Innovation + Job News

Home improvement retailer Menard, Inc. plans to add up to 350 jobs at its distribution center in Williams County, thanks largely to a 55 percent, 10-year tax credit from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority. The credit was a key factor in the company’s decision to expand in Ohio.
 
State development officials said the additional jobs, coming over the next three years, will add $8.2 million in payroll to the facility’s current $10.6 million payroll. Menards agreed to maintain that payroll for at least 13 years, starting in 2013. The average wage for the new positions is $11.30 per hour, plus $2.12 per hour in benefits, according to the Ohio Department of Development.
 
“We decided to expand our distribution center because Holiday City is a great community and pleasant area to do business, plus we had the room to expand,” said Jeff Abbott, spokesperson for the privately-held chain based in Eau Claire, Wis. Menards was founded in 1960 by John Menard. The second generation of the family now operates the company.
 
“It would appear that Ohio is having a lively debate over balancing practical fiscal responsibility with the needs of the citizenry. The growing awareness of economic responsibility on the part of the state bodes well for future growth of the economy in Ohio,” said Abbott.
 
“We’ve found Ohio’s workers to be hard working team players and are the number one reason we are expanding in Ohio.”
 
The company has 17 stores in Ohio.

NorTech clearly has a “Go big or go home” attitude. Its cluster approach to economic development in advanced energy and flexible electronics has supported companies that have attracted $20.5 million in capital, created 171 jobs and generated $10.8 million in payroll in Ohio over a one year period starting in July of 2010.
 
A “cluster” is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and associated institutions in a particular technology sector.
 
NorTech, a regional nonprofit technology-based economic development organization serving 21 counties in Northeast Ohio, has tested its cluster model on two industry clusters – advanced energy and flexible electronics. “We provide and connect cluster members to a variety of resources to help them commercialize new products, locate investors, access government funding, form strategic partnerships and funding collaborations,” said Kelly South, NorTech’s senior director of communications.
 
And now, NorTech has won big for its development innovation. The organization is in the national spotlight for recently receiving a prestigious national award from the State Science Technology Institute (SSTI).
 
SSTI is a national nonprofit organization that leads, supports and strengthens efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology and innovation.
 
According to a news release, SSTI’s awards program identifies "national models developed by states and regions to accelerate science, technology and innovation to grow their economies and create high-paying jobs."
 
NorTech received SSTI’s Most Promising TBED Initiative Award, a new category for creative initiatives that address a specific need in a region to achieve economic growth.
 
The recognition is a very big deal. "The SSTI award brings external validation from national technology based economic development (TBED) practitioners to our work,” said South. “It recognizes our cluster development model as a ‘best practice’ approach to growing regional industry clusters that can be applied to other industries and areas of the country. It’s a great honor to be recognized by our peers."
 
According to Rebecca O. Bagley, president and CEO of NorTech, "At the federal level, there is a growing recognition of the value of regional innovation clusters as a ‘bottoms up’ approach to creating jobs and making the U.S. more globally competitive."


 

Michael Goldberg might be the most multi-talented Cleveland entrepreneur you’ll ever want to know. Not only did he co-found a company that invests in Israeli medical device companies connected to the region’s thriving health care economy, but now he’s moving to Vietnam after receiving a Fulbright to teach entrepreneurship there.

This January, the brains behind Bridge Investment Fund will try to convey what he’s learned in two decades of international business experience to students half a world away, where many may see venture capital as an intriguing, new concept.  

Goldberg has taught courses on both entrepreneurial finance and the economic impact of immigrant entrepreneurs as an Adjunct Professor at Case Western Reserve University. He will move to Hanoi, Vietnam for five months with his wife and three children to teach at the National Economic University there thanks to the Fulbright award. He plans to lecture on expanding access to early stage capital to Vietnamese companies. He is also hoping to work with leading venture capital funds and entrepreneurs in Vietnam to build networks there.

“The Fulbright will enable me to better connect my students, portfolio companies and network in Cleveland to expanding opportunities in Asia,” says Goldberg. 

Goldberg was also recently appointed as a Senior Advisor to Kaiwu Capital, a China-based venture capital fund. He plans to continue to work for Bridge Investments and Kaiwu Capital abroad, and says his work may lead to new opportunities at home.

“I’ve already had companies in Cleveland ask me to keep an eye out for business opportunities while I’m there,” says Goldberg, who adds that Ohio-based companies that are doing business in emerging markets are helping to fuel domestic growth.

