, Union Foods is putting good stuff into a more diversified line of products. For instance, it's injecting noodles with vegetables like spinach and beets. It offers a line of "picante," or spicy, noodles called Enchilosa, and came out in October with a higher-end product called Fiesta that comes in a biodegradable container, not the traditional Styrofoam. Both target Hispanic consumers.

Union Foods also launched in December an Asian-market product called Dae Jang Gum, which uses a spice based on kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of spicy pickled vegetables such as napa cabbage. And its new Mamma Mia Spinach Noodles with Alfredo Sauce is packaged in a biodegradable cornstarch and paper container.

All this new goodness is going to cost consumers, though: $2.50 to $2.99 each, compared with 10 to 50 cents for its original ramen noodles, which the company still sells.

Small Steps

Mr. Sim says his ultimate goal is to attract interest from high-end food retailers like Whole Foods of Austin, Texas, and Trader Joe's Co., Monrovia, Calif. He says the company is in the early stages of sending them samples.

But a healthier approach alone may not be enough to garner the attention of these stores. The fact that Union Foods had never had a product to appeal to them will make it much harder to persuade those stores to carry the new ramen line.

So far, Union Foods has made some inroads in the healthy market. Mark Trotter, chief executive of YoNaturals Inc., a San Diego-based maker of vending machines that serve healthy items, plans to soon put the new ramen noodles in his hot-meals vending machines where people have access to microwaves and hot water, including corporate campuses.

For now, though, Union Foods is banking on traditional outlets to drive business. In November, the 7-Eleven Inc. chain of convenience stores began selling the Gourmet Snack Noodles and Enchilosa lines. The Fiesta line and Mamma Mia Mac Cheese should be available by June.

Union Foods isn't alone in its healthful push, however. Late last year, Nissin Foods (USA) of Gardena, Calif., introduced its Noodle Soup premium product featuring air-dried pasta with large chunks of vegetables such as broccoli, carrots and celery. It also added a Souper Meal, a larger version of Nissin's popular Cup of Noodles, with thicker noodles and richer broth, and Chow Mein, a Chinese-style stir-fried noodles microwaveable package. Prices range from 99 cents to $1.49.

"Everybody's been hungry for something new," says Matt Talle, national sales manager at Nissin Foods (USA).

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Choosing a Web Designer the Easy Way

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Choosing a Web Designer

When you choose a web designer, there are many things that you need to be aware of and that need to be taken into consideration before you make a decision.

To some extent, the ability to work successfully with your web designer is sometime as important as their actual skill in being able to deliver the project.

A web designer that is skilled in what they do but is a pain to deal with can make the whole process frustrating and not worth the money being spent, especially if you have an emotional attachment to the project (which you should have being the one supplying the money and motivation)

That relationship can be worth a large proportion of the contract.

However, there are some key things you need to consider.

Be careful in what you get for your money. Some possible pitfalls you may want to check on:

Obviously what do you get for your money

What is included? Design, Content, Search Engine Submission, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Graphic Design, Updates? You need to get these details so you can compare your quotes against each other. You also need to quantify some of these things in terms of quantity, hours, numbers search engines submitted to etc.

What are the ongoing costs?

All websites have ongoing costs. Web Hosting, Domain Names and updates are the main three. Make sure you know the total cost of your investment. Some companies offer lower up front costs to lock you into higher ongoing costs that end up costing you more. Some other things are SSL certificate costs, more bandwidth and web space.

How easy is it to incorporate your branding

Some template sites are hard to blend a logo or colours into them, be wary of template driven website companies, some of these people are skilled enough only to change the text on a template. Some designers design their sites from the ground up incorporating all of you design elements in their design. These companies offer the most flexibility.

How reliable is the services provided

With hosting and email, too much down time can make the whole experience unworkable. You don't want to have to change hosts after six months because your designer has provided you with a poor host. Some people rely heavily on email and these are the people that need to choose carefully so their business inst impacted.

What are the costs for making changes later on?

Updates and maintenance on your site is something that will eventually happen, even if you don't change the content frequently (see the Making Your Site Super Sticky Article for the benefits of this) you will eventually change some content and so you need to know what it will cost over a year.

Hidden costs

Make sure common things (like search engine submissions) are either not included or are an extra cost. Some key things can be omitted to keep the price down. Make sure you don't get sold short. An important one...is the web designer doing the job part time Are your web designers doing this as a full time job? Some designers are working during the day and then web designing at night. A lot of designers started out this way, but it can cause issues when you need something done and they don't do the job from 9-5.

If all these things check out then you have found someone who you can work with and provide you with a service that will get you your desired result.

Remember; choose a designer with the right skills, but also one you believe you can work with on an ongoing basis. Build a working relationship that will benefit you both and your web project will benefit as well.

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About the Author: Steven Gardner runs DeepWeb Web Design, a web design business that caters to all businesses looking to get an edge with their presence on the Web, providing web design, maintenance and consulting services. You can find him at www.deepweb.co.nz.

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