All Fired Up With the right marketing plan, your product will blaze trails across the globe.
By Don Debelak
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The Entrepreneurs: Joanne Johnson, 34; Marcel Sbrollini,42; and Rod Sprules, 33; founders of Robustion Products Inc. in St.Laurent, Quebec
The Product: The Java-Log is a fireplace log madeprimarily from recycled coffee grounds. Sprules, a mechanicalengineer, first learned of the high heat capacity of coffee groundswhile working on a heated cold weather suit for his formeremployer. When coffeehouses became popular, he thought ofconverting used coffee grounds into the Java-Log. Today, theproduct, which retails for about $2.50 per log and burns hotterthan traditional firewood, is sold through Home Hardware, a majorCanadian hardware chain; Home Depot in Canada; grocery stores; anda variety of smaller stores in Canada and the United States.Product sales via the company's Web site (www.robustion.ca) arealso growing.
Startup: $38,000
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