Coldkeepers: A cool idea from the
Old Country gets hot in
America
A system for keeping food and drink cold serves as
the basis for a
small business in Georgia
By Philipp Harper
Company history
Call it a case of necessity being the mother of entrepreneurship.
It was 1998 and a young Frenchman, Lionel de Bazelaire, was looking for
a ticket back to the United States. He earlier had studied as an exchange
student at Thomas University in the southwest Georgia town of Thomasville,
about 30 miles north of Tallahassee, Fla., and now had his heart set on a
stint at Georgia Tech.
But there was a problem: the school's steep tuition for foreign
students.
Realizing he would have to earn his way back, de Bazelaire saw
opportunity in the freezer bags and cooling elements that had become
ubiquitous at food retailers throughout Europe, where they were offered to
consumers as a way to convey their fresh and frozen foods home safely.
There really was nothing similar being offered in this country, de
Bazelaire knew, so …
To finance the idea he turned to an acquaintance in Thomasville,
Langdon S. Flowers Jr., a longtime venture capitalist with a
self-confessed fascination for ideas that were, in a word, "different." De
Bazelaire's proposition fit the bill and Coldkeepers LLC
was born with $500,000 in startup financing.
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Flowers' son, Langdon S. Flowers III, took over as president, while de
Bazelaire was forced by visa problems, only recently resolved, to
contribute remotely from Europe. Eventually they were joined by Gary
Stampfli, a retired Air Force pilot and new product consultant, whom the
elder Flowers calls "a straw boss to keep the young guys in line."
The focus of their effort was the Kold-To-Go system, consisting of
foam-filled, double-lined freezer bags in a variety of sizes, frozen
cooling elements and element-dispensing machines. The idea was to have all
three items available at food retailers and to let consumers exchange
thawed elements for frozen ones at no additional cost by simply inserting
the old element in the dispensing machine.
From the retailer's viewpoint, it seemed, the system would be a great
hook for generating return business. However, difficulties adapting the
European machines for the U.S. market delayed the Kold-To-Go launch.
Growing impatient, and with competitors beginning to make inroads, the
partners finally settled on a piecemeal strategy and began marketing the
bags separately. Since that strategy was adopted in 2001, Coldkeepers has
lined up nearly 5,000 participating retailers in the United States, Puerto
Rico, Korea and Mexico.
Close to 1 million bags were sold in 2003 — good for revenue of around
$1 million — and sales are on a pace to increase fivefold in 2004.
Meanwhile, problems with the Italian-made dispensers have been resolved
and Coldkeepers is ready to begin distributing them under an exclusive
licensing agreement.
The company also plans to establish a freezer bag manufacturing
facility in Thomasville. The bags currently are made in Italy.
As for de Bazelaire's plans for Georgia Tech, they've been put on hold.
Their winning strategy
Flexibility and the ability to meet customers' demands — for instance,
a willingness to do small runs of private-label bags.
What they'd do differently
Go with the bags as a standalone item sooner than they did.
Their most useful resource
The personal relationships with customers that have resulted from their
dedication to "relationship selling."
What you'll find in their workspace
Bags. The walls of the Coldkeepers office is festooned with samples of
every bag they've produced. | 
