Editor’s Note: For guidelines on selecting a baby safety gate and other products to keep baby safety at home, click HERE!
As we begin a new year and look ahead to the New York Baby Show coming up on May 14 and 15 in New York City, New York Family will be publishing a series of interviews with executives at some of the most influential companies in the baby industry to learn more about their business and products, and discuss important trends and news of interest to expectant and new parents. The chats are meant to be helpful and informative to consumers, but there’s also a bonus: As you’ll see, sometimes it’s just nice to hear from the people in charge—not surprisingly, their just as passionate about their products as the parents who use them.
Ken Kaiser founded KidCo in 1992. A pioneering company in child safety gates, KidCo is also a long-time leader in home safety products, like cabinet locks/latches, and in recent years, it has introduced a number of travel products for children. I interviewed Ken and his son Dan, who is KidCo’s Vice President & General Manager. Though Ken contributed the lion’s share, don’t miss Dan’s interesting reflections about the future of the company at the end of the interview.
Tell me about your company’s overall mission. What’s your niche in the baby product world?
Our first niche from a product stand point was gates. We used to distribute strollers for nationally known brand as well [Maclaren]. But in 1993, we went into the gate business, with the idea of developing products that were better than what the industry was offering at the time, something a little more upscale. Originally KidCo gates were sold in specialty stores; then over time the distribution expanded into mass merchandisers.
What did you do with gates that was so innovative?
We had established national distribution channels from our work with Maclaren, and that allowed us to introduce the first metal safety gates. As the time, the market was mostly full of cheap wood gates priced in the $9.99 to $14.99 range, and plastic gates priced in the $14.99 to $19.99 range, and our metal gates were selling for $49.99!
A big difference.
Yes, it was an uphill battle when we first introduced the gates. That’s where the specialty stores helped us, and the baby proofers as well because they were looking for a product that was just better, safer, easier to use, and more aesthetically pleasing. Today, all the metal gates you see in the industry are in some form or another a knock-off of the KidCo brand.
How long did it take to really gain popularity and market share?
About five years. The tipping point was Consumer Reports. They wrote an article, maybe it was in 1998, that you would have thought our company’s PR person wrote. It literally said something like KidCo gates were expensive but worth every penny because they were that superior to anything on the market. Up to that point, we had not been sold in Target or Toys R Us because they didn’t think the consumer would spend that much money. But things evolve: The same thing happened with car seats and strollers. We believed in [the product] in our hearts, and pushed and push, and that was the tipping point.
Fast-forward to the present. What’s the market now like for safety gates? What do consumers expect from gates? What’s popular?
Beyond anything, parents expect gates to be safe. In fact, we are right in the middle of rewriting gate government safety standards. We’re on the industry committee that advises the Consumer Product Safety Commission along with the other major gate makers.
What can you tell me? Are there big changes coming?
Fortunately, with gates, there haven’t been a lot of big safety issues. Years ago, there were a lot of children who died because there were these diamond-shaped gates – we didn’t make those – that opened up and expanded out and had a castle top, and kids were getting their necks caught and being strangled. That was a big deal about 30 years ago. Nowadays, ease of use has become a big issue as far as the industry is concerned. All of our gates can be operated with one hand, but there are other gates that are so difficult to use that people have a tendency to want to step over them, and then they trip and drop the baby. A lot of us in the last five years have come out with gates that mechanically open, but then the gate will automatically close and lock itself. It’s a step you don’t have to do as parent. In other words, you open it with one hand, walk through, and have the door close behind you automatically.
So you’re waiting for the government’s final word on the new standards?
Ken: Yeah, we’re kind of [on] pins and needles waiting for the new standards. They’ll probably want us to put 25 more warnings on the product, and we don’t’ know how we can fit more new warnings.
Dan: We have several exciting concepts–and we’re trying to figure out which standards the government will adopt; so we can kind of decide if we want to move forward at this point; or if we want to wait…but we’re not waiting too much longer because we have to do something to keep up with a more competitive line of products.
Ken: Now there are things among the new safety standards that are probably needed, that had been ignored. Broken slats, as an example. There are a lot of cheap gates out there that small kid could fall against and break the slat – and it looks like we’ll be adapting the slate test from the crib safety standard. And I think it’s a very valid point. [Generally] the good part about the safety standards is there are very few serious injuries anymore. In the last 10 years, there has been like one death. Now one is too many, but compared to car seats and other categories, one is a good track record.
What are the trends in terms of materials or other factors consumers should look for? Also, if you originally launched at a very high price point compared to the competition at the time, what’s the market like now?