If Goldberg needs further credence cities as disparate as Cleveland and Hanoi are increasingly interconnected, he has to look no farther than his daughter’s new cello teacher. She was referred by a Hanoi doctor who trained at the Cleveland Clinic.

“I’ve already been introduced to several people from Cleveland,” says Goldberg with a chuckle. “I like to call this the ‘Cleveland diaspora’ – we are everywhere. ”

Tell us if you’ve heard this one before. You’re sitting in your car. Alone. While your friends are frantically texting you to find out just where, exactly, are you because you are now, officially, 15 minutes late to the party.

The lateness has earned you a reputation. Dublin-based software company Ripple Mobile might be able to help. They’re making friendships and relationships stronger by offering OnTime, a GPS-powered app that pulls meeting information from your web-based and mobile calendars and ties it to current weather and traffic patterns to give you the quickest route to your destination. The $1.99 mobile app, available now for the iPhone and Blackberry, will also alert you when it's time to leave and then text or email the people waiting for you as to whether you will be on-time or late. An Android version is under development.

"I think a lot of times busy people fill their calendars with events and aren’t always aware of how long it's going to take them to get them some place,” says Ripple Mobile co-founder Kevin Miller. “That can happen especially if you're in a new location that you're not familiar with. OnTime provides them with a little less required planning and allows them to be more productive.”

It’s one of two mobile apps Ripple Mobile has developed. The other, Ripple Tag, allows friends with Smart Phones to find each other's locations in real time and setup a place to meet.

Ripple Mobile was founded in 2002 and is housed in the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. The company has three employees and earlier this year received a TechGenesis Grant through Tech Columbus.

Conservation has always been a major concern for zoos, from habitat conservation to protecting animal populations with dwindling numbers. Two Ohio zoos, though, are leading the way into another branch of conservation--energy conservation.
 
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens and the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium have both made headlines in the last two years for their green technology efforts, investing millions while enlisting help from the state's green industry to become leaders in the field.
 
Over the past five years, the Cincinnati Zoo has invested $1 million in energy improvements, upgrading 73 buildings--including elevating five to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and other initiatives like switching to energy-saving LED lights for its annual holiday display.
 
The biggest splash in the Ohio zoo green movement is just starting to pay off, though. Earlier this year, the zoo completed construction on an $11 million, four-acre, 15-foot high "solar canopy" that covers 800 spaces in its parking lot. The system, billed as the largest, publicly accessible urban solar array in the country, consists of 6,400 panels that generate 1.56 megawatts--providing nearly 20 percent of the zoo's energy requirements.
 
Along with saving the zoo millions in energy costs, the project also includes education benefits. It funds 10 scholarships at Cincinnati State's Green Workforce Development Program and includes an onsite kiosk that shows the array's performance and extolls the virtue of solar energy. The zoo began using the array in April, soon after completion.
 
Melink Corp., owned by green technology activist Steve Melink, designed the structure and served as developer. It also secured the financing for the array, and will operate the array for the zoo. The Milford-based company jumped onto the "green bandwagon" early, specializing in high-efficiency restaurant exhaust systems since 1987 before moving into solar projects over the past decade.
 
Thane Maynard, executive director of the zoo, said there was no better place to showcase solar technology.
 
"As the greenest zoo in America, there is no better place to showcase this technology and to help the public understand that not only is this technology the right thing to do for our energy future," he said, "but it makes absolute financial sense as well."
 
The Cincy Zoo might have a battle on its hands for the "greenest" title, though.
 
Just up I-71, the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium announced in October plans for a solar array to surpass its Cincinnati counterpart. Construction starts next year. 
 
"We're excited about the solar array," says zoo director of planning Barbara Revard. "Everything's still in the planning stages, but I think we're comfortable in saying that we think it will be somewhere between a 2.5-to-3 megawatt system."
 
Taking the lead in the project is Athens-based Third Sun Solar, one of the state's fastest-growing solar firms. Founded in 2000 by the aptly named Geoff and Michelle Greenfield and operating out of the Innovation Center at Ohio University, the company has become a regional leader in implementing solar technology. It's been named to Inc. magazine's “Inc. 5,000" for three years in a row.
 
