E-ZEEWRAP® 1000


	Focus on Export Exploring the Options of World Markets, February 1996 Jim Scharf Holdings Ltd. Home of E-ZEEWRAP Jim spoke to our Export breakfast meeting on January 26th, 1995. Jim is a small town farmer. He has 7,000 acres near Perdue, but he still has time to run a thriving business....E-ZEEWRAP. E-ZEEWRAP is an award winning food wrap dispenser that holds 1000 feet of plastic wrap....the equivalent of 10 standard size boxes of wrap. There is a special patented design that allows easy grasping of the wrap. It also has precise cutting edge so you never have to search for the "end". One of Jim's greatest attributes is his marketing strengths. He believes in his product and is tireless in promoting it. This has helped to make him on of Saskatchewan's greatest success stories. The company has won six industry awards including Best New Canadian Housewares Product, Best in Retail Packaging, Abex Award for Marketing...achievement in Business Excellence. Last year they were awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year, finalist for Wholesale Distributor and were also in Profit Magazine's Top 100 companies, ranking 46th on the list of fastest growing companies. In addition to the United States, the company has exported to Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Languages used on the packaging include English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and Italian. Jim is currently exhibiting in a Chicago show..this will be his fifth time. They have new packaging for this show that was done for the South East Asian market. Languages on the packaging will included English, Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian. This is truly a story where hard work and tenacity has paid off.
	Neighbourly News By Fred McGuinness On February 13, 1995 this article appeared in all Canadian Weekly Newspapers. There are two queues at the courtesy desk in the hardware store. The one I am in is stalled. The neighboring one moves briskly. It appears those who are in it all want the same thing. Journalists get curious at times like these. I inquire. Those shoppers wanted rain checks for a handy household appliance called E-ZEEWRAP. It was on sale and the store-quite literally-couldn't keep it in stock. Well, this set the memory bells a'ringing and I recalled that last autumn, in the Biggar Independent, I had seen a front page dedicated to E-ZEEWRAP and its inventor. I hurried home to get on the telephone and make a connection. The inventor is Jim Scharf. He's a partner in a giant (30-quarter) grain operation at Perdue. When he isn't farming he's inventing, and he has many awards as a result. When E-ZEEWRAP hit the big time Jim and his inventions moved out of the basement and into the building of a former implement dealership. Let me open with a personal comment; this is one enthusiastic fellow. He answers the telephone with a smile and a cheery Jim here! And after that it's positive all the way. E-ZEEWRAPis the culmination of a lengthy career in inventions, some for the farm, some for the household. He invented his popular plastic dispenser in 1986. The original model had a metal body and oak ends. It was totally functional, but still not a winner; it was too expensive to assemble, and its retail price of $50 was too high. It was time for some refinements. Jim turned to a man whose praises he sings, Orville Olm. Orville is an employee of the Saskatchewan Research Council. He saw the potential in the E-ZEEWRAP, and he went to work on it, keeping in mind Jim's injunction that plastic was probably the way to go, "but it musn't end up looking junky." Eighteen months later and Orville had not only completed his redesign, but also he had sculpted the mould. Hara Products of Swift Current now produces the E-ZEEWRAP bodies through injection moulding process. They have a capacity of 2,000 bodies per day, but there's a new mould in the works and before long production will be up to 6,000 daily. In the former implement house that Jim now owns there is a crew of 10 which does the assembly. In January this payroll jumps up to 20. The package was designed by Saskatoon artist Stan Kinal. It is printed in Toronto and Vancouver but only because Saskatoon doesn't have a package printer. Who is buying E-ZEEWRAP? Just about everyone, it appears. It is now sold in Asia, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, and there have been repeat orders from Sweden. Jim is pleased to report that Perdue is holding its population of 450, and that it has a solid economic base in its implement dealerships. Of course it helps that Perdue has Jim Scharf Holdings as well, and this company now sells it product around the world.
	Jim Scharf Holdings Ltd. - Innovators of New Products Avenue K & 9th Street - P.O. Box 305 Perdue, Saskatchewan, Canada - S0K 3C0 Phone (306) 237- 4365 Fax: (306) 237- 4362 Toll Free 1-800-667-9727 Patents: Canadian 1275980 / U.S.A. 4779780, 5186376 / Foreign Pending