There are cheaper metal gates now, there is always someone cheaper. But whereas we used to be in the very high end of price, I’d say we’re now in the medium to upper range.
What’s the value one gets with buying a gate in the middle to upper range gate?
Better durability, and the gate will last longer. For example, we use a nylon in all of our resins—it’s an expensive material, and it wouldn’t mean anything to you as a consumer—but the reason we do it is that those nylon fittings make a big difference in quality of product. Don’t get me wrong–we have our share of returns, our share of breaks, and our share of misuses. But we do everything we can from the customer service standpoint, and while it’s easy to say you’re the best, or that your stuff lasts the longest, I think we’ve earned our reputation for good, durable products.
How has the market evolved over the years? You introduced metal gates. Now what percentage of the market (in terms of units) are metal?
Close to 25 percent. About 50 percent are still very cheap gates—usually a mix of wood and plastic—and the other 25 percent is all over the place, including very high-end, all-wood gates.
What’s the price range for your metal gates?
KidCo gates are priced between $39.99 to $189.99
Tell me about the evolution of your company and the other kinds of products lines that KidCo focuses on?
We’re always looking for new categories because I believe that every product has a life cycle, and once you’re successful and get a lot of visibility someone’s going to come along and make it cheaper. No matter what you do, someone is going to make it cheaper. So then we expanded from gates into other home safety areas.
Meaning . . .
It’s a big category, lots of locks and latches. We entered into bed rails.
Are you a big player in these categories?
We certainly are in home safety. We’re probably second in the industry after Safety First. We’re not a huge player in bed rails. We just don’t have the pricing. Our bed rails are good quality and easy to set up, but it’s hard to convey to the end consumer the cost to those features.
How did you get into travel products? I see the thematic leap from gates to home safety. But travel?
We explored it, felt it had potential. We licensed a product from Europe called the Pea Pod. They are sleeping tents—but they’re not just a tent, they’re a sleeping environment. They have padding for support and comfort,and we did very well with them for a couple of years. We started looking into what else we can do to expand into travel items and little kids. We met an inventor who created another product called the Go Pod—it’s a portable activity center that folds up like a camping chair. It’s great. You can take them to a soccer game, camping. So all of sudden we see ourselves with a new category we’re trying to create. We think we were the first ones to start this new category and called it Travel. We’ve since expanded it to include a travel bassinet—that’s not the big hulking bassinet you can’t take with you if you’re going to Florida to visit grandma and grandpa. From there we introduced the Travel Pod, which is a portable play pen.
Is that the latest?
No, actually, our newest introduction this year is called the DinePod. It’s great. You don’t need a full-size high chair if you’re visiting grandma. Take it to a restaurant where you never know if the high chair is filthy.
Or if the chair straps shredded and just waiting to break; I remember that one.
Right. So that was the concept, to take that compact technology and put it into a high chair. And it’s $49.99, so it’s affordable and doing quite well. And now we’re thinking about what’s next in this Travel category.
You son has been listening so graciously. Thank you. I’d like to invite him in for final thoughts. (To Dan) You’re all in?
Dan: Yes. I joined the company full-time about five years ago, but I’ve see the industry change a lot over the years. I’ve been at the office a lot since I was young and to trade shows, seeing the products evolve. I’d help when there were issues. I even went to China for the first time when I was 16, so I’ve been involved in a lot of the factory aspects too. I’ve been able to help, seeing our new products develop and the market change. It’s been really exciting.
Okay, so I have the same question for both of you: What have you found to be the hardest challenge of working together and how have you overcome it?
Ken: I’ll let him answer that.
Dan: I think we have very different ideas sometimes. Because he’s been in the industry so long; an idea or product concept might come up and he’ll say that didn’t’ work 20 years ago, and I’ll say this is a different time. There are different ways to do business, and especially with the internet you need to do more things to call out the features that differentiate your products—like using video.
Dan, what are you most proud of?
Getting my father to open up to doing things a bit differently. For instance, private label. He didn’t want to consider it a few years ago. And now we sell one of our gates to a large international retailer and it’s been very successful for us.
Ken, What are you most proud of?
A lot of things come to mind…Anyone who is an entrepreneurial-type spirit, you always think you’re going to be right. But the markets changed so much, I’m glad I’m able to listen to the younger people, and it’s opened my eyes that I don’t have all the answers. But Dan recognizes that it’s hard for me to change sometimes. It’s a challenge sometimes; you have family time and work time, and he’s very close to his mother but he sees me all the time [laughs] . . . but it’s good that we can work together.
To learn more about KidCo, visit kidco.com!
