Eva the issue comes down to the company not having consequences. Thats why none of this works. Lemonis and his relationship with his son, already strained, is only getting worse. Thom theres no right or wrong. Alex no right or wrong, but you will not let anybody else be right. Lemonis if i cant help him to step up as the boss and learn to face his problems headon. Eva were not thriving and working together enough. Lemonis . This business wont only slip, it will fail. This relationship is either going to get better, or you need to go. My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not going to wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were going to wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everything is going to change everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. [ bell clanging ] today, im visiting handi products. Now, its fun to invest in fashion and food, but while ramps may not get everybodys heart racing, there is a need for safety and accessibility in america. Take the r. V. Business that im heavily invested in. I know my customers struggle to get up and down those units all the time. And sometimes, the most mundane products, they can be the most lucrative. Christine welcome. Lemonis how are you . Christine good. How are you . Lemonis marcus. Christine hi, marcus. Christine. Lemonis nice to meet you. Christine this is thom. Thom hello. Lemonis hi, thom. Im marcus. Thom marcus, nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. How long have you been in business . Thom i bought it in 1995. In fact, when i bought it, it was three people, and theres almost 50 people here now. My son is our sales manager. Lemonis how long has your son been in the business . Thom six years now. Lemonis hows that working . Thom well, the one of the things that we did was, when we started this, we said he doesnt report to me because theres always Family Dynamics that come into play. Lemonis you guys talk about business . Thom no. He doesnt report to me. We have a better balanced communication. Lemonis uhhuh. Can i get a tour. Thom absolutely lemonis . See inside . Thom why dont we start off over here on the welding side . Lemonis what gets manufactured in this building . Thom all of the ramps, right from zero to finished product. This is what we call a portable access ramp. Lemonis how do people find your business . Thom the web. Probably 80 of our customers come to us through the web. These are our commercial van ramps. Lemonis wow. Thom this will handle 1,500 pounds and allow people to take a twowheeler or load. Lemonis wow. Thom . The van just like that. Lemonis thats pretty awesome. How much could this business grow in top line without having to add any more labor or any more space . Thom were running one shift, so we could go to a two or threeshift model. Were at eight million now, probably do five times the amount of volume were doing now. Lemonis you could do 40 million in business. Thom yes. We should be a 100million company, yet were not. Lemonis honestly, thom is right. This business has plenty of room to run, but what has to happen is he has to tap into new markets and identify them, and once he does, this business will have no problem filling that capacity. Thom couldnt get all of our processes right. Our processes have some room for improvement, but for the most part, i think i try to step back and let people do their own thing. Lemonis are these some of the products . Thom this is the retail. Its an aluminum nonslip tread that can actually make the edge of the stair, which is always where people slip, sort of a nonslip and then prevent people from slipping. Its for exteriors, the exterior or basement. Lemonis so, like, off my deck or off my front door. Thom exactly. These are bath and shower treads. This is your grip tape. Lemonis but it seems like the name of the company is stop the slip, and then here its handi treads, not stop the slip. Thom good point. Lemonis so, what is the name of the brand . Thom well, it depends on the individual products. A third of our business is accessibility, a third of it is in slipandfall prevention, and then a third of it is in material handling. Lemonis why doesnt the branding on the package match the branding here . Thom you know, thats a good question. I guess i hadnt thought about that. Lemonis theres not a cohesive look across all of the different skus, and theres two different names handi products on one, stop the slip on another. I want to see packaging that clearly outlines what the brand is, what its features and benefits are. Their packaging does none of that. This stop the slip line, has it had a lot of growth in the last couple of years . Thom uh, no, it doesnt generate much revenue because the issue, when we started getting into this slipandfallprevention category, our biggest problem is having it distributed. Nobody is serving the slipandfallprevention market, so each of these things end up in a different place in the store. Lemonis thom has said that his slipandfall business has struggled because retailers dont have a dedicated slipandfall section in their stores. For example, the metal treads may be sold in one department, and something for the bathtub may be sold in the plumbing department. One idea would be to convince the retailer to have a safety category, dedicated space, dedicated products, dedicated revenue. Im surprised that you havent sold this into the r. V. Market. Thom i havent thought about the r. V. Market. Lemonis every r. V. Has steps. Thom ah. This one is pet step. Lemonis is this pretty strong . Thom its 500 pounds. Lemonis what does this retail for . Thom 1. 