The planned solar array isn’t the only trick in Columbus zoo's green hat, however. Three years ago, it opted to utilize geothermal technology in another of its projects, the Polar Frontier exhibit. Opening this past May, the $20 million exhibit circulates 300,000 gallons of water to a tank that serves as home to polar bears. The mostly underground system keeps the water at a constant chilled temperature, using a fraction of the energy of other options.

The zoo has also "gone green" in other areas, from pioneering use of new Flux Drive pump products that have led to a 40 percent reduction in energy costs, to recently installing "smart skylights" in one of its buildings.
 
The skylights, produced by Ciralight Global out of Corona, Calif., consist of motorized mirrors and sensors that rotate the mirrors to catch sunlight and reflect it inside, where its needed. The result is an electricity-independent, natural light source that provides better light at less cost.

"We joke that we're finding things in the warehouse that we didn't even realize were there," says Revard.
 
Columbus-based Energy Solutions Group worked with the zoo on bringing the "flux drive" and skylights into the fold.
 
Both the Cincinnati and Columbus zoos are leaders in implementing green technology, but they're far from alone. Every few months, representatives from all Ohio's zoos get together to talk about moving toward more environmentally friendly initiatives. The group, called the Ohio Zoo Green Consortium, consists of about 30 representatives from around the state, said Revard.
 
"The fun thing for us all is working together and talking about what we're doing, what's working well and what's next," said Revard. "It's our hope that we can not only share that information with other zoos in Ohio, but also serve as a model to zoos outside the state."

It was April of 2001 and dot-coms were imploding like far-away stars in Deep Space 9. But not for Marc Resnik. He had a dream. Sort of.
 
“It wasn’t a dream, just an idea in my head,” said Resnik. “I literally woke up laughing with an unusual idea for a business.”
 
After “throwing” some ideas around with the family, Resnik said he went downstairs and registered the domain ThrowThings.com for his Ravenna-based company.
 
The business model combines the concept of “throwing” with a number of loosely related departments. “Things To Throw” has toys and games, like baseball and such. The “Throw Your Voice” category features ventriloquist dummies (big sellers, apparently), puppets and marionettes. The most popular section, in terms of overall revenue, is the “Throw Your Name Around” category which offers customized promotional products. There’s also “Throw Backs,” “Throw A Party,” “ThrowThings Things” (this is not a typo) and, of course, “Throw Up.” You can even “Throw Your Money Away.” We’re not kidding. For $3.50 plus shipping and handling, the buyer gets a certificate verifying that he did, indeed, throw his money away.
 
Resnik says the five full-time staff company continues to evolve and grow and enjoyed consistent year-over-year growth until the economic downturn in 2008.
 
“With the downturn in the economy we took a hit but have been back on the growth track since then,” he said. “When things slowed down the company used the time to refocus, to become more efficient, and to complete some of the things on our ‘We really should do this but there just doesn’t seem to be time’ list.”

“Unlike most businesses, ours is relatively scalable in that we have the ability to increase business levels based on our [existing] staff. Because of this we are always looking for people that could be a strong addition but we are never pressured to bring someone in.”

Former Procter & Gamble CEO John E. Pepper Jr. is just one of a group of angel investors that offered up a first round of seed funding last week to Cincinnati-based diversity business matchmaker ConnXus.

Using the internet to facilitate its work, ConnXus is making it easier than ever for corporations to find minority and women-owned companies to meet their supplier needs.
 
ConnXus was launched in 2010 by Rod Robinson and Chris Downie, founder of SparkPeople. The site’s mission is to help minority and women-owned businesses find more opportunities with large companies that are looking to increase their supplier diversity. The site allows them to connect by giving member buyer corporations the ability to post their project needs online with ConnXus. Supplier members then have the opportunity to submit bids.
 
“We’ve already seen lots of tremendous success stories,” says Robinson.  “We’re just really hitting our stride.”
 
Since its launch in 2010, ConnXus’ corporate buyer members have posted more than $75 million in contract opportunities for supplier members. The site’s member supplier companies now number nearly 1,000 and include hundreds of business categories, such as construction and office equipment.
 
Robinson, who has a background in corporate procurement and supplier diversity and has also been a minority small business owner, says both buyer companies and supplier companies can pay for “premium” service, which provides more assistance in matchmaking and marketing from ConnXus. He sees the premium service as source of significant growth and revenue in the future.
 
ConnXus now has two employees, but Robinson says he has plans to hire up to six more over the next year.

