"Dispensing Disbelief" - ChicWrap and The Allen Reed Company by Kathryn Merrifield

These days, we all need to appreciate the little things.  It’s something we’d like to teach our children and remind ourselves:  to find beauty in simplicity.  In an age when everything is complicated, little ideas can sparkle with  ingenuity.  ChicWrap, a combination of function and form, is one of them.

The best quality plastic wrap dispenser in the world is now offered to the retail market by Allen Reed Company (ARC), the makers of the ZipSafe Slide Cutter.  Since 1992, Allen Reed Company has provided the foodservice industry with valuable dispensing and cutting tools that have provided professional cooks and chefs from  restaurants  to  local school  cafeterias, with easy and effective ways to dispense and cut professional grade plastic wrap.  Now, ARC is bringing this to the retail market with a twist. 

Offered in six boxes with timeless, expressive and decorative prints, ChicWrap combines utility and  beauty.  Mostly importantly, it works!  Cutting effectiveness and durability have been proven on the standard twelve and eighteen-foot wide by two thousand-foot long rolls of professional wrap used by the various kitchens it serves.

Now the ZipSafe Slide Cutter brings the technology to America’s kitchens where it will withstand the test of time refill after refill as will the wipe-clean box made of durable and sustainable materials.  Made of rigid paperboard, the dispenser is composed of the same materials found in the packaging of Apple products like the iPhone and iPad.

Ian Reed Kaiser and Sean Allen Neiberger founded Allen Reed Company twenty years ago. Kaiser’s inventive thinking and relentless pursuit of function matched with Neiberger’s impeccable business standards and design sense combined to form the company in 1992 with the SafetyWrap Dispenser, a plastic wrap dispenser for use in professional kitchens.  “We repeatedly heard horror stories about employees being sliced and sent to the emergency rooms due to injuries caused by the typical hacksaw blade,” said Neiberger.  The SafetyWrap Dispenser also replaced the typical cardboard boxes that easily fall apart from exposure to kitchen debris and moisture. 

The team spent the next two years selling the dispenser around the country at trade shows, but the SafetyWrap Dispenser was their  only product.  They sold direct to the industry until a company called Katchall Industries bought Safety Wrap and funded the team’s interest in the creation of a new, safer blade for cutting plastic wrap.

Kaiser and Neiberger introduced The GraterEdge Blade in 1995, the first safe alternative to the dangerous hacksaw blade.  At this point, ARC had a solid understanding of the food service industry and how plastic wrap was being used and sold.  

“We always believed that the traditional hacksaw blades found on plastic wrap boxes was something that could be changed for the better,” said Neiberger, an avid cook and gourmet food enthusiast. 

Kaiser created a prototype blade of tin plate steel wrapped over the edge of a cardboard sleeve.  Small punches that kicked up tiny petals created an abrasive surface.  This abrasive surface cut the plastic wrap, but was safe to the touch. They did a patent search on the new blade and found a former employee of a large plastic wrap company on the East Coast who had filled three similar patents using the same concept.  He too visualized a way to make a safer blade, but never pursued a manufacturer. ARC bought  all three patents for $1000.

Kaiser refined the design with Neiberger’s oversight and began approaching plastic wrap companies with prototypes.  Reynolds Metals Company was the first to contact ARC.  "You put a baby on our porch and we want to adopt it," an executive at the company told them.  Reynolds flew the team to Dallas where they met with Reynolds top executives who agreed to buy the new blade for use with all of their plastic wrap boxes.  Reynolds provided ARC with a $1 million  open purchase order and a six-month window to build tooling to produce the new blade.  

ARC’s manufacturer, Northstar Corporation located in Gardena, CA honored the purchase order and began manufacturing equipment that would produce the blade through a process called roll forming.  Once the machine was complete, ARC hand- delivered production samples to Reynolds Corporate for final approval. But, by then the executives at Reynolds changed their minds.  The one million dollar purchase order was cancelled and the new blade, though already in production, was without an end customer.  Luckily, the manufacturer was understanding of the situation and allowed ARC to attempt to secure business elsewhere for The GraterEdge Blade.  