69. Lemonis whats it cost . Thom 44. Lemonis wow. Vans, trucks, and suvs, theres almost 10 million r. V. Ers in america. 75 of r. V. Ers have pets. Thom wow. Lemonis have you been in here a long time . Thom six months. Lemonis and where were you before . Thom we were at libertyville. Lemonis why did you have to get this building . Because you couldnt thom we needed to grow. Lemonis pretty cool. How are you . Im marcus. Eva nice to meet you. Lemonis are you eva . Eva yes, i am. Lemonis nice to there, nice. Brandnew building, and all he gives you is a paper tag. Thom our fancy name tags. Yes, thats it. Lemonis how long have you been here . Eva for just over four years. Lemonis and what do you do here . Eva i do a little of everything. [ chuckles ] lemonis whos the shop foreman . Who heads up manufacturing . Thom that would be eva. Lemonis does the sales team report to you . Eva no. No. Thom it reports to alex, my son, and bill dittman. Lemonis so, eva, youre here. Wheres bill . Thom bill dittman is in libertyville. Lemonis do you keep everybody separated on purpose . Thom no, id love to bring them all here, but bill lives in libertyville, and its convenient for him. Eva it doesnt make sense to have 2 plants 30 minutes apart. Lemonis its not that far. Look, i find it a little odd that this company has two separate offices that are 25 minutes apart because one employee doesnt want to make the drive. This is bonkers. I want to meet alex. Thom yeah, straight ahead. Alex how are you doing . Lemonis im marcus. Alex alex, nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Well, your dad has given me a great tour. You love it here . Alex yeah. Lemonis what do you do . Alex my title is sales manager, but i kind of dabble in a little bit of everything, from sales to collections. Lemonis how is it working with your dad, truth . Why dont you give us a minute . Thom yeah, ill go. Lemonis yeah, actually, get out of here thom ive done the direction. Ive done the hard part. Lemonis stop moderating everything. How is it working with your dad . Alex he has a strong personality. I suggest Different Things to try to improve our process downstairs in the production and to try to improve marketing. He would listen to my ideas, but i dont he would never act on them, so i just got the feeling that it wasnt something he was, like, really taking to heart. And then when i went from Customer Service manager to sales manager, nothing was really offered to me, so i had to push a little bit more for that. Lemonis whod you have to push . Alex thom. Lemonis your dad. Alex my dad. Sorry. I call him thom. I have other people say thom to me. I dont want them to think that because im his son that im getting, like, special treatment. Lemonis what do you mean by that . Like, by calling him dad . Alex yes. Lemonis oh. What did you do before you came here . Alex i was a supervisor at ups in rockford. Lemonis but you grew up here. Alex till i was about 10, 11 years old. Then my mom moved to rockford, and we went and lived with her. Lemonis your parents got divorced . Alex yeah, when i was young. Lemonis when you moved to rockford, did you make a choice to go with your mom . Alex no. No. There was a whole legal custodybattle thing. Lemonis mmhmm. Do you think it created any wedge between you and your dad . Alex yeah, im sure. I think thats a big reason why i work very hard to try to impress him, basically, i guess is the word. I try to make him see that i kind of do know a little bit about what im doing. Lemonis i talked to your son. Thom id love to have been a fly on that wall. Lemonis Family Business is tough, and i have experience with it because i worked with my father, and it was not an environment that i enjoyed. Thom as you mentioned, Family Dynamics are always difficult, which is exactly why i put bill dittman between us. Lemonis and you dont like conflict at all. Thom thats true. Lemonis . Which is why theres people still working in libertyville. Thom thats true. Lemonis so, im heading to the facility in libertyville. I want to get to the bottom of this idea that one person doesnt want to drive to the main office. Thom this building was perfect for us because when i first bought the business, we were in a 6,000squarefoot operation, and here we moved into this one, and we had 28,000 square feet to grow into. Lemonis thom, im just making observations. Tell me. Theres really nothing here. This all can fit into half a room. Thom yes. We could tighten it up. We could tighten it up. Bill marcus, bill dittman. Lemonis oh, hey, bill. How are you . What are you in charge of . Bill ive started to build the retail side of the business. Lemonis wheres the bulk of the revenue at retail coming from, online . Bill believe it or not, yes, and our biggest challenge is none of the retail groups have even a safety category. Lemonis because the way youve presented them to the retailer isnt about a category. Its broken up. What is the difference between stop the slip and people treads . Bill theres the same product from an adhesive perspective in putting it down in the floor or in the bath or in a, you know lemonis so, theres really not a difference. Bill correct. And im going to you know, i brag about how the group has come together. Lemonis even the people in kenosha . Bill whats that . Lemonis even the people in kenosha . Thom theres been a conversation about why do we have people here. When are other people from libertyville coming up here . Lemonis yeah. Bill the way i look at it, i live a mile away. I get a lot more time in the office here. Lemonis or. Bill or be driving 30 or 40 minutes, right . Lemonis yeah. It took me 26 minutes. Bill really . Okay. Lemonis yep. Im definitely seeing some things that dont add up, so what id rather do is sit down and study the numbers because we all know the numbers dont lie. Whats happening . Thom how are you doing . Lemonis how are you . Whats happening . Alex hows it going . Lemonis i think the business that you guys are in is pretty fantastic, but do you guys feel like theres a lot of warmth between the two of you . Alex no. Thom no, probably not. Were not touchyfeely. Lemonis you could get a job doing a lot of things. Why do you want to work for your dad . Alex legacy. Lemonis what does that mean . Alex it means a lot to him. It means a lot to me. Id want to keep going with what he created. I dont want to let him down. Lemonis when a father and son work together, its difficult for the father because he wants to be tough and not set a bad example, and its difficult for the son, from my experience, because he doesnt want to seem disrespectful, and it creates this very weird dynamic. Thom youre hitting the nail on the head. There are some things that i want him to do, but i just sort of expect him to do because i dont want anybody to think that youre getting this because youre entitled, and there are some things that i dont want to say because i dont want to offend him, and sometimes i avoid conflict by not challenging people. Lemonis why . Thom umm. Well, i dont get into this very often, but i grew up in household where my mother was an alcoholic. Lemonis mmhmm. Thom and my father was a verbally abusive person. Once i realized that they did the best they could with what they had, you sort of accept that for what it is. Lemonis when people are abused, which is high conflict, they want as little conflict as possible because its reminiscent of what that felt like, but you have a big staff, and so communication is really important. Thom yeah. Lemonis so, did you bring the financials . Thom i did. Lemonis can i see them . 2016 5. 6 million of sales. 2017 7. 5 million. And 2018 8 million. I think theres a much bigger market, huge. Thom well, a big part of our challenge in growing is that we have been cash, you know, restricted. Lemonis how much cash on the Balance Sheet . Alex 42,000. Lemonis but how have you been so cashrestricted when you have good earnings . Do you take a lot of cash out . Thom ive taken nothing out. Lemonis so, then wheres all the retained earnings . Thom buildings. Lemonis okay. I get it. So, the total rents are about 264,000. Libertyville is killing you. If you wanted to double the business, you actually could not. Alex right. Lemonis . Because you dont have the cash to buy the raw materials, to take the chance, to market, go to new trade shows. It doesnt have the cash. But i like the fact that you guys are making what i would consider a socially responsible product, and i like the fact that youre creating safety for people. Its a safetyandaccessibility business. Alex yes. Lemonis so, id like to do a deal. Im willing to put up 1 million bucks. For 1 million bucks, i want 20 . Thom i would say 2 million would help us create a good growth plan. Alex right. Alex i bust my ass more than anybody else, i feel. I want to be recognized. Lemonis this relationship is either going to get better, or you need to go. Lemonis for 1 million bucks, i want 20 . 6, 7, 8 big dreams start with small steps. But dedication can get you there. So just start small. Start saving. Easily set, track and control your goals right from the chase mobile® app. Chase. Make more of whats yours®. Weve done it hah great work old chap. Well be rich and famous. Well ill be rich, youll be famous. At least amongst your digging friends. Heres a thought, ever consider investing . E trade has easy to use tools that help you get started. You like playing with tools dont you . course you do. Dont get mad. Start investing with e trade. driver relax, its just a bug. Thats not a bug, thats not a bug burke hit and drone. Seen it, covered it. At farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum thom i would say 2 million would help us create a good growth plan. Alex right. Lemonis that was kind of slick, wasnt it, how he did that . Ill try Something Different with you. Thom okay. Lemonis so, ill agree to your 2 million. Its a million for 15 , but i reserve the right, over the next 48 months from today, to put another million in. So, its 1 for 20 or 2 for 30 one now and one over the next four years if i want to. You could say no. Alex to grow that market, to get it to where you want it to be, you need somebody that knows what theyre doing on the retail side of things. Thom you know what . Door two. Lemonis door two . So, its 2 million. Thom just motivates you to do a lot more to make things better. Itll be the best investment youve made. Lemonis okay. Thom thank you, sir. Lemonis that was good. That was fun. Thom that was good. I enjoyed it. Lemonis your dad is good. Alex yes. Lemonis you better learn something from him. Thom thank you. Lemonis all right, guys. Hows everybody doing . Man 1 good. Man 2 good. Lemonis thom and i made a deal for me to invest up to 2 million into the business. Bill whats the first thing you think