Boca Firm Stakes Its Future on Building a Safer Baby Bottle
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by Glenn Singer South Florida Sun-Sentinel April 23, 2007
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With word starting to spread about the potential dangers of many baby bottles, Ron Vigdor has seen a rapid increase in orders for the ones he sells -- bottles that aren't made from a chemical associated with neurological damage in lab animals.
Vigdor, 37, is president of Boca Raton-based Born Free LLC. In less than two years, he has seen his business grow dramatically, thanks largely to a distribution agreement with Whole Foods Market.
"Sales were slow in the beginning, before the Whole Foods deal. But with that and a recent press blitz about bisphenol A, things have started to take off," Vigdor said. "We expect our bottles to become much more widely available soon."
Bisphenol A is the building block of hard, polycarbonate plastic, and it's found in the baby bottles made by major manufacturers. In late February, activist group Environment California released results from an independent lab showing that several brand-name baby bottles leach the chemical into liquids inside.
Scientific research has shown that small amounts of bisphenol A cause abnormalities in the mammary and prostate glands, as well as female eggs, of laboratory animals. Representatives of the major bottle companies maintain their products meet government standards and that there is no evidence the bottles present a risk to humans.
But with the uncertainty has come increased caution by mothers of infants and a move in San Francisco to ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of products containing bisphenol A starting in 2009. That means baby bottle users would have to find an alternative, and Vigdor is hoping that alternative is his.
His Born Free bottles, which are produced in Israel, are made of Polyamide PA, a form of nylon, instead of polycarbonate-containing plastic. They are more expensive to make, but Vigdor doesn't think a higher retail price would deter potential buyers who want assurances of safety.
He formed his company in 2005, after a partner arranged a meeting with an Israeli manufacturer seeking a distributor in the United States and Canada. He pumped $1.5 million into the business, most from family savings, and he started selling the bottles on the Internet a year ago.
He started the business at home, something he says he'd never do again.
"It's hard to run a company and work as a janitor, too," he said.
He'd also seek outside financing next time.
"I'd rather answer to a board of directors than to my father," who provided most of the financing, he said.
After introducing the product on the Internet early last year, Vigdor wanted to associate his company with a retailer that legitimized Born Free bottles in the eyes of the consumer. After many months of negotiations and testing, Whole Foods agreed to put the product line on its shelves nationwide.
Not only that, but the retailer removed all other competing products.
"We have decided to take precaution and offer only polycarbonate-free bottles and cups at this time," Joe Dickson, the Whole Foods quality standards coordinator, said in a statement in November.
Now that a three-month exclusivity period with Whole Foods is over, Vigdor has made a deal with United National Foods Inc., the nation's largest organic foods distributor, to sell the product in independent stores. And he's looking to sell private-label bottles to major drug retailers.
If he had to start the business today, Vigdor says he would "hit the market stronger and harder -- to make consumers aware of the difference in my product."
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Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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