Brandon Bach With Consumer Convenience Technologies (CCT)

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:13] Welcome to High Velocity Radio, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon and you guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast President of Consumer Convenience Technologies, Mr. Brandon Bach. Good afternoon, sir.

Brandon Bach: [00:00:36] Hello. Thank you for having me. It’s great to be here.

Stone Payton: [00:00:38] Well, we’re delighted to have you on the show, man, and looking forward to this conversation as we open here. Maybe a good idea with just to get for us to get a little bit of an idea of mission purpose. Why would CCTV even founded Man?

Brandon Bach: [00:00:56] A great question. So roughly ten years ago, we have two founding partners or co managers, James Bock and Pete Sod Pete Scott, who unfortunately is no longer with us. He was actually in the beer and beverage industry and created a couple of products that are used today with with the canning industry. And he was at a function and speaking to an associate and one of his associates wives start talking with Pete and talking to him about some of the issues that she was going through at the time this woman was dealing with with cancer and through some of the treatments and procedures that she had to have done left her very weak and unable to open jars or to apply enough strength to to twist off that jar lid or or bottle bottle cap. So she posed the question to Pete, like, hey, you’re a smart guy. Why can’t you figure out a way to make an easier opening jar lid? So that pretty much started the idea, the concept where Pete then joined forces with James, Jim Bach. And from there they’ve been trying to tackle this age old problem or age old question in which we’ve found a solution in which which makes it 50% easier to open our lid, the easy lid, versus your standard tin plate lid that you find on the market today.

Stone Payton: [00:02:19] So the easy lid and it spelled with two E’s, right?

Brandon Bach: [00:02:23] Correct. Yeah. E a s y.

Stone Payton: [00:02:26] And so it actually literally makes it easier to the point that someone that is that has some of the challenges that you just described this lady had, it makes it easy or doable for them for them to open these these these containers.

Brandon Bach: [00:02:42] Exactly. So so what we’ve done and I’ll give you kind of the technical explanation, the lid is a software design technology that reduces the amount of vacuum, making it 50% easier to open. What we mean by that is we have developed a way to incorporate a button on the top center of the lid so the consumer or the end user would simply push that button until they hear it click. Once it clicks, that releases the vacuum. So you simply at that point twist the jar, lid off and enjoy the product. Now, if you do have some product remaining, if you have some pasta sauce leftover or if it’s pickles, olives, whatever, the vacuum sealed product is that you have leftover, you can take from the bottom side of the lid, push on the bottom side of the button to reset it. So that way when you put the lid back on the jar and it goes in the refrigerator for some reason, if that jar tips over or follows over your pasta sauce or the pickled brine or or any of the product inside will not leak out or spill into your refrigerator.

Stone Payton: [00:03:45] So are you finding beyond the initial input that you got to sort of compel you guys to come up with this thing? Are you finding that that there really is a substantial number of people that really, really need I guess that’s the right term. Right, accessible packaging.

Brandon Bach: [00:04:05] Yep. You’re very accurate through our research. You know what we have found and again, a lot of this data we have obtained from whether it’s the CDC or the service and inclusion website, there’s 19% of the US population that has a disability and that number does not include those that have carpal tunnel or arthritis, missing limbs or etc.. And on top of that, we also have another 14.9 or 15% of the population that is 65 and older, and that number is growing, increasing more and more every year. So when you just combine those two numbers alone, that roughly 35%, that represents basically over 100 million people in the US that either is over the age of 65 or has some sort of disability. So if I can offer a product that would allow a manufacturer or a brand to tap. Into that segment market, showing that they care and trying to make it easier for them to just accomplish everyday tasks. You know, we all have someone in our family or even ourselves that struggle just to do these simple tasks. One gentleman that we work with every day when he leaves, he actually has to open up all the cans and bottles and jars that his wife is going to need later that day because of her dealing with the arthritis and the carpal tunnel.

Brandon Bach: [00:05:33] So there’s a definite need out there for an easier open product. And what’s interesting is that this problem has been ingrained in our culture so much. It’s basically a comedy joke that’s used, whether it’s in TV, radio, movies, comic strips. I mean, there’s countless examples where that’s kind of the joke of people. How do you open the jar? Well, I bang it on the table. I use a knife. So it would be nice to give those that that need the extra help. And I’m one of those. As I get older, I mean, I’m finding there’s more and more jars that I actually have trouble opening. And so when I when I get to the time where I can no longer open the jars, I’m hoping that we figured something out to make it a little easier. Now, yes, you can go buy products or tools or whatever to help you open that jar. But why not go ahead and offer that in the product itself?

