Jonathan Chapman Photography
Restore Products
Restoreproducts.com
Laurie Brown, 55
Minneapolis, Minn.
For eight years until 1998, Brown, a former mental-health lobbyist, owned and operated Restore the Earth, an "environmentally aware" retailer in Minneapolis, selling water purifiers, organic cotton clothing, and non-toxic paints. She had hoped to franchise the business but when big corporations started selling similar green items, commoditizing them, she switched gears.
Instead Brown recycled two of her in-store concepts. The first: a brand of natural Restore cleaning products. The second is the Restore Refilling station: a patented in-store kiosk that allows consumers to bring back empty product bottles and refill them. A machine reads a bar code, mixes the product, refills the bottle, and prints out a discount coupon. The kiosk system helps to reduce costs for manufacturers, retailers, and consumers while keeping plastic out of landfills and reducing water consumption. In 2002, Brown deployed kiosks in six stores. Today there are machines in 22 stores (including Whole Foods (WFMI) in eight states. Last year revenue was just under $1 million. Currently negotiating with several European grocers as well as a large American company for a possible licensing deal, Brown expects revenue to reach $5 million this year.