Damaged roads with gaping potholes from freezing winter time temperatures--that later thaw in springtime and crack when they expand--are a billion dollar problem for both local and federal government agencies. Not to mention the annoyance and money spent by any Ohioan who’s ever hit a pothole and damaged a tire from the dreaded concrete pits.
 
But help is on the way, according to Dr. Sang-Soo Kim of Ohio University, who thinks he’s come up with the solution that he now sells commercially through his company EZ Asphalt Technology LLC, founded in 2007.

Kim, an associate professor of civil engineering at the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, has developed a method of testing asphalt binder--the sealant used to help repair highways that is highly susceptible to cold weather--called Asphalt Binder Cracking Device (ABCD). The device can be used by highway engineers to more accurately determine an asphalt’s cracking temperature, leading to stronger roads that don’t need repairs as often.

“People like this because it is a simple process,” says Kim of the commercially viable testing device that will give the asphalt industry a new standard for testing road surfaces.

The testing works by placing asphalt binder material in the ABCD ring and then cooling the device in a refrigerator chamber. A computer monitor attached to the ABCD ring shows the exact temperature where the binder begins to crack, giving accurate measurement of how it would perform on a real road, says Kim. The knowledge would lead to improved pavement structure that would help lessen the number of potholes in the road.

Kim worked with Enterprise Appalachia to bring his idea to market after receiving a grant from the Federal Highway Administration.

He estimates that his company will grow rapidly as it reaches out to 2,500 potential customers in six market segments in both the U.S. and Canada.

Edison Ventures, a New Jersey-based venture capital firm that specializes in helping innovative, established companies grow, has a new Ohio office up north that has made a mark in the Buckeye state by dropping its first $6.5 million Ohio investment into the Columbus-based software company Call Copy.

“We'd been tracking Call Copy since 2007 and were impressed by its growth and leadership,” says Michael Kopelman, partner at Edison Ventures, of the company’s growth from a simple software development company for call centers to a multi-purpose company that also provides in-house support for that software as well as the job process involved in using it. “There is a trend of many companies moving to Voice Over IP technologies, and they are more open to looking at other call center solutions.”

Call Copy develops innovative contact center software for dozens of industries from banking and healthcare to energy and insurance. This summer it was named to Inc. 500's list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., with three-year sales growth of 831 percent.

“They make products that are very intuitive in an industry where there is a lot of turnover,” says Kopelman, and “quick training is absolutely critical.”

Edison Ventures, founded in 1986, is firmly committed to making continued Midwest investments following its expansion in to D.C., New England and New York. It opened its newest office in Cleveland in February. Chris Sklarin, who helped found JumpStart in Cleveland, heads the Edison Midwest office.

“We think this is an undeserved market,” says Michael Kopelman, partner at Edison Ventures. “We've done 44 deals in Pennsylvania, and in its close neighbor Ohio we see a great opportunity.”

Edison invests in established companies that have proved successful, but are looking to scale their products or services across the United States or internationally. Since its founding, Edison has made 180 investments, that have resulted in 110 exits and is in its seventh fund, Kopelman says. Edison's generally invests in fast-growing companies doing $5 million to $20 million in revenue and will invest from $5 million to $10 million.

IG Studio, a collaboration between Cincinnati-based design firm GBBN Architects, Inc. and Kentucky-based Chinese firm IPPR International Engineering Corporation, won its first Chinese government contract this year designing the Sanya Cardiovascular Rehab Resort on Sanya Island. The win kicks off the two companies' plans of entering eight competitions annually over the next 10 years in the hopes of making IG Studio self-sufficient in three and internationally competitive in six.
 
Through IG Studio, the two companies are working to capture a piece of the exploding Chinese economy by designing 600- to 1,000-bed hospitals in large Chinese cities. Five hundred hospitals are planned across the country in the next 10 years. IG Studio, located in Beijing, has a staff of eight and is a 50-50 partnership between the two companies.
 
"(IG Studio) came together after a three-year collaboration on healthcare design projects," between GBBN and IPPN, says Greg Otis, director of Arts and Education for GBBN. "(IPPN) was looking for a western healthcare design influence to augment their designs. And we've been very successful in that work. But we wanted to get our brand out there in design and healthcare, and IPPR wanted to internationalize their business."
 
