The toy industry is always looking for cutting-edge technology, but applying the technology successfully can be the challenge. This has not stopped Silverlit Toys from utilizing the latest technology in its products, Vice President of Marketing in the United States Rick Ruskin says. “[We] take technology that’s already out there in the higher-end markets and take it to the toy-grade level,” he says.
Based in Hong Kong, Silverlit manufactures toys, including radio controlled (R/C) cars and helicopters for children around the world. Ruskin explains that the company began in 1977 as an OEM manufacturer in the toy industry, but eventually moved into making its own products.
When people buy glasses or visit a doctor for eyecare, they want to go to someone they can trust their eyes with.
Nationwide Vision strives to be that trusted care provider. Based in Chandler, Ariz., the company’s 64 locations in its home state specialize in comprehensive eye and medical exams, large selections of designer eye glasses, all major brands of contact lenses and surgical procedures, including Lasik, Intraocular contact lenses, Clear lens exchange and Cataract procedures.
Dr. Neal Weinstein and Dr. Mark Hechtman founded the company in 1985, and today, it remains solely owned by the doctors. Additionally, Nationwide Vision is Arizona’s largest optical retailer and the 15th-largest optical retail chain in the United States. In the next three years, the company plans to open 15 new Arizona locations.
For natural and specialty food stores, as well as traditional supermarkets and foodservice operators, Hain Pure Protein Corp. (Hain PPC) has become a partner of choice. The company’s full range of premium all-natural, antibiotic-free and organic poultry products are well known as some of the top-quality protein on the market today.
“We are pioneers in this business and follow an EarthWise approach that gives our products and brands more appeal to customers looking for top-quality products,” COO and CFO Jay Lieberman says. Hain PPC is known for antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed poultry products that have been humanely raised.
When Brad Gruno, founder of Brad’s Raw Foods, decided to adopt a raw food diet six years ago, he started seeing great benefits right away. This type of diet consists of consuming mainly uncooked, unprocessed, organic fruits, raw vegetables and nuts.
Gruno explains that he lost 40 pounds in the first three months, felt better, healthier, had more energy and his complexion cleared. Though he was sold on his new diet, he missed the familiar crunch of chips and other similar snacks.
The world has advanced so quickly that even the monks at Indiana’s Saint Meinrad Archabbey haven’t been able to ignore it. The Benedictine monastery has served the Catholic Church and society through its graduate-level school of theology for lay and priesthood students since 1854.
Since 1867, it has supported this mission through Abbey Press – a diversified company that prints literature and crafts products devoted to the values of its owners, such as faith, friends and family. That message has not changed; its delivery, however, has adjusted as the world has evolved.
“When someone finds out I’m with The ICEE Company, I’ll hear about how they take their kids to Target on the weekend and everybody gets an ICEE,” Fachner explains. “Or [they’ll tell me], ‘I remember when my dad took me to the local convenience store and ICEE was our treat for the weekend.’”
One thing that has not changed for humanity over time is the need to provide food for itself. What has changed, however, is how we go about doing it – from hunting in ancient times to the every day markets of the middle ages, small specialty stores at the beginning of the century and large chain supermarkets nowadays. Even within mammoth supermarkets, the way we learn about our food options and make our choices has changed drastically in the last 10 years.
With the shadow of high unemployment rates permeating news reports, it’s hard to imagine that there is an area of the country with more jobs than people to fill them. At least, that is the impression John Phillips, owner of Regal Oil Inc., has of the economic situation in the region. “It’s strange to see how high the unemployment rate is everywhere, and here in West Texas it’s hard to find employees,” Phillips says.