we should do . Lemonis thats a really good question. You dont want my answer. I think the first step is you have to get out of libertyville immediately, and everybody should be together. Bill we get a lot done here. Lemonis do you get a lot done . Bill yeah. Lemonis but you have a sales problem. We need to find out how the company is going to be marketed. Theres not good branding. We need to create some level of consistency. All of their stop the slip products are branded differently differentlooking packages, different names, and in order to have success with retailers, theyre going to have to put it all under one cohesive brand, Safety Products called stop the slip. And then i feel like i myself, in five minutes, could sell all these pet ramps to r. V. Ers. And finally, what can thom do better . Alex communication. We need to get better communication. Eva were not thriving and working together enough. Thom treats alex like his son and not an employee. He doesnt listen to him. Lemonis our job as leaders is to understand how were all going to communicate together, so if somebody has a complaint or an idea, how they can share it. Thom yeah. Lemonis lets get to work. Come on. I brought handi products to the florida r. V. Supershow. Thom wow lemonis there are hundreds of thousands of customers and almost 1,000 vendors, and the primary goal is to clearly outline where opportunity exists that they cant see. At this particular show, youre going to see probably 100,000 different customers. This is a smattering of the 10 Million People in america that own r. V. S. Were going to show people the pet ramp, and then were going to test out some of the antislip products. Thom perfect. Lemonis all right. Thom does isabella have a problem with the stairs in the r. V. . Woman 1 yes, she does. Lemonis lets see with and without. Thom okay. Good girl. Woman 1 come on up we go. Come on, bella. Lemonis shes like, no. No. Lets try it with the ramp. Woman 1 all right. Here we go, right up the ramp. There you go. Come on. Lemonis were learning a few things while were here, and ultimately, what i want thom to Pay Attention to is how he can modify his product and his perspective to have one single product serve multiple industries. Woman 2 i felt that it was pretty steep. Lemonis for example, the ramp that he currently makes will work really well in the back of a car or a sport utility, but i need it to work in an r. V. Or a boat or a cargo trailer so that it works for everybody. He may not be a customer. Woman 2 right. This is not for you. Lemonis i want you to show customers some of these other products. Alex all right. Safety and accessibility is what we do. So, these are aluminum nonslip treads. These are just little strips that you peel off, and you stick down. Woman 3 oh, thats neat, huh . Man thatd be, like, good for as soon as you come up the steps into the motor home. Alex yes. Woman 4 what about weather . Alex made, manufactured, and tested in chicago, illinois. Woman 4 oh. Alex . So we are very familiar with the weather. Thom it does phenomenal in weather, even in, like, the northern. Woman 4 snow . Thom yes. Alex yep. Thom as long as the snow doesnt cover it completely. Like, if you get a little coating of snow or frost, the nice part about it is that the button itself is raised, and these are guaranteed never to wear out in your lifetime. Lemonis look, i dont like the fact that thom just steamrolled alex, and if it was me and im watching one of my teammates successfully pitch the product and do a good job doing it, i would step out of the way, actually get out of the way. So, bruce runs our camping world retail stores. Thom hi, bruce. Im thom. Bruce hi, nice to meet you, bruce wright. Lemonis lets ask bruce what he thinks. Bruce yeah, this one, youre shouting out your company name on this one, your brand on there, and this one is kind of hidden on there. Right now, you kind of just show one picture here. Alex right. Bruce i think youre showing steps at home, but you better show some stuff at home, r. V. , all the different uses you can have it, a boat. So, i would say tell the whole story, get it on the back. Alex and honestly, its not even a picture of the product. Bruce thats even yeah. Lemonis whats the retail on this again . Alex 29. 99, i believe, for that one. Lemonis whats wholesale cost . Alex 13. Thom half that. Lemonis well, half of that would be 15. Thom right. Lemonis so, is it 13 or 15 . You dont know it off the top of your head . Alex i thought i did, but hes having a Different Number than i did. Thom im right until im proven wrong. You think youre right, and i think im right. Alex but you will not let anybody else be right. Thom its based on 20 years of experience that ive got this opinion. Its like were talking about the truck ramp that we have. I thought we should introduce it now, and you said, no. I want to finish it out. Alex youve sold 10 of the ramps, and weve had problems with 6 that ive had to deal with the problems. Lets not open up the market to everybody. Lets design it so it works and then sell it. Thom you said, lets take it off the market. Lemonis the floodgates have clearly opened, and theyre now just going at each other, and whats obvious is that theres way more underneath the surface than anybody realizes. Lets go sit down because i dont want to do that in public. Look, thom and alex are going to have to sit down, and theyre going to have to figure out how to work through these differences because whatever contamination exists between the two of them, its going to end up poisoning the rest of the business. How are you guys getting along together . Truthfully, no bull[bleep] alex it was a little more rocky in the past couple weeks, few weeks. I bust my ass more than anybody else, i feel. Lemonis welcome to Family Business. You want me to give you a high five for working hard for a Family Business . Alex i want to be recognized for it. Lemonis maybe you want a prize for it. Alex i want to be recognized. Lemonis but they dont exist. Your father is always going to tougher on you than he would be on an average employee. Alex okay. Lemonis this relationship is either going to get better, or you need to go. 