“None of the big plastic wrap manufacturers would give us the time of day and many would ask us to submit pricing then use our price as leverage  in their negotiations with the competitor.” Despite this, two small plastic wrap companies agreed to use the GraterEdge Blade as a way to show their interest in safety.  Production was slow and assembly was time-consuming since Kaiser and Neiberger  had to attach the metal blade to cardboard inserts by hand. They used PAR Services, a group that employs mentally challenged adults, to help with this process.  

One of the biggest  suppliers of plastic wrap at that time was a company called Borden Chemical which controlled approximately forty percent of the plastic wrap supplied to the foodservice market. The team presented the Grater Edge idea to Borden Chemical, but were rejected outright.  “We were dealing with an old regime at the company.  But in 1996, AEP Industries bought the Borden Packaging Division and a new crop of executives agreed to meet and discuss our blade,” said Neiberger.  Among them was Paul Vegliante, VP of Operations for AEP Industries, who led the discussions and agreed to use the GraterEdge Blade on all of their plastic wrap boxes.  This was the turning point in ARC’s business.  Production jumped to millions of units based on this deal and blade manufacturing and assembly became a full time job for both Kaiser and Neiberger. A full fifty-two foot tractor trailer was shipped to AEP Industries every two weeks.  

One year passed when the team was faced with the realization that they needed more production support.  Following a visit to Los Angeles from Paul Vegliante, and numerous games of golf, he agreed to sign a ten-year supply contract which gave ARC the security to build automated equipment and stave off the competition.  This supply contract with AEP allowed a partnership with a new manufacturing company in Kentucky.  They agreed to build fully-automated equipment in exchange for sole rights to manufacture the blades.  Six months later ARC moved operations to Kentucky where the blade was being manufactured, assembled, and packaged, hands free, at a pace that allowed ARC to take a competitive stand against the larger companies and retain business with a fair price.  Another two years passed before they won the Reynolds Metals business (now Alcoa) and secured a two-year contract from the company.  

For sixteen years, ARC has developed and retained every relationship with its foodservice customers.  Kaiser and Neiberger now supply ninety percent of the plastic wrap boxes being sold to the foodservice industry with the GraterEdge Blades. The company continued to evolve with their customers needs and introduced other products helpful to the industry.  SafetyWrap 2, a low cost alternative to the original dispenser, was introduced and sold in early 2000 after SafetyWrap was bought by Katchall Industries. AEP Industries needed a dispenser to sell against their competitors. Years later, ARC redesigned the dispenser concept, this time specific to AEP’s needs, as a low cost alternative called Load and Go.  Again, ARC cut costs for AEP Industries and allowed the company to remain competitive in the marketplace.

Around 1999, design and experimentation began with a slide cutter concept.  A product manufactured in China was available at the time but it was expensive and complicated.  Wheels and springs in  the structure of this cutter created a multitude of technical flaws.  AEP talked to Kaiser and Neiberger about developing something unique and similar for a lower cost.  Kaiser spent months developing prototypes and analyzing methods to cut plastic wrap using a sliding button without the use of springs and wheels.  The final version of  that new design that would be called the ZipSafe Slide Cutter began with a unique collision of ideas and images.  And, a quiet little story.

Kaiser recalls himself at age nine sitting in the back seat of the family car, a brown Pinto Wagon, as he, his mother and his sister waited in line at the car wash in Montrose, California.  It was 1979.  Eyes out the window, Ian watched as a man placed a cling sticker to the front windshield.  Kaiser recalls his intrigue over the sticker.  It was not a traditional adhesive sticker but one that could be removed, adjusted and replaced so the cling was controlled in a way that was unique to him and worthy of note in his mind.  He stored it away to find it again when he needed it.

With the ZipSafe Slide Cutter idea, he found a need for it.

