Dream Big: The Tidy Trays Product is Born
by Scott A. Sumner
www.thunderbaybusiness.ca
Dan Cheal of Thunder Bay is the President of Dream Big Innovations Limited. Two years ago, the 35 year old Cheal came up with the idea for Tidy Trays, a non disposable high chair tray cover that fits on virtually all restaurant, day care or food court trays. Tidy Trays are made for uncontrolled environments where you don’t know what you are exposing your child to on the trays. They solve any hygiene problems by eliminating all contact with your child and the high chair tray.“These trays are not always as clean and they should be. . . You may have traces of peanut which may trigger a virus. Recently we had the H1N1 virus a concern. You guard against germs with Tidy Trays,” said Dan Cheal. “I had taken my daughter to her favourite restaurant, put her in the high chair and fastened her tray on. Soon I recognized it was so dirty it seemed unfair. My daughter didn’t choose to sit on the chair, I put her in front of it and it bothered me. Instead of complaining I sat her on my lap and we ate that way. On the walk home Iwanted to solve the problem and came up with the Tidy Tray idea. My goal was to cover the entire tray including the sides and started picturing what it would like. We had a couple of prototypes done and they solve the health issues. Some doctors called me after hearing about the product and liked the idea.”
“ I wanted to do as much of the work on the product in Thunder Bay and Canada. We found people who helped us at the Lakehead University Math department without any hesitation. The English department there checked the packaging wording, so it worked out well. Lakehead
University was very helpful,” smiles Cheal. “We have the units produced near Ottawa and started getting response from the local retailers in Thunder Bay who wanted to support the product. The big box and smaller stores really gave the product a chance. More and more people have to come to realize the product helps.”
The product packaging for Tidy Trays was done by Korkola Designs and Alan Dickson Photography did the pictures. Sencia created the web site design. “They created our professional look. People are buying off the web directly and we have Zellers and Walmart retail locations in Thunder Bay. Rexall Pharmacy and Pharma Plus from coast to coast have
our product in 140 locations in Canada. We have been talking to Walmart and Zeller's nationally as well. In the UK we have a distributor. The people there are a very health conscious people are we are in Canada,” noted Cheal. “ Parents have been emailing they want a pink pattern for girls which we will have out shortly as well as new blue pirate pattern for boys.”
“I love doing this, meeting people and talking about my product. It has been a family project from day 1 with my kids, Maddy, age 3 and Devon, age 9. My father was an entrepreneur here and owned Process Flow Systems which was a good sized company. He based his company on honesty and reliability. In my business I wanted to operate by answering all calls and operating in a sincere manner. The product is a baby business so you have to provide great service and products.” The Tidy Trays product retails for $9.99, will wash in your washing
machine and will fit in your pocket or purse. Dan Cheal informs about 4000 units have been sold so far. The future looks bright for this new Thunder Bay company as they expand around the world! See
www.tidy-trays.com