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Red rover, red rover send reeses pieces over [sfx] introducing new hersheys milk chocolate and reeses pieces now in one bar wake up theres a lot that needs to get done today. Small things. Big things. Too hard to do alone things. Day after day, you need to get it all done. And here to listen and help you through it all is bank of america. With the expertise and knowhow you need to reach that blissful state of doneness. So lets get after it. Everything is all right what would you like the power to do . ® all right what would you like the power to do . ® or you need to go. Theres no in between. Alex okay. Lemonis youre going to fight fire with fire, and ultimately, unfortunately, because he owns the place, hes going to win. Alex yeah. Lemonis this is about a father and son, two people in the business, actually learning how to communicate and get past their issues. In order to move this business forward, theyre going to have to move forward. I think what has to happen, though, you have to be a little bit more tolerant of who your dad is. Alex every day, i come to work, and i try to prove to you that im good, that im good at this job. I wish we wouldve had a better relationship. Lemonis and whatever animosity you have from the past, i think you need to figure out how to put it on the table and deal with it. Youre still angry about what happened when you were a kid. Alex i wasnt we werent together much when i was a kid. Lemonis i know. The two of you havent rebuilt your bond. Youre not a bad father. Hes just starving for you. He wants his dad so bad. Alex [ sniffles ] lemonis all he wants is your acceptance and your approval. He is dying to have a relationship with you. Good morning. Good to see you. My man, whats happening . I havent seen you in a while. So, today, thom is meeting with purei, a chicagobased Advertising Company that is hopefully going to bring some new, fresh ideas to the packaging. Len you know, one of the things we did when we saw the packaging obviously, its clear that it needs an update. The first one we did. Alex ooh. Len . Was something more interesting, okay, and more consumerfriendly. Bring the packaging to life. Change the color scheme completely. Make it more approachable. Alex i like the colors. I like the name. I like that theres really only one thing to look at to tell you what it is and how you can use it, which is a lot better than. Thom im not sure i like the blue. I think blue is a little more passive than i like. I might brighten that up a little bit. Lemonis thom just ran over alex, and whether its conscious or not, in order for this company to be successful, thom is going to have to let other people give feedback, give their input, have an opinion. Thom now, should we maybe improve our. Alex website . Thom absolutely not. Eva i mean, right now, you cant find anything on our website. Alex certain products are hidden. Eva yeah, so. Thom 75 to 90 of the people that go to our site find our site through search and find our site as a result of the design of that site. Len okay. Thom so, you got to be very careful about going in and doing a change in the website. Lemonis i got a glimpse into how people get shut down. Thom okay. Lemonis we have to figure out how to better communicate. Eva, how do you see it . Eva like, an example, yesterday, we were in a meeting. They know i was visibly upset. I didnt agree with the direction that they were headed. Thom you know, weve been talking about having alex move into the production area, and thats part of what we have to do because hes going to need it. I think it would be a good thing for alex and for the company. Alex oh, theres certain aspects about products and quality that i think that i can help improve. I deal with customer complaints and customers calling and saying, i spent 2,000 on this, and it does not work. Eva he has a lot to learn, and he needs to understand the processes. Lemonis while i can tell that eva is annoyed, and i definitely want to be sensitive to that, im glad that thom is giving alex a chance to prove himself, to actually show his dad that he can do something. Lets do this. Rather than talking about it, lets go into the shop. I want to hear from alex what he thinks he would improve. What are five things youd fix right now . Alex id walk around more, make sure theyre working on the right thing, make sure theyre not slacking. Check wheres the work order for this, doublecheck a measurement or two, just to make sure everybody is understanding what theyre working on and what theyre making and that we have the right product. Eva but at the same time, we need to instill the responsibility in each person. Thom do you do you see that as not happening now . Eva the issue comes down to the