At Kaiser’s childhood home in La Canada, California, he and Neiberger began their most productive tests toward the new cutter, starting with the theory that cling could create a cleaner cut with plastic wrap.  “Professional grade plastic wrap is particularly clingy and elastic so it’s difficult to handle.  It bunches up and into itself.  It rolls back into the dispenser.  The UV coating on the wrap is slick but creates a static charge.  It’s the best but it doesn’t cut easily,” said Kaiser.  He drew on the picture in his mind of the window, the man, the cling of that removable sticker and put the two concepts together.   Immediately, he and Neiberger began testing with an acrylic-based prototype blade and thin cling sticker placed over the cutting rails, or track, attached to the standard box.  It worked! 

They quickly presented it to AEP and began negotiations.  Ultimately, ARC and AEP agreed on a partnership whereby AEP would fund all tooling, manufacturing, marketing and selling of the product in exchange for a royalty paid to ARC for the life of the patent. ARC would also be named on any patent as co-inventors.  The ZipSafe Slide Cutter was introduced as the first safe alternative to the GraterEdge Blade.  The product was an instant hit and quickly sold through AEP distribution channels.  After a period of two years, AEP decided to license the technology to both domestic and global manufacturers.  Product exposure grew rapidly.  

For the past ten years, the ZipSafe Slide Cutters have been sold worldwide by leading plastic wrap companies.  “Today, most people will recognize the slide cutter for plastic wrap designed by ARC,” said Neiberger.

“You know that little blue button?” Kaiser asked.  “That’s us.  We invented it.”

In  negotiations with AEP, ARC also secured the right to use the slide cutter technology on a retail dispenser.  AEP agreed and this inspired Kaiser and Neiberger to look at many different ways the technology could be used on a plastic wrap dispenser for the home.  ARC created numerous designs over the years and test marketed one through Williams-Sonoma stores and catalog.  That test proved that consumers wanted a dispenser with a  $19.99 or less price point.  It was during a heated discussion about one of ARC’s designs that Kaiser and Neiberger realized they needed to create an alternative to the plastic and metal designs already offered by ARC.  Sustainable packaging was deemed the most useful option but it needed to be strong with a wipe-clean surface.  Rubber feet would protect it from counter debris and moisture, include the slide cutter technology and offer professional grade plastic wrap.  These three components were critical to make a product that was unique and functional.  

A discussion with Neiberger’s wife took the idea a step further when she suggested they add appealing graphics that were decorative and unique but could transfer to any home kitchen.  It gave plastic wrap a personality. It also fit nicely with all the design pushes ARC recognized in the market today, especially through Target Stores.  “Our first prototype worked so well, we immediately abandoned all other design concepts and focused on creating what is now called ChicWrap,” said Neiberger.

Allen Reed Company has the track record to create space-saving, safe and durable dispensers to the foodservice industry and will provide the same, only with the retail consumer in mind.  The difference now is that it is also keeping in mind a way for the consumer to look at the product as something to connect with on an artistic or whimsical level rather than just viewing it as a box of plastic wrap. 

“Cutting anything is a problem:  wrapping paper, tape, parchment paper, aluminum foil, and trash bags.  We’re creating low cost solutions to address the needs and frustrations with dispensing and cutting in every day life.  And, we’re making it both simple and safe,” Kaiser said.  “The big picture is that the end user will see it as something you can keep on the kitchen counter or wherever to wrap leftovers.  The cool graphics make it decorative but it’s functional.  Most importantly, it works every time.”

Allen Reed plans to launch several retail products within the same simple and functional framework of ChicWrap using the technology invented with the ZipSafe Slide Cutter.  Innovations to come include a giftwrap dispenser that alleviates common cutting, handling and storage challenges.

ChicWrap dispenser and plastic wrap is offered at $10.99.  Refill rolls are offered in a four-pack at $15.99.  Discounts are offered for bulk orders and retail sales.

To order, please visit www.chicwrap.com or visit the store locator to find a store near you.

For more information about Allen Reed Company visit www.allenreed.com or contact Sean Allen Neiberger at sean@allenreed.com.