Because of the two companies similar goals, a meeting between the two giants earlier this year during a tour of the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., led to what both companies hope will be a successful joint venture designing large hospitals across China. Companies vie to design these hospitals through invitation-only competitions held by the Chinese government, Otis explains.
 
GBBN is an international design firm with offices in Cincinnati, Lexington and Louisville, Ky., Pittsburgh and Beijing. The firm specializes in large scale building design in the healthcare, education, housing, community and cultural sectors. Local projects include the Newport Aquarium, Great American Ballpark, the Bank of Kentucky Center at NKU and UC's Tangeman University Center.

Youngstown State University’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) College announced this month it has landed a record four concurrent grants totaling $5.2 million from Ohio’s Third Frontier program. The two work closely to enhance technical education and to provide employment opportunities for students.
 
“Third Frontier criteria ensures not only that you have good science and engineering but also good commercialization potential,” said the school’s research director, Mike Hripko. “And each of (YSU’s four projects funded by Third Frontier) has demonstrated the promise of commercialization and advancement of the science,”
 
Founded in 2007, the STEM College received four concurrent grants from the state including a $1.6 million grant which funds a partnership with M-7 Technologies to develop manufacturing equipment.
 
Another $1 million will go to YSU’s Department of Material Science and Engineering Third Millennium Metals to study a carbon infused copper metallic composite that will reduce wire size and increase conductivity.
 
A third $1 million grant supports cooperation with Delphi Corporation on aluminum battery cable for use in electric and hybrid vehicles and the final $1 million goes to the Department of Chemistry for its work with Polyflow Inc. on converting polymer waste (i.e., plastic bottles, containers) into fuel. Another $600K is earmarked for capital equipment to support the research.
 
 “Youngstown is a hard-working town, and our students have a good work ethic that’s evident in their interfaces with our business partners,” said Hripko. “We have a reputation for being very business savvy and very manufacturing savvy. The college often works with industries which are indigenous to the region, advanced materials and advanced manufacturing, in particular.”
 
The university’s STEM College enrolls roughly 2,500 students plus 250 graduate students.

LineStream Technologies is growing by leaps and bounds in the automated software control market. The company was created in 2008 as a spinoff out of research done by Cleveland State University's Zhiqiang Gao, director of the Center for Advanced Control Technologies and focuses on commercializing and simplifying control software.
 
Basically, LineStream products increase efficiency, are easy to implement, and therefore improve the performance of automated systems.
 
"Any product using a motor, we look to improve energy efficiency and life of that motor," explains David Neundorfer, LineStream president. "We simplify the design process and lop off weeks of [development]."
 
The company is getting attention from some of the major players in the automation industry. They just licensed their software to Texas Instruments. "We're going to be putting software in a chip platform in motor and motion controls," explains Neundorfer.
 
The deal adds to the company's rapid growth. "It's very exciting and a large deal for us," says Neundorfer. "Some of the larger companies in the industrial space are interested in our technology."
 
LineStream has grown to five employees this year, expects to be at eight to 10 by the end of the year, and double in size again next year. "We're hiring and ramping up to establish a relationship with Texas Instruments."

Source: David Neundorfer
Writer: Karin Connelly

This story originally appeared in sister publication Fresh Water Cleveland.

In a world were banks charge you to receive paper statements and stores ask for your email to send you a receipt, a programmer from Columbus decided to change the way receipts are used.

After a few months of sitting at the Brandery with two monitors and bottle of single malt scotch at his desk, Kevin Pfefferfle created Receept, a website geared toward both customers and merchants.

The idea is to give customers a place to store receipts easily with simple export tools so that you can print them you need for expense reports or taxes. While other similar services exist, many of them charge fees. Pfefferfle wouldn't pay for that service as a consumer, so Receept will be free for consumers.

Merchants that have partnerships with Receept will be able to send a receipt directly to a user-created Receept account. If a customer doesn't have an account created, an email will be sent with information to sign up. For merchants that don't have a partnership with Receept, customers will be able to snap a photo of a receipt or forward an email receipt to their account, which will then be stored and organized. You will also be able to share receipts with specific people. You can categorize and share all personal purchases with a spouse, or all business purchases with your boss with a simple click.

To keep the service free for cutomers, Pfefferfle is working with merchants to give them consumer data. While specific data on what and how much a customer buys will not be shared, visiting habits and numbers will be. It will give merchants true data. In other words, when a customer fills out a survey or answers questions, vendors get an idea of spending habits, but Receept will be able to give merchants exact habits.

