Elbow Grease Celebrates 40 Years

By on April 17, 2019

The company started in August 1979. It was created out of necessity. Back in the 1970’s, the founders of the company often recall a pungent aroma when they visited some of their friends and they knew right away that Crisco was being used as a lubricant. They got together with a chemist and developed the Original Elbow Grease Formula.

Our facility is in Northridge, California. We have a small 10,000 square feet warehouse but our laboratories are in Fullerton, California.

Our brands are available in many European countries which are serviced by our distributors in The Netherlands, France and Great Britain. Sales channels? Distributors vs direct sales. We sell to both, distributors and direct to stores.

We at present are experiencing an exciting growth. After taking control of the company, I surrounded myself and the company with young visionaries and are headed in a different direction while maintaining and emphasizing our focus on our loyal customers.

The global market is constantly changing. We have had to quickly adapt to new technology, import policies, etc.
How do you promote, create awareness, social media, trade shows..: We promote our brands through various advertising avenues: We have presence on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, our website. We are also active in sponsoring events such as Prides, Leather Contests, parties at local clubs, print magazines, online magazines and trade shows.

I refuse to sell to both Amazon or eBay because I believe in a fair market place. Amazon is a massive company that wants to buy our brands at an extremely discounted price. This would be unfair to all the brick and mortar stores/customers that stock our brands.

Our percentage of sales to online retailers have and continue to increase where as the brick and mortar stores constantly struggle to maintain their sales/presence and keep up with online retailers. I have seen many of my customers go out of business. The latest customer to close their doors was Circus of Books in West Hollywood, California. They used to be one of my biggest customers 10 years ago, but the internet and online sales put them out of business.

I enjoy working with retailers. They are the ones that are in front of the end consumer. The more supporting material they have in their stores, the easier it is for them to sell our brands.

Distributors are a bit different to deal with, many are extremely good at what they do; however, some of them lack qualified sales staff and thus become “order takers”.

Our best-selling brand is still the Original Elbow Grease Cream. After 40 years in the market place, it is still our best-selling formula. The item we sell the most of is the Original Elbow Grease Cream 15 oz. Jar.

Due to the internet, the world is now a small place and has made it easier for interested parties/customers to be able to reach us.

Certainly, there are trends that impact our sales. I would say it is more culture than trends. For example, our Elbow Grease Brand sells very well in the European Union, these countries tend to have more of a liberal and accepting view about sex and sexual acts than a country like Mexico where religion is a huge part of their culture, thus making sex a taboo topic.

We manufacture the following brands: Elbow Grease Creams, Elbow Grease Gel H2O, Fusion bodyglyde, Encounter Lubricants and Black Beauty Latex Polish.

Well, I do not want to bore yreaders with such details but what I can say is that normally it takes an average of 10 weeks from step one of the manufacturing and mixing process at the laboratory to having the finished product in our warehouse.

Compliance and legality issues are constantly changing everywhere in the world and we must constantly keep adapting to new regulations and procedures.

The company is doing well right now. We are experiencing an increase in sales and I believe it’s due to our focus on different age demographics, use of social media while maintaining focus on our loyal clientele.
In 5 years, I still see our brand having a stronger presence in both local and global markets. I want us to continue to have fun while maintaining the high quality products that our customers have come to expect.
www.elbowgreaselubricants.com

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