Goodbye and Hello: Grief and Yoga by Kathryn Merrifield

July 13^th, 2007 is the anniversary of my dad’s death.  It was a Friday – Friday the 13^th – a kind of retribution that would have made him laugh as he admits to doing his part in karma.  He found humor in the way things settled into their place.  Had he lived through that, or was able to talk about his death, he would have liked to hear that he died on a day known for bad luck and a teen horror movie franchise.

Five months after my beautiful Venna Rose was born (March 10, 2006) I was on the phone with my dad, griping about injury and its effect on my fitness endeavors.  I spent a lot of time riding a bike, doing something I never had the confidence or capacity to do as a child or young adult.  Quite honestly, the only sport I ever tried was softball and that was because my mom’s business, The Designing Women of La Canada, California, sponsored my softball team.  I stood out in left field bored out of my mind.  That was my experience with sports.    I remember running after one ball.  It was awful, and for anyone who needs another characterization of myself as a young girl:  glasses, wrecked teeth that required massive orthodontic intervention (thank you to my mother for that and everything) and a chubby frame that was the target of an almost irreparable amount of bullying and teasing. 

That said, I clearly recall a conversation between me and my dad.  I was driving the Jeep on the way out on a Saturday morning, bored and admittedly unmotivated and lonely from swimming by myself and discouraged about my injured right knee that prevented me from running and cycling.  Whining to him, I mentioned the availability of an astanga yoga class that I was considering without the least bit of conviction.  I exercise to relieve myself of a fidgety nature, so I can sit for the periods of time required of work and writing and to clarify my thoughts.  Lying on the floor and stretching were simply preemptive maneuvers toward sleep at that point in my life.  And, that is what I thought of yoga then, though I did spend a full semester of a college year on the subject, committed academic I was. 

Ultimately, my dad encouraged me to give yoga a chance so my car headed toward The Wainwright House where the class was held.  To my surprise, it was difficult enough that I broke a sweat and left relaxed and calm.  Suzanne Jagoda was my first yoga teacher (since remarried as Simchowitz) and she was both personable and funny and led her class through the entire first series of astanga yoga while focusing our attention on pranayama (breathing), asanas (poses) and root locks.  That led to my discovery of vinayasa yoga and more learning…  And, more breathing.  Under stress, I hold my breath. Thinking, I hold my breath.  It takes a bit of yoga to realize just how much I told my breath and how much my mind makes me do this.  A strange stress response that brings to mind those times as a child that I would hide and hold my breath so no one could hear me and, therefore, not find me hiding safe under the bed.

I continued with yoga from that point on – though I’ve had to stop here and there to allow for my low back to mend and sciatica to ease – the residual effect of three pregnancies and c-sections within four years (I love babies to the point that it’s just purely ridiculous).  My right shoulder is also a bit glitchy, the result of swimming without proper form and not putting the energy of down dog in my upper back without hyperextending my arms or pulling my shoulders to my ears. 

Grief is always tricky and has no respect for form.  Grief takes time and patience.  It’s temperamental and doesn’t care what you have to do, that you may be required to smile when to do so feels like lying.

Like a dutiful researcher trying to understand myself, I read a book that helped me through my dad’s death.  I was seven months pregnant when he died, and at that point I wasn’t practicing yoga or much of anything apart from bobbing around in the water in the Rye YMCA pool, going to physical therapy to ease crippling sciatic pain and taking care of my two children who, at the time, were (let’s see…) two-and-a-half and sixteen months old.  I barely had much time to think.

I started most days with a phone conversation with my dad, despite the fact that he lived in California.  He, my older brother, Lewis and I share an early riser body clock.  It likes the morning.  Over a year prior to this, my dad’s girlfriend at the time, Suzanne, told me that he was again diagnosed with prostate cancer.  It had been in remission for approximately eight years but returned too late for detection and prevention.  He’d been given a timetable and a schedule for chemotherapy.  It had already made its way to his bones.  He fractured his hip but rarely complained about a thing, reporting his physical condition incidentally.