"We could tell Kroger, 'People who shop at your store once a month also tend to shop at these other types of places,' " Pfefferfle says. "We can say that in a general sense and not violate anyone's privacy."

Receept is also working with the computer science department at Ohio State University to eventually be able to scan receipts for character recognition and create pie charts and graphs to see how and where you spend your money.

The next step for Pfefferfle is to partner with merchants, which he may be able to do at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Las Vegas this week. Receept is one of nine finalists at the summit that is recognized as a innovative conference for what's next in the digital marketplace. Pfefferfle has confirmed meetings with representatives from Coca-Cola and American Express, among others.

Source: Kevin Pfefferfle, Receept
Writer: Evan Wallis

This story originally appeared in sister publication Soapbox.

The seeds for Quasimoto Interactive were planted when Christopher Gerding was a student at Wake Forest University. His fraternity's PlayStation 1 system had been stolen, and Gerding set out to find a replacement.

Instead, he went one better -- he built a cabinet and integrated the parts needed to construct the first-ever console-based arcade kiosk.

That insight -- that home console games could be transformed into arcade gaming systems -- launched Quasimoto in 1998 as a consumer-based company and led to an enterprise that, between 2008 and 2010 grew sales by 240 percent, says Jessica Fuller, Quasimoto's CEO and Gerding's wife.

Today the Sharon Center-based specialty designer and manufacturer of high-end game cabinets and electronics no longer sells to the consumer market, but to commercial enterprises. It has even branched out to manufacture systems for other customers, including candy-dispensing systems for Sweet Amanda's, a candy kiosk company based in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., Fuller says.

Ironically, the real growth didn't occur until after a 2001 accident claimed Gerding's right leg. Much of the $65,000 accidental death and dismemberment payment was put into the company to begin marketing the company's products. At the time, Gerding was running Quasimoto by day and selling aluminum siding by telephone at night, Fuller says.

The company's first branded product was Quasicade with three products: Quasicade Jr., Quasicade 2 and Quasicade Pro.

"The product line opened doors to Sam's Club, Costco, Best Buy and earned OEM business from Disney and others," Fuller says.

Last year, the company introduced Game Gate VU -- a universal console arcade machine licensed for the public --  leading to a second business: product design and development. The new subsidiary, called Advantage Design and Manufacturing Group, now provides product development, concept development, industrial design, 3-D solid modeling, rapid prototyping and a variety of other services for customers.

Quasimoto, which Fuller says received invaluable assistance from SCORE, has grown from four employees in 2008 to 20 today, and Fuller says the company is hiring. It recently moved from an 8,000 square foot warehouse to a 93,000-foot facility.

Source: Jessica Fuller, Quasimoto
Writer: Gene Monteith

There’s plenty of mystery about Corporate Research International, but its growth is anything but, says CRI’s VP sales, Brad Holdgreve.

“Our growth has really been due to our technology and getting in the door with . . . national and international clients that have thousands of locations,” Holdgreve says of the Findlay-based mystery shopping company. “The big thing for us is really our technology and how we recruit and train our own shoppers. It doesn’t hurt that we customize our programs.”

Formed in 1997 by President and CEO Mike Mallett, the company charted an average yearly growth of 200 percent a year from 2005 to 2008, Holdgreven notes. That growth landed the company on Inc.’s list of fastest growing firms in 2005 and 2006. While the pace has slowed somewhat during the economic downturn, the company is continuing to add clients and revenue, Holdreve says.

What differentiates the company from some of its competition includes early use of the Internet and customized programs for clients, he says.

Mallett “decided to take everything online in terms of creating the jobs available for the shoppers out in the field, how the shopper would submit the information back to us online and how we’d report the data back to the customer,” Holdgreve says.  “We recruited our own shopper data base and we train all the shoppers based on each individual (client’s) program -- so its not a general sign-up-and-take-a-job type process like other companies would use.”

The big fish as far as customers include retailers, convenience stores, groceries, and banks. Holdgreve declined to name current clients -- it’s a mystery shopping enterprise, after all.

The company was acquired earlier this year by Stericycle, a Lake Forest, Ill.,-based medical waste company. Mallett remains president and CEO, and Stericycle says there are no plans to move CRI from its Ohio home base.

The company employs 55.

Sources: Brad Holdgreve, Corporate Research International, and Stericycle
Writer: Gene Monteith