Aspenware

A Shuswap Passion column for the Shuswap Market News

By Jim Cooperman

April 17, 2009

Sometimes a cottage industry can outgrow the basement or the backyard workshop, especially if the demand for the product outstrips the size of the production facility.  In the case of Aspenware, a very successful Shuswap based company that manufactures wooden cutlery, the 'cottage'

was only used during the product's developmental phase. 

Three inventors, Vernon shop teachers Claus Gerlach and Terry Bigsby and Terry's father Bob began to tinker in their kitchens to create a device like one they saw in Germany, but better.  After nine years, they developed a waffle-iron like device that could make high quality laminated wooden cutlery.  With the help of the Okanagan-based Imagination Machine Works engineering firm they designed and built the infrastructure needed for high volume manufacturing, inside the former Silver Hills Bakery building on Mabel Lake Road ten minutes north of Lumby.

Thanks to Joanne McNutt, who gave me a tour through the factory, I was able to witness the patent pending production process first hand.  Two foot long lengths are first cut from birch and aspen logs that may have otherwise been left to burn in waste piles from logging.  These firewood-like sections are de-barked and put through customized lathes, which came from the chopstick industry, to make thin rolls of veneer.

After being trimmed of knots and dark heartwood, the veneer sections are sent through a drier and then a conditioner.  The veneer sections are coated with an edible adhesive, and then introduced to a custom punch.

After being stamped into shape, the sections, cut into eight pieces of cutlery, go into the expensive "waffle irons" and emerge to be coated by a flavourless confectionary glaze on "just the business end," as Joanne explained.

Fortunately Aspenware President Terry Bigsby took time for some questions and he was proud to point out that wood cutlery was likely the

"highest value-added mass produced wood product in the world."   While

the forest industry usually creates one job per year for every 1000 cubic metres of wood, at Aspenware they create one job for every 100 cubic metres.

It is no wonder, as out of one cubic metre (about one large telephone pole), Aspenware makes in excess of 20,000 pieces of cutlery.  And there is no waste, because the leftover wood and bark is chipped and goes to local farmers for animal bedding and mulch. 

At the factory, it looked like everyone was enjoying their jobs, which are often traded to avoid repetitive muscle strains.  And monotony is minimal, because the production line is constantly being upgraded with weekly improvements, such as robotic arms and a laser that carves a logo on the stems.  There is an environmental focus for everything, including the better than plastic, biodegradable cellulose film used to enclose the individual fork, knife and spoon packages.

Now an award winning company, Aspenware is poised for growth, as more and more consumers try to avoid wasteful and polluting plastic cutlery and want an environmentally responsible product that is biodegradable.

As part of its community outreach program, the company provides cutlery and reduced costs to local schools, charities and the Vernon Science Centre that have composting programs. 

At this year's Juno Awards, Canada's top recording artists received exclusive cedar gift boxes filled with B.C. gourmet and luxury items including Aspenware cutlery.  And next year this made-in-the-Shuswap cutlery could be used at the Olympics.  Thanks to a high degree of ability persistence, ingenuity, creativity and imagination; Terry Bigsby and his partners have developed a unique, valued added wood product, with a nearly unlimited growth potential, that, as advertised, helps to address environmental issues, "one meal at a time."

Other local entrepreneurs also have innovative projects with similar potential and Shuswap Community Futures has programs in place to help.

On the last Wednesday of each month, the agency facilitates an evening meeting for the Shuswap Home-based Business Networking Group to exchange ideas and share resources and information.  Topics covered so far have included preparing for taxes, and website design.  The eventual goal for the group is to form an association similar to what exists in other communities.  Everyone is welcome, but phone ahead to confirm your attendance.