By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
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GRAND HAVEN—Hindsight is always 20/20.

When Hot Logic, then a division of Track Corp., decided to commercially launch its line of food equipment in 2008, little did the company know it would time its major debut at the start of a major global economic implosion, a time when corporate discretionary spending would drop off to nil.

Their product uses conductive heating and a special computerized control system to heat up pre-packaged foods in a manner that keeps the food safe and doesn’t deteriorate the taste, yet allows them to be instantly ready for consumers when they want to eat them. Users don’t have to stand in line to use the microwave, eliminating “wasted” break time.

“It couldn’t have been worse timing,” Pat Clifford, sales manager at Hot Logic, told MiBiz of Hot Logic’s launch. “We knew we had something special, but the economic conditions were so paralyzing. Companies couldn’t act.”

Slowly, the company continued to incubate within Track before hatching and going off on its own. By spinning off into Haven Innovations, the partners, including Don Wisner were able to move several FDA-regulated products — including Hot Logic and a chiropractic bed, as well as one non-regulated product to provide some steady capital — to a separate, privately held company designed to focus on these new and emerging industries.

“We want to be in the food equipment and medical device industries,” Clifford said.

In addition to manufacturing and developing additional products in-house, he said Haven Innovations will provide engineering and technical support to other companies in the medical device industry.

As Haven Innovations spun off, Wisner looked for a new location, eventually settling on about 15,000 square feet of manufacturing space, plus offices, inside a JSJ Corp. facility on Beechtree Road in Grand Haven. The company moved in late September and is fully operational, although Clifford said the team is working on improving efficiency.

“The next steps are fine-tuning some of the production flow and continuing on the marketing and selling side,” Clifford said. “We’re well suited for our current level of business. We’re starting to gain credibility in the marketplace for a new device and we think the sales will ramp up quickly.”

The company is finding some successes with Hot Logic. Clifford said they have shipped their first orders to Wal-Mart distribution locations, and other large corporations have also expressed interest. Thus far, the company has relied on independent sales representatives to sell Hot Logic, and they’re currently reaching to markets in eight states and Canada. Hot Logic is on track to do about $300,000 worth of business this year, but is expected to triple in 2011.

“This is the product with the highest growth potential that we have,” Clifford said. “We’re still in the infancy in the production of Hot Logic machines. We’re working to develop a home version of the Hot Logic especially geared to seniors and the disabled. We’ve been working with the (Michigan Disabilities Rights Coalition), and they feel we have something of real value.”

The company is about 85 percent through the development and field-testing of a smaller, single-shelf Hot Logic unit for use in the home. The idea came from users who were familiar with the product in a workplace setting and told the company they wanted to have one for their use at home, too. That got the product team thinking about what other home markets it could target with an automated meal system, and immediately, seniors and those with disabilities came to mind.

Throughout the development process, the company heard from professionals in the Meals on Wheels groups that many seniors didn’t want to eat the meals when they were delivered, but they also wanted to ensure the safety of the product. Moreover, many of the groups were faced with cuts and needed to scale back delivery of hot meals, and pick up the slack with concurrent deliveries of frozen meals.

“The challenge was how to get the meals to pathogenic-safe temperatures for people with visual, cognitive or physical impairments. Automated technology is perfect for those folks,” Clifford said.

Another market the company has identified has a captive audience — inmates. Clifford said the company has been able to demonstrate a $60,000 annual savings, about the equivalent of two staff people, at one South Carolina jail. Many of the small, municipal jails have food produced in the community and trucked in to their facilities. Using Hot Logic and pre-packaged meals could cut costs about in half, an important consideration for local sheriffs for whom feeding inmates and cost pressures are a daily reality, he said.