Flipping Their Lids

sustainaBiLitY

pHoto CouRtesY oF CuppoW.

SMBsuccess

Flipping their Lids eco-minded startup Cuppow expands its distribution by highlighting its local supply chain efforts and its commitment to the environment By chrIStInE BIrknEr | SeNIOr STAff wrITer

 cbirkner@ama.org

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eadlines about overflowing landfills and environmental contamination have led more consumers to do their part for conservation efforts by

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ditching—or recycling, that is—paper and plastic cups in favor of reusable containers. Somerville, Mass.-based Cuppow is building a successful business on this shift in consumer behavior.

Launched in 2011, Cuppow makes drinking lids for the old-school Mason jars that have become a backyard barbeque staple. Rather than just sipping their iced tea from a vintage Mason or Ball jar through a striped paper straw, consumers now can take that iced tea on the road with Cuppow’s reusable plastic lids.

Pop one on and you have yourself a hipster-friendly travel mug—or at least that’s the idea. Cuppow also makes “lunchbox adaptors,” lids made from recycled plastic that help users store food in canning jars, as well as canning jar cozies made from recycled plastic bottles.

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The idea for Cuppow came about when co-founder Joshua Resnikoff was drinking coffee from a Mason jar and spilled some on himself. When a Google search for reusable canning jar lids came up empty, Resnikoff ’s wife, who ran a small kimchi business and therefore had a lot of Mason jars, had the idea to develop a reusable lid.

Cuppow’s other co-founder, Aaron Panone, a mechanical engineer, designed the lid.

The duo initially made 500 lids, and built a website with images and video to sell them online. “They made them with pizza and beer money, and thought, Hey, maybe we’ll sell out of these 500 lids by the end of the year,

product online. Then, to target an audience of nature enthusiasts, they pitched the product to small coffee shops, natural food stores and bike shops. “We had a high-production video and well-shot photos, so we had a lot of stores contacting us directly,” Ralich says. “We learned retail distribution on the fly. We wanted to sell the product in places we like to shop. It wasn’t like, ‘How can we get this in Wal-Mart as fast as possible?’

It was, ‘How can we create a real community based on the product?’”

Cuppow’s products now are sold both on the company’s website and in 1,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada, including Whole Foods.

Cuppow creates infographics with factoids such as: “Distance from Shenzhen, China, to Boston: 11,376 miles. Distance covered by the entire Cuppow supply chain: 416 miles. This means Cuppow travels 96% fewer miles than if we produced our product overseas,” and, “Cuppow reused the equivalent of 398,404 16-oz. paper cups to make our packaging.” and we’ll buy some more pizza and beer,” says Greg Ralich, Cuppow’s marketing manager. “The lids were gone the first weekend. They never expected as many people to be as crazy about them as they are.”

To expand its distribution, the Cuppow team initially relied on social media, following up on direct requests from store buyers who had seen the

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The company continues to build its following by highlighting its use of recycled materials, as well as the fact that product manufacturing and fulfillment are done an hour away from its headquarters. This messaging resonates with consumers looking to decrease their—and their preferred brands’—carbon footprints. Cuppow’s local, domestic supply chain means

that the company produces lower freight emissions than companies that have international supply chains, Ralich says. “It never goes on a boat or a plane to get to us before it gets to the customer, and we show what it would look like in terms of carbon emissions and general environmental footprint if we made these in China, where these things are commonly made.”

Cuppow creates infographics about this information, with factoids such as: “Distance from Shenzhen, China, to Boston: 11,376 miles. Distance covered by the entire Cuppow supply chain: 416 miles. This means Cuppow travels 96% fewer miles than if we produced our product overseas,” and, “Cuppow reused the equivalent of 398,404 16-oz. paper cups to make our packaging.” Cuppow sends the infographics to its e-mail lists, and posts them to its website, blog and social media channels. “It’s tooting our own horn, showing the process of how we’re trying to do something for the greater good. Having a product that has more of a story to it was always our intention,” Ralich says.

Cuppow also participates in grassroots marketing efforts, such as sponsoring a local, Boston-based bike racing team, Geekhouse Bikes, for the last four years. Geekhouse’s team members wear Cuppow jerseys, which helps expand the brand’s name recognition, Ralich says.

“No one likes banner ads. We thought, What if we took the cash we allotted for ads and sponsored this team? It got the name out there with an audience that cares about minimizing their impact on the planet.”

The Cuppow team will continue to look for creative ways to get its conservation messages across, he adds.

“The more sincere we can be about it, the more people respond to it. Instead of getting buried in business jargon, we say, ‘Hey, we invented something to solve a problem, and we’re going to try to solve some more sustainability problems, and we hope that you’ll enjoy following along.’ ” m

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