Case Study: CatchyCan™ Takes Off with Universal Plastic Mold
Often, Universal Plastic Mold (UPM) gets the chance to make a real difference in getting a customer’s product off the ground. With Catchy Can™, we saw major opportunity to help a product make it to market while realizing a dream for the customer. In this case study, we’ll talk about Catchy Can, our approach to serving their custom injection molding needs, and the results we’ve been able to deliver for them, and what the future may hold for this innovative product.
ABOUT CATCHY CAN
Catchy Can is the creation of our customer, a first-generation California native and son of immigrants. Having grown up as a hardworking member of his family’s landscaping business, this customer truly understands the needs of professional landscapers and lawn care workers. As an aspiring entrepreneur, the customer was always trying to think of products to invent and market, and that’s how Catchy Can came into being.
Most landscaping professionals use trash cans and dustpans on a daily basis as they’re cleaning up leaves, lawn clippings, and other trash and debris. Our customer saw a fundamental inefficiency in the traditional dustpan, and asked the question: “why couldn’t the front edge of a trash can simply be flat, like a built-in dustpan”? From this simple idea, the Catchy Can was born.
The customer started out by self-producing Catchy Cans in his garage, buying standard large plastic trash cans from home improvement stores and modifying them by hand. After generating a buzz in the local landscaping industry with his new invention, the goal was to find a way to mass-produce Catchy Cans using custom injection molding. Through word-of-mouth they heard about UPM and our ability to produce injection-molded parts that are high-quality, durable, and cost-effective.
WHAT DID UPM DO FOR CATCHY CAN?
One of the largest challenges facing many of our prospective customers is the cost of a custom mold, which can be as much as an $80,000 initial investment, in some cases. When Catchy Can came to us, we began working on a way to ensure fast return on their investment and make the project viable for them.
The UPM team started by helping the customer optimize their product for manufacturability to keep unit costs down and ensure reliable quality. After finding the most cost-effective way to produce their custom mold, we sat down with the Catchy Can team and showed them that it would take only 6,000 units sold to recoup the cost of their custom mold. This, we explained, would be a reasonable goal to achieve within one year of starting full-scale production of the Catchy Can.
Armed with that knowledge and a viable business plan, the customer was able to secure the investment capital needed to have their custom mold produced and bring the Catchy Can to market in earnest.
The Results of Our Project
Once production of the Catchy Can started they quickly became a hot item. A simple, high-quality, and incredibly rugged trash can with a built-in dustpan rim proved to be a very desirable product for all kinds of professionals, from landscapers to manufacturing technicians and beyond. In fact, the UPM team uses Catchy Cans around our own shop to make it easier than ever to keep our floors clean and clear of debris.
Having received a patent on their unique design, Catchy Can now sells their product in local garden supply stores, and our initial run has all but sold out. At our current pace of production and sales, we expect to hit the 6,000-unit benchmark in roughly 4 months, just a quarter of the time we predicted initially.
After paying back all of their investors, Catchy Can’s plan is to market their product to the nationwide market. With expert assistance from the team at UPM, Catchy Can has been able to realize their lifelong dream of becoming a successful inventor and entrepreneur. We expect to see Catchy Cans sales continue to grow far into the future.
Learn more about CatchyCan here: https://catchycan.com/