company as a whole not having consequences. Thom but at the same time, when we say were going to have consequences, that means were losing this person. Eva not necessarily. Maybe its sending them home early one day. Alex if were expecting the people that we have in the supervisor role now to do that, theyre more friends than they are bosses. Eva and thats not going to change until the company changes, and its not just this department. Its every fricking department in this company. Thats why none of this works. Alex its the new look. Thom we did this internally. Lemonis it feels homemade again. As a leader, you have to actually move the ball. This looks like you dropped the ball. Thom hmm. Lemonis this is. Actually awful. Eva the issue comes down to the company not having consequences, my name is taylor, and im a tv producer. This surface laptop is amazing. Its very powerful and just speeds up your whole day. This is the type of laptop that ive always needed. It feels weird to be on this side of the camera. 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They can do almost whatever they want and know theres not going to be a consequence. Thom i will own that because i am the anticonflict person, and i avoid that sort of consequence issue. Lemonis one of the benefits of alex going on the floor is that evas voice is now getting heard, and the things that needed to be addressed, like the employees having structure or rules, was ignored before. This is a conflict, as the owner of the business, thom is going to have to address himself. Thom how do i help you to fix that . Eva we need a handbook. Thom we need a handbook. Okay. Eva we need a handbook, and we need rules and processes that were going to stick to. Thom all right. I will have the handbook on your desks by the end of the month. Lemonis alex has started working on the manufacturing floor with eva so that he can learn the business from the ground up. Alex 12 inches of space for the dog to walk up. Thom good girl. Lemonis meanwhile, thom has been working on making modifications to the pet ramp. Itll ultimately open it up to other Industries Like the r. V. Business. Thom were looking to see if we can practically build this same product in a plastic modular version. Lemonis wow. Thom yeah. Lemonis also, i want to start interfacing with some of the retailers so that we can understand how stop the slip can be a fully integrated brand. Were you in true value today . Paul weve got the true value show. Lemonis its like a giant convention. Oh, yeah. The true value convention is one of the biggest trade shows for this kind of product in america, and i want to actually take stop the slip there so that retailers can see the product and decide if its a good fit for their business. But its only a month away, which means we need to get busy. You guys have a booth there . Paul yes. Lemonis you got to have some solid, solid, solid mockups. So, what progress has been made since the last time i saw you . Thom all right. Well, we brought in some new equipment. Lemonis so, im back at the handi manufacturing facility to ensure that some of the changes that i asked to have happen actually happened. So, are you spending more time out here or not yet . Alex yes. I think its been going really well. Eva its been going well. Alex i see how difficult it is out here. Coming out here and actually seeing it really kind of opened my eyes a little bit. Thom were kind of talking about packaging. You want to join us . Lemonis is this the new stuff . Alex its the new look. Yes. Lemonis one of the challenges that this company has had around the stop the slip product is the packaging, so thom was tasked with coming up with new ideas and new packaging with one of the advertising companies. So, its this verse this. Thom yes. Lemonis i think this looks like the exact same thing except you changed the color and moved pictures around. What do you think of it . Eva i dont know if its substantially different than what we were doing. Lemonis yeah. What was the agencys name that we met . Thom purei. Lemonis what they came back with felt like they refreshed the whole thing. Thom i didnt like it, so we took some of the thoughts they had, and we did this internally. Lemonis it feels homemade again. Thom okay. Lemonis its obvious to me that thom listened to nobody in this process not me, not the ad company, not his employees, and you can see it in the product. What do you guys think of this . Jim i think its an improvement. Lemonis well, when you set the bar really low, all you have to do is have a bunny hop, and youre over it. Alex, what do you think . Alex i agree this looks a little dated, maybe a little too boxy. Eva yeah, i. Dont love them. Paul im hoping we can commit to one of the professional designers to create this. He did a number of concepts that i really like. Jim that was what we were trying. Thom no. No. I really was disappointed with it. I didnt like the way it fit with the product. Lemonis we have the true value trade show in less than a week, and as were sitting here, it appears that thom has basically closed his ears, not taking any feedback, not open to new ideas, and we need to show up with something new. And so, i think, as a leader, you have to be able to have people feel like their input matters. Thom mmhmm. Lemonis . Right . And actually move the ball. This looks like you dropped the ball. Thom hmm. Lemonis this is. Actually awful. If your business is in trouble, and you need my help, log on to theprofitcasting. Com. Theres one thing you can be sure of. Theyre changing by the nanosecond. Thats why cognizant created a unique engineering approach to design and build new digital products. Learn how cognizant softvision designs experiences and engineers outcomes. Cool. Cool. Cant see what it is yet. Re . What is that . Thats a blazer . Thats a chevy blazer . 