By David Gill
The new organizational structure at Focus Products Group will allow the company to offer “suites” of products in its various categories, according to Keith Jaffee, chief executive officer.
This is a new approach for the consumer-products manufacturer. Previously, the company—whose brands include Back to Basics and West Bend in housewares; Amco Houseworks in kitchen tools and accessories; Chicago Metallic in bakeware; Jerdon in personal-care and bath accessories; Sensible Storage in storage products; and Swing-A-Way in can openers—had been taking these brands as individual items to its customer base.
In an interview with HFN, Jaffee said Focus Products had acquired 17 companies over the past seven years. “From a sales and marketing perspective, we let the brands go their different ways,” he said. “Now we’ve realized that we had to get more focused by each area: kitchen, bathroom and food service.”
The new Focus Products setup is a divisional structure, consisting of Focus Kitchen Group, Focus Bath and Focus Foodservice to go along with the already existing Focus Electrics Group.
Mike Otterman, a former executive with Newell Rubbermaid’s Calphalon brand, has been named president and CEO of Focus Electrics. The company also named Clifford Hall, a former chief operating officer of Timex, as president and CEO. Focus Bath as president and CEO is Clifford Hall. David Wasserman continues as president of Focus Foodservice.
“The reason we’ve been successful in the past with our acquisitions is that we quickly integrated the back-office functions in each case,” Jaffee said. “We know now that we have these great brands, but that we can go to retailers with these suites of products. We can do some of these on a seasonal basis as well. … Here’s Focus’ offering for spring, here’s what we’re doing for fall.”