Stone Payton: [00:06:30] So I can certainly see the end user getting excited, excited about this. What was your experience? I’m operating under the impression that you went to the manufacturers. Did they initially embrace this idea or was it a little bit of an uphill climb trying to get them to adopt it?

Brandon Bach: [00:06:49] I’ll say all the above. And the reason why I would say that is it’s dependent on the film, on the filler and their equipment that they have in their filling line. So the easy lid is actually made out of aluminum, where most of your lids that are that you would find on the store shelves today are made out of steel or tin plate. When we actually started this project and doing our research and development, we actually tried over 40 different tool combinations to apply the easy technology on to the standard tin plate lids that’s on the market today. Wow. And there was definitely roadblocks along the way with trying to incorporate that button on that lid. And once we finally got to a point where we thought we had it solved, it made it way too complex in the sense of the our manufacturing line, the things that we were going to have to do, because it is still and when you expose that raw material, then you have corrosion. So for us to to make sure none of that happened, it just didn’t make sense for us to continue down that path. And at that point, we had to make the tough decision to say, are we going to add benefits to an already existing product or are we going to come out with our own product and try and change? Change the world in how we view and see opening jars. So like I said, we did try it on the steel and tin plate.

Brandon Bach: [00:08:19] So when you go and speak to the the fillers manufacturers, we have to look at their filling line and do a diagnostic assessment of it where we will, which we have hired two gentlemen that have over 70 years experience in the in the business that if a a brand or a fiddler would like us to come in and have a look at their line to see where or any issues that that might arise by trying to run an aluminum lid, then we can address those and then come up with a plan or a solution so they can run the easy lid. We’ve worked with fillers that they have zero issues with running, whether they’re running the tin plate lid or our aluminum lid. We’ve worked with some manufacturers where we had to make some minimal adjustments and now they’re able to to incorporate the aluminum easy lid. And we’ve also spoke spoken with and working with companies that it’s going to take a little more looking into to find out the best way so they can continue running those tin plate lids as well as running the easy lid. So we take it as a case by case basis. Not one filling line is the same because the equipment use or the way it’s set up. So yes, we’ve had great success and we’ve also had situations where we need to dig a little deeper to figure out the best way to accommodate that filling line, to run the easy lid.

Stone Payton: [00:09:47] So is there a sustainability aspect to this pursuit as well as this effort continues to unfold?

Brandon Bach: [00:09:55] Absolutely. I mean, first of all, with it being made out of aluminum compared to the steel, you look at the recyclability, especially here in the US, where aluminum is a little more desirable to to recycle. I mean, we all have the the bins or most of us have the bins in our houses or homes where we’re throwing all of our recyclable pop cans and things like that. So it’s just as easy to throw this jar lid into that for recyclability. And you can get the aluminum association. More than two thirds of all the aluminum that has been produced is still in use, meaning that. So once the aluminum has been made and now it takes less energy product to to make that more pieces of aluminum because it is so recyclable. And then you then you start looking at transportation, the down waiting, you know, the easy lid, the weight is about half of what the tin plate is now one lid compared to one that’s not very much weight. But when you have a a truck full of of of pasta sauce or pickle jars, that that weight will add up. So now you’re saving on fuel costs and those sorts of things, especially in the time right now where gas is is very high. This might be a way that you can save some money because of the down waiting aspect of it.

Stone Payton: [00:11:23] So. So what have you guys enjoyed the most about getting this thing up and running? What are you finding the most rewarding?

Brandon Bach: [00:11:30] Well, I’ll be honest with you, it’s it’s helping those individuals that need help and answering that age old question. I left my previous job when I had the opportunity to to be a part of the easy lid and seek it. And that’s what excited me the most. I mean, like I said, we all know someone or have family members that struggle and I’m no different. I have a grandmother that struggles. She she can barely open any of the jars. My mother is starting to get to the point where we’re starting to see some arthritis and those sorts of things. So if I can find a solution and make it easier for my mom or someone else’s mom or grandmother or grandfather or father, brother, sister, I mean, that’s that makes you feel good at the end of the day that you’re truly helping individuals overcome some of those challenges that they face every day, especially with with what we’ve been through over the last several years. You know, everyone’s under a lot of stress with whatever the case may be. So to take some of that stress off their plate where they’re like, how do I make this meal for my family? Or, Hey, I’m having an event where my kids are coming over. I want to cook, cook them dinner, but how am I going to open this or, you know, those are those are true problems that people face on a day to day basis. That that those of us that don’t face that issue don’t think about it. But that truly is a challenge for a lot of people.

Stone Payton: [00:12:55] Well, I would think it’s certainly a noble pursuit. There’s no question about that. And I’m just as delighted as I can be for you that you’re enjoying some success with it. I would think that with regard to the culture, the the people that you’ve surrounded yourself with in the organization, they got to feel good about the work they’re doing as well. When they, as they understand it, the genuine impact they’re having on the markets that they’re serving.

