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AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH IHA Kimberly Oser Publisher Jules Denton-Card Senior Associate Publisher Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director Anthony Socci Associate Publisher JoEllen Lowry • Jeanie Catron • Karrie Welborn Associate Editors Yasmine Brown Art Director Jonathan Schieffer Graphic Designer Susan Stein Customer Service Manager Rae Featherston Customer Service Associate Marcos Morhaim Senior Account Manager Adrian Chacon • Alisha Dicochea • Arnoldo Alonso Joseph Bellon • Kim Whiteman • Vanessa Valenzuela Account Managers Tara Neal Director of Operations Jay Watson • Hannah Stefanovich Show Logistics & Distribution Enrico Cecchi European Sales Kitchenware News & Housewares Review Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2020 All rights reserved. Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy www.osercommunicationsgroup.com Lee M. Oser Founder Kitchenware News & Housewares Review Show Daily Tuesday, March 17, 2020 4 Drop Shipping from neatfreak An interview with Asif Husain, neatf- reak's Director of Digital Sales. KNSD: Tell our readers what's new from neatfreak in 2020. AH: It's been a year of growth for the digital division at neatfreak. We launched a B2C e-commerce website, www.neat freak.com. We are about to launch our neatfreak B2B website, built specifically for our small to mid-size retailers to order product without minimums. And now, our most important initiative is the intro- duction of dropship capabilities, provid- ing to our retail partners the possibilities of expanding neatfreak's assortment on their website, without using any open to buy dollars. It utilizes our logistics department to ship the item directly to a customer. KNSD: Is drop shipping something that retailers are looking for? AH: Short answer: Yes. Over the years, our retail partners have requested that neatfreak provide this service. Now we are very pleased to share this exciting new chapter with our retail partners. Additionally, the ability for our retail partners to be able offer an extended aisle assortment to their cus- tomers without the need to stock inventory is equally important. KNSD: Why do you feel this is a viable distribution option for retailers? AH: It's all about the assortment, and with the expanded aisle neatfreak is offering, it should encourage and moti- vate the online shoppers to stay on the retailer's website for a longer duration to find what they are looking for, with- out having to leave the retailer's web- site. The Metal Ware Corporation Stands Out in Kitchenware Space By Rick Carey, Chief Executive Officer 2019 and 2020 have been big years for The Metal Ware Corporation's domestic production, especially in the kitchenware category. Not only is our company cele- brating 100 years of Two Rivers, Wisconsin-based manufacturing, special- izing in metal stamping, plastic injection molding and rotational molding, we're making a lot of optimizations and inno- vations to ensure we're keeping up with the times, while allowing us to have shorter lead times on many goods. In MW Manufacturing's metals divi- sion, where we make all of our NESCO bakeware, there have been leaps in effi- ciencies and safeties this year. Our robot- ics team is most excited about the addi- tion of the Fanic robot, which sits at the end of our buffer lines and moves parts off the line when the buffing cycle is complete, which has historically been one of the least-desired jobs in our facto- ry. A job that used to take three people to do and had a high rate of repetitive motion injuries, is now done by these robots, run by one operator with a much lower risk of injury. Similarly, in our plastic injec- tion molding area where we make our food dehydrator trays and acces- sories and assemble the finished goods, the use of robotics to remove parts from the machine frees operators' time during the cycle to package our dehydrators and accessories, and pallet them for distribu- tion. This led to a much higher retention rate of employees, as it's more stimulat- ing than standing and waiting for parts to finish. Continued on Page 77 Continued on Page 77