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Easily set, track and control your goals right from the chase mobile® app. Chase. Make more of whats yours®. To have people feel like their input matters and actually move the ball. This looks like you dropped the ball. This is actually awful. Thom part of my problem is ive been trying not to have a million meetings. Lemonis once again, thom agrees that hes got a problem, but hes doing nothing to fix it. You can just dialogue with it a little bit, but i think what happens is the minute people feel like they cant have an opinion, its like, well [bleep] it. Im just not going to say anything. Thom right. Right. Lemonis why dont you guys work on it and come back with something, okay . Well see you guys in a little bit. Thom is moving the ball forward with the team to get the packaging done on time. Steve we want to make the design clean and clear and focused and easy to communicate needs. Eva you need to make this longer. Lemonis in order to make sure that production is efficient and quality is maintained, thom is working on putting together a handbook. Eva they put up large monitors. Lemonis eva has developed a job board that will manage not only the overall workflow but the specific jobs being done and their dates. Cutting, fabrication, cleaning, ordering, shipping. This is helpful. Alex yeah. Eva yeah. Lemonis everything from the libertyville manufacturing plant has been moved to kenosha. Eva this machine is the floor for everything they build. Alex these guys used to run it in libertyville. They moved up here. Lemonis and they like having it here . And bill and the rest of the team have transitioned nicely to the kenosha office. Bill whats going to happen when we do change the branding . Thom can you bring the forklifts over here . Will it fit . Alex yeah. Lemonis thom and alex are working together, putting the finishing touches on the modified ramps. It wont be long before we can start selling them to new retail segments. Alex you want to measure it . Thom yeah. You got the tape measure . All right. Lemonis and the father and son, theyre making a ton of progress in their relationship. Thom were communicating better. Were doing more communicating, which is, i think, good. Alex i think that hes really taken to heart what weve talked about. Thom im listening more to some of the things that you have to say, and i think thats helped our relationship, and i like the fact that youre working closer and stronger with eva, even if you dont agree with 100 of whats going on out there. Lemonis thom is gaining flexibility and direction with his leadership while alex is looking way more comfortable with his dad. I just hope they can maintain this level of progress into the true value show. Today, im at the true value convention. There are over 2,600 independent member retailers as well as 3,000 other vendors who are trying to impress those retailers and ultimately get their products into True Value Stores nationwide. How are you . Thom good to see you. Lemonis oh, i like your new logo. Thom oh, you like that . Yeah. Lemonis im anxious to see if thom was able to improve the packaging on stop the slip. Im excited to see the new packaging. Thom yeah. Well, we brought the old stuff because we didnt want to confuse the customers. Lemonis what would you be confusing them with . Why would you show them the old stuff and not the new stuff . Paul were sitting on inventory here of the old inventory. Lemonis but you have these shirts on that look nothing like that. All along the way, weve been talking about representing this brand in a cohesive way, all around safety. 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The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2019 nx 300 for 359 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. We like drip coffee, layovers and waiting on hold. What we dont like is relying on fancy technology for help. Snail mail we were invited to a y2k party. Uh, didnt that happen, like, 20 years ago . Oh, look, karolyn, weve got a mathematician on our hands check it out now you can schedule a callback or reschedule an appointment, even on nights and weekends. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Id rather not. Knowing youre changing the packaging. You sell them that because you have it. You may actually lose accounts over it. Thom mm. Paul we wont have this available till weve got everything finetuned. Lemonis this looks kind of badass. Thom i like it. I like it. Lemonis im just going to say it right now. Alex oh, i think it looks great. Lemonis i mean, this looks fantastic. Its now cleaner. You actually see one cohesive brand and an assortment of products all looking like they belong to one thing. So, none of this is on here . Alex correct. Lemonis while they made a lot of progress on the packaging, they still missed the mark. I wanted them to create a display that actually tied it all together and told one story, and they still havent done that. But i think you got to lead with this. Thom okay. Lemonis were not waiting anymore to launch the new look. Were here, and were going