Brandon Bach: [00:13:20] Absolutely. I mean, you know, it’s it doesn’t matter what kind of day you’re having. You can you can think about that end user and say if they have been struggling and they can get through their day, we can overcome any challenges that we have or we’re facing right now to try and help them. You know, they face those challenges every day so I can show up to the office and and work as hard as I can to try and help those people out.

Stone Payton: [00:13:46] So a lot of folks who choose to tap into this kind of conversation on the business radio network are either leading organizations that may be a little bit larger, like a medium to large sized business, or they may be running their own organization. So I’d love to get a little insight for them on a couple of fronts. One of which is this this idea of mentorship. Have you had an opportunity to be mentored as you’ve kind of come up through your career? And in the second part of that question, have you chosen to take the opportunity to try to be a mentor to to to other people?

Brandon Bach: [00:14:28] Great question. I would definitely say to to move forward in any business that you’re doing or project or that you’re trying to accomplish. You definitely want to rely on those within the industry or that it’s been there or to ask questions. I mean, we are we have joined many groups and organizations, whether that’s networking, for example, the New York State food processing authorities or the Texas State Food Processing authorities or Cornell University, through all of our testing and research to find out what is the industry looking at or for. So that way or pose the question, we want to face that question or challenge or issue head on. So we want to go to the that respected authority that does the testing or this or that or or how do you go in. And, you know, one of the or the challenges that we face when we first started this is like really who is our end customer? You know, is is it the end user, the consumer that’s going into the grocery store? Is it the brand owner of the product itself? Is it the filler that’s actually filling the product? So in order to open up a lot of those doors to find out some of those answers, it was definitely helpful to find people to work closely with that that would help educate us to make sure that we are doing the the appropriate testing or the appropriate strategies to to make sure that we’re following the guidelines and things to to make a product that is viable and people that they want. Now, as far as mentoring, we have been in the process of getting this product launched for roughly eight years through the research and development. Last year we finally commercialize the product. So we go from for about a year now, we’ve been starting to to sell and to push. So I haven’t really had the opportunity to mentor yet, but we’ve had such great help along the way that that absolutely definitely helps someone, whether it’s answer questions or or whatever the case may be because of the the the help and and things that we’ve received along the way.

Stone Payton: [00:16:53] Well, and that’s a nice dose of reality for our aspiring entrepreneurs, yet another eight year overnight success story.

Brandon Bach: [00:17:02] Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that’s what we keep telling ourselves. You know, if it was easy, then everyone would have done it when we were looking at it. There are actually hundreds and hundreds of different patents that have tried to come up with a a viable solution to this problem. And no one has been able to yet. We were able to overcome and adapt with the issues and the struggles that we had had. And and again, that comes from previous knowledge workings and things like that to overcome this this age old problem.

Stone Payton: [00:17:38] Well, another thing I have to imagine that you have to really be on top of and invest some genuine energy and in resources in is this this whole idea of recruiting, selecting and developing your people? Any counsel you might have to offer on that front? I know I would learn from it, but I think our listeners would be appreciative of that as well.

Brandon Bach: [00:18:03] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for example, when I when I started here at TI, I needed to to learn and to understand the concepts, the ideas, the terminology that’s being used with this project. And so just like you said, you want to surround yourself with knowledgeable people. And here at CDT, we definitely had those individuals that were willing to take the time to to help help me understand and to help me learn or or send me in a direction of what I should understand at what point along the way know. Like I wasn’t focusing on. Things that I needed to know down the road. Not necessarily right now. I needed to understand the tooling or the technology itself before I understood the the filling line. So it was great to have that knowledge and know how here on staff. But there again, within this industry, there are a lot of knowledgeable and very well educated people in this business. And so the thing that I can stress stress the most is even if you have no one in your company or whatever, there are definitely associations of organizations out there that will help you, whether it’s find those people or to help train or educate your employees. Yeah. That’s kind of what I would say with that is, is definitely the the the outside groups organizations. You know, we’ve done that all the way from whether it’s testing to the aluminum product itself to the grocery store to the filling line. You know, we didn’t really have anyone on staff that knew all aspects of all those areas. So we definitely reached out to people, groups and organizations to help educate not only myself but the other team members here. So that way we can then in turn help educate future employees or employees that were hiring just recently. So there’s definitely a lot of help out there for that. You just have to look and make those connections.

Stone Payton: [00:20:26] Well, I’ve got to tell you, in my experience, people like you of vision organizations like the one that you guys have built, you’re not one to rest on your laurels and tread water. So I’ll ask, where do you see this thing going, man?