I was too far away to do anything but care for my own family.  It makes me sad still to understand the limits of my affect on this situation, but it is what it is.  That is something my dad always said.  We did talk every day no matter what.  And, I suppose yoga helped me through it as it helps me through things I don’t know are even on mind until I get to the mat and try to clear my head to think of breathing and positioning and let everything go. Pigeon pose seems to be the most informative regarding my emotional state.  It opens the hips and releases sciatic pain and with that comes whatever is trapped there for the past week.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve positioned myself there, one leg bent in front of me perpendicular to the mat in the shape of a figure four, leaning forward and feeling the pain bubble up inside my chest as tears.  Then trying to suppress it, I felt more pain.  It was a process. 

I miss my dad like any child misses a parent when they’re gone despite their flaws and transgressions and basic weirdness.  I am a parent now, so I accept my weirdness after a too-long period as a perfectionistic and over-achieving parent who mostly drove herself bonkers.

I take myself with all of my imperfections, anatomical, spiritual, psychological, to the mat.  Any good yoga teacher (most of mine are) will help a distracted disciple like me focus her intentions, dedicate her practice to that thing that will take my mind away from practice or to the one thing that will make the time more meaningful.

The days that I have a hard time with shoulder stand alignment, I think of my dad reaching down from his place in heaven (or just within the earth’s atmosphere – not too specific about this) and pulling at my toes to make me straighter, line my hips up over my shoulders so when I lower my legs into plow, the proper alignment allows me to achieve the full expression of the pose.  It’s taken me over six years to get my toes to the floor.  And, still they sometimes hover almost touching but not quite.

I know that yoga is about letting go and letting in.  It’s about patience and learning and understanding that every day is different.  That, despite the stages of grief, loss is indelible and time makes it easier but it will never really be gone.

After my dad’s death, I read a book called “On Grief and Grieving.”  It made me understand that the stages of grief weren’t something I could ever escape; not the denial, anger, bargaining, depression or acceptance.  Well, perhaps the acceptance, but while grief manifests itself in stages, I’ve experienced it cyclically.  Most of these stages were put off by the birth of my third child which occurred on October 18^th, 2007.  Leo was born and it was only until my back completely went out and I developed a still unidentified stomach issue that required medicine.  A few other maladies also ganged up on me, among them depression.  I realized the beautiful introduction of Leo into the world also meant I’d put off feeling the absence of my dad.

I don’t much like July anymore.  He was supposed to visit on July 11^th, 2007.  I’d planted New Guinea Impatiens at the base of the two topiaries I’d managed to keep alive since my mom and stepfather bought for me three years prior – an attempt to liven up the balcony of my former apartment just after the birth of my first child.  Despite my not-even-a-little-bit-green-thumb, they’re still alive.  Hence the name, “Evergreens.” 

I wanted him to rest and enjoy the deck.  I wanted him to tell me again how appreciative he was of my suggestion that he get in he pool after the cancer ate through his hip, and how the excess weight that he carried around with him made the pain more severe.  He thanked me for that suggestion just like I thanked him for encouraging me to take yoga despite my fear at the slowness of it. 

Slow is not always easy.  As a matter of fact, slow healing, slow thinking, slow breathing… It’s all good no matter how much I brace myself against it and push it forward.  Yoga makes it flow and move.  It makes it move in a way a runner’s high won’t.  I still love my endorphins and my freedom, but I also need to temper it with an exercise in balance.  I need to make room in limbs and my heart to let the bad feelings out and the good in.  It’s rather simply stated but not at all simple.

Lucky me that I’ve also had the opportunity to mine the gifts of my yogi friends and teachers who will contribute more to this sometime soon.  It’s been a bit tricky to nail them down but I need to post this preliminary piece for the sake of healing, for the sake of my practice, for dedicating today’s work on the mat -with each release, each letting go, there is a letting in - a “hello” after a “goodbye.”  A “yes” that follows a “no.”

A third would be for the sake of the rhythm of threes, but I have to say it anyway.

A birth after a death.