It happens to people chained to their desks when lunchtime rolls around. Or people on the go between appointments. Or people working outside without access to a refrigerator. Or people working in retail stores, even restaurants or hotels.
People want to eat healthy but find barriers to keeping a salad, veggies, fruit and sandwiches cool at work, especially in places without refrigerators. Suddenly the idea of a quick hamburger and fries or a trip to the vending machine sounds good.
Stories about the trials of eating healthy at work led MEDport, a Providence product development and design firm that also markets, distributes, warehouses and manufactures consumer health care products, to try to find a solution.
The company developed Fit & Fresh, a new line of food storage containers with freezer packs built into the lids. Since the products hit retail shelves in January, the number of stores selling them has grown to 12,000 nationwide, making Fit & Fresh the fastest-growing product line in MEDport’s history, said Brian Carey, vice president of sales and marketing.
The product is sold at stores such as CVS, Shaw’s, Whole Foods, Wegmans Food Markets and Albertson’s, in addition to other lesser-known stores.
“People told us they like to take salads to work,” said Larry Wesson, president of MEDport, which employs 15 people in the United States and six in China, where its products are manufactured. “We wanted to address healthy eating on the go.”
The idea to create Fit & Fresh started in a brainstorming session with MEDport designers, engineers, marketing and sales personnel.
“Almost everything we create comes from internal brainstorming,” Carey said, adding that the company uses formal and informal methods of research, from consumer focus groups to conversations with family and friends.
The brainstorming team designed containers with removable freezer packs to address the issue of keeping healthy foods fresh, he said. The freezer packs keep food cold for six hours, long enough to last until lunch.
The Fit & Fresh “Salad Shaker,” for example, has a freezer pack and dressing dispenser built into the lid. When twisted, the dressing dispenser releases its contents. Then a person can shake the container to distribute the dressing evenly.
“Lunch on the go” incorporates a freezer pack and two smaller containers that fit into one larger container so that it stores a main course and two sides.
“This product has gotten remarkable pickup in a short time,” said Carey, adding it is the first time Bed, Bath & Beyond and Linens ’n Things ever picked up a MEDport product. “In terms of units,” he said, “we’re probably shipping 50,000 pieces in June, which is twice what we sold in April.”
The products sell for $7.99 to $9.99. Bed, Bath & Beyond “blew through the initial inventory in the first month,” he said. “The product must be selling well.”
Fit & Fresh is a new type of product for MEDport, known more for its Timex Accu-Curve Digital Thermometer, a thermometer designed with a curve to prevent gagging; medication organizers; and diabetes organizers with cold packs for insulin storage and separate compartments for blood sugar meters and testing strips.
“We try to take everyday products and make them more convenient,” Carey said.
But there are some restrictions. Wesson said the company only develops products that “help people monitor and maintain their health and wellness,” per MEDport’s mission statement.
In addition to its diabetes products, the company develops medical products for people with cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis, said Carey.
“As you look at these populations, there is tremendous overlap with obesity,” he said. “We want to create products that help people delay the onset of these conditions.”
Wesson said the Fit & Fresh experience has “changed our view of the market.” Smaller cans of soda and “100 calorie” snack packs are examples of where the market is going.
MEDport will launch a “Soup and Salad” container this month. It is designed to keep salads cool and soups hot within one container.
The company will launch “Snack Clips” in August. Designed for children, the two-compartment containers are small enough to clip on a backpack and incorporate a freezer pack.
“The greatest challenge with this product line was making sure that the packaging clearly conveyed that this was not a standard food container,” Carey said. “We went through several renditions before we were satisfied and people understood it.”
The company created a Fit & Fresh Web site with recipes and tips for healthy living, Carey said. It cross-promotes products and puts them on home shopping networks and in catalogs to increase visibility.
MEDport spends 8 to 12 percent of its budget on product research and development, said Wesson. It will introduce eight more Fit & Fresh products between now and January.
“We’re banking that this trend will continue to grow,” he said. “We want to provide the tools so that people can prepare their own food while sticking to healthy portions and good food choices.”
