August 22, 2005
Bread and butter | A chat with Kevin Roche, co-founder and chief financial officer of Belleco Inc.
By Erview By Richard Smart
Founded: December 2004
Employees: Eight
Startup costs: $250,000
Projected revenues, first year: $400,000
Projected revenues, second year: $2 million
Contact: 854-8006
PO Box 880, Saco
www.bellecocooking.com
Tell me a little bit about Belleco.
Our expertise is in counter-top, commercial kitchen equipment. We're actually starting out with ˆ a joke I always tell ˆ our bread-and-butter product, conveyor toasters. We can [manufacture] other types of equipment [such as] heat lamps, warming ovens, pizza ovens and display cabinets.
We're a corporation of basically four founders: Russ Bellerose, who is a 20-year veteran of the food equipment industry and the lead partner, Jim Morse, Gill Cole and myself. We took all our knowledge and were able to put the best functionality into a product at similar or better prices [than existing products]. We started with three conveyor-toaster models that are pretty much standard sizes.
How are you competing with larger, established equipment makers?
We are going to go head to head, but we're trying to fill niches, too. We're banking on our personal reputation and our experience producing cooking equipment. We have capabilities not just as manufacturers, but [to support] the product with ongoing maintenance programs and back-kitchen consulting ˆ the layout and how best to utilize the equipment.
Our motto is the "specialized specialist in food service equipment." We're your best go-to people to get what you want ˆ not something that's off the shelf, but what you are looking for. If you have a certain food product you want cooked, send it to us. If it's summer, come fly out to Maine. Or if you're a skier, come out in the winter. We're not going to send you to dealer "X" to try and sell you some standard product.
Where do you manufacture the toasters?
We have 5,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space in the Pettingill-Ross building [in Gorham]. [Pettingill-Ross] is a major sheet metal fabricator, so they provide us with the sheet metal designs we need. Our manufacturing is the sub-assembly ˆ taking the electrical component parts, the drive systems and the beltings and bringing those together.
How did you finance the launch of your business?
We had personal funds and I'll give Banknorth their due, they have an open line [of credit] with us. We [also] have secured a Maine Technology Institute seed grant. We're trying to make smart oven technology, to be able to tell when it needs service or give the operator an inside look at how it's performing. We're presenting one of those ovens to a chain. We're looking to the [MTI] development grant as a major source for financing that project.
What kind of marketing have you done?
We have national sales reps covering the United States and Canada, [and] we have global reps now. We've already shipped into Ireland. We've done some advertising in the trade magazines. We attend the key trade shows.
Other than that, [we rely on] our contacts in the industry ˆ knowing who people are, calling them, staying close to them. If we were four brand-new guys thinking, "Hey there's money to be made in toasters!" this would not fly. You need to know the people in the industry. It's based on relationships.
Why did you choose to focus your efforts nationally instead of locally?
The food equipment market share is related to population. Maine is maybe one percent of the U.S. population, so [it's] going to be one percent of food equipment purchases. That's not to say that we're not thinking locally. We believe, and it's happening, that more of our business will come from people knowing that we're in their backyard.
We probably could have started off with much lower capital and just done New England, but the market really isn't big enough to do what we want to do and make us all successful and pay our salaries. Also, chain restaurants are the name of the game.
Why did you choose to start your own company instead of joining one of the bigger ones?
I think we'd kick ourselves if we didn't try. That's the motivating factor; we all have the collective backgrounds to do this ourselves and run a company and not join forces with a bigger competitor.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
Employees: Eight
Startup costs: $250,000
Projected revenues, first year: $400,000
Projected revenues, second year: $2 million
Contact: 854-8006
PO Box 880, Saco
www.bellecocooking.com
Tell me a little bit about Belleco.
Our expertise is in counter-top, commercial kitchen equipment. We're actually starting out with ˆ a joke I always tell ˆ our bread-and-butter product, conveyor toasters. We can [manufacture] other types of equipment [such as] heat lamps, warming ovens, pizza ovens and display cabinets.
We're a corporation of basically four founders: Russ Bellerose, who is a 20-year veteran of the food equipment industry and the lead partner, Jim Morse, Gill Cole and myself. We took all our knowledge and were able to put the best functionality into a product at similar or better prices [than existing products]. We started with three conveyor-toaster models that are pretty much standard sizes.
How are you competing with larger, established equipment makers?
We are going to go head to head, but we're trying to fill niches, too. We're banking on our personal reputation and our experience producing cooking equipment. We have capabilities not just as manufacturers, but [to support] the product with ongoing maintenance programs and back-kitchen consulting ˆ the layout and how best to utilize the equipment.
Our motto is the "specialized specialist in food service equipment." We're your best go-to people to get what you want ˆ not something that's off the shelf, but what you are looking for. If you have a certain food product you want cooked, send it to us. If it's summer, come fly out to Maine. Or if you're a skier, come out in the winter. We're not going to send you to dealer "X" to try and sell you some standard product.
Where do you manufacture the toasters?
We have 5,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space in the Pettingill-Ross building [in Gorham]. [Pettingill-Ross] is a major sheet metal fabricator, so they provide us with the sheet metal designs we need. Our manufacturing is the sub-assembly ˆ taking the electrical component parts, the drive systems and the beltings and bringing those together.
How did you finance the launch of your business?
We had personal funds and I'll give Banknorth their due, they have an open line [of credit] with us. We [also] have secured a Maine Technology Institute seed grant. We're trying to make smart oven technology, to be able to tell when it needs service or give the operator an inside look at how it's performing. We're presenting one of those ovens to a chain. We're looking to the [MTI] development grant as a major source for financing that project.
What kind of marketing have you done?
We have national sales reps covering the United States and Canada, [and] we have global reps now. We've already shipped into Ireland. We've done some advertising in the trade magazines. We attend the key trade shows.
Other than that, [we rely on] our contacts in the industry ˆ knowing who people are, calling them, staying close to them. If we were four brand-new guys thinking, "Hey there's money to be made in toasters!" this would not fly. You need to know the people in the industry. It's based on relationships.
Why did you choose to focus your efforts nationally instead of locally?
The food equipment market share is related to population. Maine is maybe one percent of the U.S. population, so [it's] going to be one percent of food equipment purchases. That's not to say that we're not thinking locally. We believe, and it's happening, that more of our business will come from people knowing that we're in their backyard.
We probably could have started off with much lower capital and just done New England, but the market really isn't big enough to do what we want to do and make us all successful and pay our salaries. Also, chain restaurants are the name of the game.
Why did you choose to start your own company instead of joining one of the bigger ones?
I think we'd kick ourselves if we didn't try. That's the motivating factor; we all have the collective backgrounds to do this ourselves and run a company and not join forces with a bigger competitor.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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