to need to make the best of it. Alex alex. Tory hi. Tory. Alex nice to meet you. John tom, how are you . Lemonis tory and john oversee merchandising for true values corporate office, and they essentially determine what goes into the warehouse so that the members, also known as the store retailers for true value, can pick from that inventory, so if you want to impress anybody in this moment, its these two. Thom the company is an accessibility and a safety company. The brand will be stop the slip. Tory okay. Thom this is alex. He is my son. He is. Alex sales manager. Thom . Sales manager. John great. Thom ill let you take on the product. Alex its our numberone product. Its high margin. We warranty it for the lifetime of the homeowner. Lemonis i have to admit that i was happy to see thom actually acknowledge his son instead of talking over him, which is huge progress for him. Do you have a preference of logo . Tory i would go with the yellow. Lemonis what didnt you like about this . Tory its a little busy. In the background, theres just too much going on. This is clean, simple. Consumers want to know how the product works, and theres none of that on the old packaging. John it signals caution. Whats next from a product perspective . Thom well, our next thing is to unify the entire product line. Lemonis well come to your office and show you everything redone the way its supposed to be. John thank you for your time. Tory thank you, guys, lemonis the merchandisers from true value seemed to like the packaging, and if we can show them that we can put it in a full set, then were going to be in great shape. Alex im alex. Nice to meet you. Sue . Sue hey, alex. Lemonis we also generated some sales with some of the store owners. Alex creates a nonslip surface walking up and down stairs. Think its something you want to try . Woman yeah. [ laughs ] man nice to meet you. Thanks for your time. Alex oh, thank you. Lemonis the trade show ended a lot better than it started, but the best part was seeing thom and alex work together. Thom the contribution youre making is good. I might not have been giving you the opportunity. I need to step back and count on you. I want you to run putting all these pieces together with true value. Lemonis i do think the packaging looks. Alex yeah, i like it. Thom it does look good. Lemonis were seeing the goal line. Okay, buddy. Alex cool. Lemonis thank you. Alex thanks, dad. Love you, dad. Thom great. Paul hello. Hartman guys, how are you . Lemonis how are you . Since the trade show, ive tasked the company with finalizing the product packaging and also coming up with the displays. Ive set up an opportunity for thom and the team to present their full assortment to true value at their corporate office. Thom how many stores does true value have . Hartman theres about 4,500. Thom okay. Hartman we love our current members, but were also welcoming new customers to our organization. Lemonis like, another independent retailer can do business with you . Hartman thats right. Lemonis true value doesnt only sell to their 4,500 retail members, but they also now are one of the biggest distributors of these kind of products even outside of their members. Alex that display, it actually comes with a quarter pallet on the bottom with one of our treads so they can step on it and test it out. Eva so, theres two different versions of it, a 2foot, a 3foot, and a 4foot. Lemonis which is the one thats up on the screen. Man fourfoot is an allinclusive assortment with the best of our products. Lemonis every member of the team participated in the presentation, and it really looks like a Cohesive Team now that understands what their objectives are. Tory its more simple, it tells the story, and it all ties into one, whereas, before, you had different packaging, so it looked like different brands. Alex right. Lemonis theyve made tremendous progress on the stop the slip products. Man whats the investment for a simple 3foot display . Thom think were looking at about 500 would be the opening order. Lemonis this particular category of stop the slip should generate close to 4 million just with the true value account. Man do you guys know the market potential for a pet . Paul we do a ton of business in the pet category. Lemonis im also happy that theyve made a lot of progress in developing the pet ramp, and in a matter of months, that will definitely be to market. I thought you did a really good job. Thom you worked hard, and you put a lot of effort into this. You really stepped up. Eva its a team. Everyone brings something to the table. Lemonis okay. Ill see you guys back at the office. Thom hey. Thank you. You guys do a lot of fishing. Justin as much as we can. Ray yep. [ laughs ] lemonis at a sportsapparel business in illinois, the product is topnotch. Justin sun protection. Ray completely custom shirt. Lemonis but somethings fishy. Why am i here . Katie well, youre here because the business is out of money. Lemonis the facility is quite literally a sweat shop. Katie it gets really hot in here. Lemonis no ac in here. Katie no ac. Lemonis the employees are up in arms. Marci i actually have a video of a friday afternoon i think you would probably find pretty interesting. Lemonis and one of the owners has a troubling side gig. Ray im going to say what every other man wants to say that doesnt have the balls do to it. Lemonis if i cant get them to make some radical changes to their culture. I am a big believer that you are who you do business with