Creating and introducing new products for easier and faster electrical installations may be the one universal goal of everyone in the electrical products industry. When looking for instances of radical innovation it’s natural to look to garage inventors and small upstart companies, but when a company with the size and established market share of Southwire Co., Carrollton, Ga., ventures into new territory offering a product line that seeks to overturn the way every electrician approaches the job, the impact can be dramatic.
Southwire has been working on a complete rethinking of the way every electrician in the industry pulls wire, and the results of that research and development came to public fruition this week when the company celebrated the launch of a whole new system of wire handling products and packaging.
The CoilPAK system grew out of the success of the company’s SIMpull Wire Barrel, introduced in March 2012, which won a number of industry new-product awards for the way it reduced the strain of handling wire for feeder circuits. Southwire took the thinking behind the SIMpull barrels and applied it to the branch circuit wiring process, adding in special dollies and hand-trucks along the way, to develop a complete system.
The goal is to get the whole industry away from the ubiquitous small black spools on which circuit wire is sold and eliminate the problems they cause, said Stuart Thorn, president and CEO of Southwire, at a press preview last month in Carrollton. “We think we can make those spools obsolete in five years. That’s the goal,” he said. Thorn added that he views the CoilPAK’s importance to Southwire on par with the impact the iPod had on Apple Computer – a product that can remake the company that introduces it.
As with most things Southwire, the advantages of the CoilPAK system start with the wire itself. The company applied its SIM low-friction wire coating to circuit-size cable for the first time. The key to CoilPAK’s value, though, lies in its packaging. Instead of being wound onto the black spools, that wire is coiled into a doughnut-shaped clear plastic container that feeds the wire out from the center hole. As with the company’s SIMpull barrels, this package eliminates the need to overcome the inertia of the spool full of copper to make it turn on a rack. It also eliminates the overrun that leaves wire unfurling on the jobsite floor.
The doughnut-shaped package design confers other advantages, including the ability to stack CoilPAKs and pull power, neutral and ground wires all at once. The stacking is made easier when the CoilPAKs are used with new hand-trucks and carts developed by Maxis, which Southwire acquired in 2009. Even without the special cart, the CoilPAKs are configured for easy carrying, resistance to damage and manageable weight, each one weighing in under 50 lbs.
Southwire estimates that an electrical contractor using the full suite of products included in the CoilPAK can reduce the cost of installing wire for branch circuits by as much as 80 percent, and refers to studies showing that for this type of work, labor accounts for 67 percent of the cost. “We think we can double the profitability of the electrical contractor,” said Jack Carlson, president of Southwire’s North America business. “That may sound like a stretch, but regardless, this will dramatically improve it.”
Along with a marketing push through print and online media, Southwire has developed a package of incentives to encourage its distributors to help generate interest in the products among electrical contractors. The company is rolling out a full arsenal of support materials to help get the word out, ranging from special point-of-purchase displays for distributor counter areas to apps and videos.
Once they try it, Southwire execs think contractors will see the value immediately. “The issue becomes, how to get them to do it the first time?” said Rhonda Gauthreaux, director of marketing communications. “As we’ve developed the products, we’ve made a parallel investment in the marketing, with the message that this product is going to enable electricians to do their work longer. The guy handling the wire — this is going to improve his quality of life. The owner — this is going to improve safety and reduce waste. It’s a virtuous cycle.”