P.E.I. business hopes to grow interest in garden tool
Nancy Russell | CBC News | Posted: July 6, 2016 9:00 AM | Last Updated: July 6, 2016
'There's been a couple of false starts and it's good to see that it's getting some legs now'
Entrepreneur Carla Morgan and her partners are hoping a fresh new look for their unique gardening gadget will grow sales for the P.E.I.-made product.
It all started when a creative neighbour shared her idea for an environmentally-friendly paper pot-maker with Morgan almost 20 years ago. Rhondalynn Clements ran out of pots when planting seeds in 1998, and improvised her own planters made of newspaper, created with a wooden form.
"She made three prototypes. She gave one to me and one to another friend, and then the next day she phoned us and told us, 'Hide it, I'm going to patent it, it's a really good idea!'," recalls Morgan.
What Clements patented were the directions for creating the pot, which is what sets it apart from similar products.
Steady but not spectacular sales
Morgan's son got the company — called N.ViroPotter — up and running in the late 1990s, after Clements decided she had to focus on her family.
It was sold through Veseys on P.E.I. as well as a U.S. seed company, and sales were steady but not spectacular.
The company faced a turning point in 2014 when Veseys told them it was dropping the product, citing the packaging as the reason.
New branding
Morgan went back to the drawing board, teaming up with a graphic designer to create a new brand.
Now, the company is now on a major marketing push, hoping to get the N.ViroPotter onto stores shelves across P.E.I. this summer and expand sales across North America.
They now have 20 thousand boxes manufactured and are waiting for orders.
Morgan is also hoping to pitch the potters to Island food vendors as a unique serving vessel, and she's hoping to do demos across the Island.
Fresh start
Tom Haan got involved with the company in 2004, providing a home base in an old shipbuilding garage in Dundas, P.E.I.. He's created an automated machine to turn out the planters, using a turret lathe from the 1950s that used to make Buick parts in Texas.
Haan believes the company has now turned a corner.
"There's been a couple of false starts and it's good to see that it's getting some legs now," observed Haan.
Made on P.E.I.
"Some of my original motivation was this was my friend's baby, I wanted to cradle it," said Morgan.
"I wanted to make a P.E.I. product — to have the wood grown on the Island, kilned in Montague, the potters made here in Dundas, and the original idea from the Island," added Morgan.
"Ours is not just made in Canada, they're made here on the Island."
The potters retail for $15.00 + hst for the regular or small size, $25.00 + HST for the large.