Monday, June 19, 2006
Battery-operated power tools - What's Hot - Igo Home Products sells its household tools in drug stores, creating new category, US - Brief Article
Value-priced, battery-operated power tools are beginning to emerge from the housewares business, landing on the shelves of drug stores, where they provide chains higher-ticket, higher-margin, more impulse-driven alternatives to more conventional, less profitable and less exciting hardware items.
The segment is evolving from just a few products made by Cleveland-based Igo Home Products, a designer and manufacturer of houseware tools and accessories. But it could be a gem of a new category that has appeal for men and women and is value-priced enough to generate incremental sales at above-average margins. Igo's offerings include the Kitchen Drawer Power Tools line, which features such items as powered screwdrivers and cordless, battery-operated drills retailing for less than $20.
Igo first found its way into the drug store industry in fourth quarter 2001 when Walgreens featured Igo's Grip & Drive, a battery-operated screwdriver, as a Christmas promotion. That item and a second one, Igo's Grip & Zip Cordless Drill, now are available every day at Walgreens. They also have been featured at Rite Aid, Longs, Eckerd, Kinney, Bartell and London Drugs.
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"If you are looking for compact, high-margin items that generate impulse sales," one merchandising executive said, "these are the kinds of items you test. If they do well promotionally, then you find a home for them, and, since they are impulse items, a sidekick on an endcap works just fine."
The segment is evolving from just a few products made by Cleveland-based Igo Home Products, a designer and manufacturer of houseware tools and accessories. But it could be a gem of a new category that has appeal for men and women and is value-priced enough to generate incremental sales at above-average margins. Igo's offerings include the Kitchen Drawer Power Tools line, which features such items as powered screwdrivers and cordless, battery-operated drills retailing for less than $20.
Igo first found its way into the drug store industry in fourth quarter 2001 when Walgreens featured Igo's Grip & Drive, a battery-operated screwdriver, as a Christmas promotion. That item and a second one, Igo's Grip & Zip Cordless Drill, now are available every day at Walgreens. They also have been featured at Rite Aid, Longs, Eckerd, Kinney, Bartell and London Drugs.
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"If you are looking for compact, high-margin items that generate impulse sales," one merchandising executive said, "these are the kinds of items you test. If they do well promotionally, then you find a home for them, and, since they are impulse items, a sidekick on an endcap works just fine."
