Brewing up cups – Missoula man tries to take award-winning coffee mugs to next level

Mark Porter’s desire for a good cup of coffee in the backcountry led to his invention of a durable french-press mug. After seven years of designing mugs, Porter sells to clients including REI and Neiman Marcus.

By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/09/28/business/biz01.txt

In his warehouse a few blocks from the intersection of Russell Street and Mount Avenue, Mark Porter gestured toward a generous space filled with not much. On one table were about a dozen sleek, pink mugs, the kind that travel well.

"We’re out of inventory, which is the case a lot of the time," he said.

A pile of boxes stood in the corner.
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"That’s the stuff that didn’t quite work," he said. Some of the boxes lay open, exposing lids, cups, tiny plungers and tissue paper.

For the past seven years, Porter has built a company, now named Planetary Designs, around a travel mug he invented. Last year, he won two awards for new products at national coffee industry conventions.

His products, including the new award-winning pink mug and a larger tabletop variety, are on shelves in Missoula at the Trailhead and around the United States in L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer and REI outlets, as well as tony department stores like Neiman Marcus.

Doug Peterson, product manager at REI in Seattle, said Porter’s French press mugs are "consistent sellers."

"Mark Porter has done a great job at targeting the needs of the outdoor enthusiast with a product that is rugged, well-insulated and lightweight," said Peterson, who is a buyer for the cooperative company.

Porter’s products were sparked by his camping and backpacking needs. He wanted good coffee in the backcountry, so he designed a durable cup that also works as a French press.

In a French press, hot water is poured over coffee grounds. Then a plunger with a screen – attached to the lid – is pressed through the water. The grounds end up at the bottom, leaving rich, fresh coffee on top.

But French presses are commonly made of glass, which breaks easily and doesn’t retain heat.

"I wanted a good cup of coffee on my trips. If there had been a product, I would have bought it and liked it, and that would have been the end of it," he said.

But there wasn’t, and his interest became a desire – and soon a passion.

"I thought, if I make one product that works, I’ll be happy," he said.

His first product, made under the name of Big Sky Bistro, worked and was durable.

"It was better than anything available," Porter said.

But it wasn’t pretty. It was brown, plastic and clunky, Porter said.

"They weren’t clunky," said Kiefer Hahn, a buyer for the Trailhead.

"They’ve changed drastically, though, over the years. Now he has a diverse line of mugs and presses and whatnot. They’re stylish and metal," he said, hesitating to find the right word. "Very chi-chi."

During that same time, Porter did some design work for Sun Mountain Sports, a company that manufactured outdoor equipment in Missoula until its operations moved overseas.

Porter learned several lessons from Sun Mountain, he said.

"Color – that was what attracted people to the product," Porter said.

And Porter watched Sun Mountain’s experience with Asian manufacturing.

"I got a bird’s-eye view. I learned a ton about Asian sourcing," he said.

So Porter went to trade shows of Asian producers. He visited factories. He learned about high-end stainless steel and plastic injection molding. All that time he slowly grew Big Sky Bistro. He traveled to coffee trade shows in the United States, set up booths and talked to retailers. His reception was mixed. Some people loved his early products. Others handled his mugs and called them stupid.

"I had to learn to disengage myself from the product," Porter said.

Through trial and error, by watching the way people interacted with his products, Porter refined the mugs.

Some of the early production was done in Missoula by Opportunity Resources Inc., a local not-for-profit company that provides services to people with disabilities. It has an assembly and packaging division with about 75 employees.

Candace Lewis, a contract supervisor at Opportunity Resources, said Porter has brought work to them for at least five years.

"We are able to separate the work so that we are able to work with different skill levels," Lewis said.

Even after Porter has settled into a manufacturing routine with a factory in Shanghai, quite a bit of work still comes through Opportunity Resources.

"We do quality control and add things for different customers, and then we do order fulfillment. A lot of it gets shipped from right here," she said.

Porter’s first production, which came off Opportunity Resource’s assembly line in September 1997, was 5,000 pieces. He sent 500 out as samples to buyers for stores.

Evidently it was an idea whose time had come. The product had an 80 percent capture rate, he said.

"I don’t want to get quoted on numbers now, but we’re selling way more than 10,000 per year," he said. A 40-foot shipping container full of pieces is scheduled to arrive on the West Coast about the second week of October, he said, and another will arrive every three weeks after that.

Some of Porter’s earliest customers, such as Trailhead, were local, but he always aimed far, too. As the business grew, he hired a few employees to help him man the office and take care of the books. But the lion’s share of the work – from design to sales to shipping – he carried on his own shoulders, he said.

Working the Chinese company wasn’t always easy.

"It’s a process. You’re ‘No, not like that, like this,’ " he said. But "they make good product" at a reasonable price, he said. He couldn’t do the same manufacturing in the United States, he said.

Last year, Porter changed the name of the company to Porter’s Designs. In June, he sold a large share of the company to Scott Billadeau, who is a co-owner of Liquid Planet, and a group of Billadeau’s investors. The company is now called Planetary Designs.

"That was a big piece of myself that I sold," Porter said.

On the other hand, he said, it feels good to operate with a team. He liked running the business.

"But, to tell the truth, I’m not very good at it," he said.

Porter said he will concentrate on developing and manufacturing new products.

Patents expire, he said, and "patents are funny things" anyway.

"Sure, I’ll throw up a patent hurdle, but pretty soon the competition will figure out what you’re doing," he said.

Litigation is expensive, he said, and in the end the deep pockets will prevail.

Better to keep innovating, he said.

"Coming up with ideas isn’t an issue," he said.

Some drawings for his newest designs were on the wall near Porter’s desk, and he’s aiming high.

"We’re taking a swing at Bodum," he said. That’s the market leader in the high-end coffee product industry.

And he’ll keep going to Shanghai, from which he recently returned. On his arrival at the factory, he said, a container of mugs was being loaded. He had the workers stop, and he tore open one of the boxes.

"Man, they’re beautiful," Porter said. He was sitting at his desk, with his hand cupping an imaginary pink mug.

"I’m looking at the thing, and I realized there were no stickers," he said.

The new pink mug has a container in its base that can hold enough ground coffee to make a second cup with fresh water. But without a sticker to clue customers into the feature, they could own it for years and never know.

"Those containers are in the middle of the Pacific," he said.

Porter has solved the problem with his old connections at Opportunity Resources. The mugs will come to Missoula, and the stickers will be applied on the assembly lines here.

Reporter Robert Struckman can be reached at 523-5262 or at [email protected]