Brandon Bach: [00:20:43] Oh, well, from all the early success that we that we’ve received, I see this hopefully becoming the new industry standard. Right now we offer the easy lid on the 63 Mm. Size of jar. That’s mostly your pasta sauces, some other maybe olives products like that. As we expand and grow, we look to expand into all other sizes, whether that’s from a 58 millimeter all the way up to your 100 to 110 millimeter sized jars, you know, your family style sized jars, even all the way down to the 38 millimeter into the baby food. And that’s and that’s only speaking about the lug style of lid wear. And what I mean by when I say lug, it basically takes a quarter to a half inch turn to apply that lid to the jar. The other style of lid is a seat or continuous thread and obviously like it sounds, you have to give it a a full turn, about 3 to 5 turns to actually apply that lid. And again, all those same sizes apply to that style of lid as well. Then you have and there’s also a couple of different styles. So as we go along, as we continue to gain market share, we want to expand our capabilities. So that way that we can accommodate all sizes and all ranges of lids. So that way all jars have at least the opportunity to, to incorporate the easy lid, and then that way they can receive the benefits from it.

Stone Payton: [00:22:17] Well, I can hear your passion over the airwaves. Your enthusiasm is just so contagious. You sound like Superman on the air and probably in the boardroom. And we all know you’re human. When. When things get a little tough or you start to run out of juice, where do you go for inspiration to to recharge? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but how do you go get kind of reinvigorated?

Brandon Bach: [00:22:48] I mean, great question. You know, and that applies to life itself, not just work. You definitely and what I always tell my son as well, you know, you definitely need to have outside interests. So that way you can step away, kind of recharge your batteries. For me, it’s kayaking, fishing, those sorts of things, you know, get out into nature and joy just being alive. And at the same time as I’m doing those things, thinking about those that struggle to try and do those simple things that I’m out there doing and. If I’m out there enjoying it, why can’t I make a product? Or why can’t I come up with a solution that can help others that may not have it as easy as I do where I don’t at the moment have arthritis or carpal tunnel or those those scenarios. But I mean, I just kind of look at that and think again, if they can if they can go through each each day dealing with that, then I can I can step up and do my part.

Stone Payton: [00:23:53] It’s an interesting insight that you just tapped into, and it’s not the first time I’ve heard something like that, because people will involve themselves in hobbies or they like to read or that kind of thing. And sometimes in doing that, when they when they sort of let the subconscious work on it and they go kayaking is darned if they don’t come up with some of the best ideas.

Brandon Bach: [00:24:13] Right? Oh, absolutely. It’s kind of that. And again, not that I don’t mean that I’m not reading or or doing things within within our industry or those sorts of things. But you do have to take a step away or take a step back sometimes, just like you said, to clear your mind, you know, how’s the saying go. You know, you’ve got to take a step back from the tree in order to see the forest, you know, and when you’re on top of a project or an idea and you’re trying to figure it out, sometimes you need to take that that mental break, that that step back. So you can say, am I am I thinking about this correctly? Am I am I going down the right path or do I need to rethink my approach or do I need to bring someone else in or another product, whatever the case may be, but just to kind of free and clear your mind so that that you can come back fresh and ready to to reevaluate where you stand with with the project or the the product.

Stone Payton: [00:25:10] Yeah. What marvelous counsel. All right. So if someone would like to learn more about accessible, sustainable packaging, whether it’s just a lay person, you know, or an end user consumer, or maybe there’s a filler or a manufacturer out there, someone in the packaging world that would like to make a connection. Let’s leave them a point or two of contact, whatever you feel like is appropriate, whether it’s LinkedIn or email or website. But I want to make sure that people can connect with you or someone on your team if they’d like to, to learn more about this.

Brandon Bach: [00:25:40] Absolutely. First, probably the easiest way would be our Easy Lid website and that’s just the W WW dot as y Lidcombe. And again, that goes for the same with all of our social media platforms, whether that’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or our phone number is area code 9373879244. And we’d love to hear from you.

Stone Payton: [00:26:07] All right. Brandon Bok, president with Consumer Convenience Technologies. Man, thank you so much for investing the time with us. Please keep up the good work and with your permission, maybe we’ll swing back around periodically and keep up with this story, because I think we’ve got even, even greater things in store.

Brandon Bach: [00:26:24] Man That sounds great. Stone Yep. We are definitely excited about this product and helping people. So the more that we talk about it and let consumers and individuals and people know that there is a product out there, that’s all we can ask for.

Stone Payton: [00:26:39] All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Brandon Bok, president with Consumer Convenience Technologies and everyone here at the business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.