Gerber Products Company Breast Pumps
In the breastpump industry, quite a few companies have started off as a mom-and-pop setup. Their product was usually an outcome of some problem pertaining to childcare and rearing, that they personally experienced. One of the parents worked out the solution to their problem, which worked brilliantly. They sought to commercialize it, and viola! - a company was born.
Gerber is one such instance of a company that took birth in a family's kitchen. Daniel and Dorothy Gerber experimented with reducing the time required to prepare strained foods by utilizing their family's fruit-canning machinery. The idea picked up momentum remarkably rapidly, and within a year, they had hit the national market with their range of strained food products, and the Gerber Baby Foods was born. All this happened in the years 1927 and '28. Since then, the company has grown leaps and bounds, transforming itself into a multi-product, multinational giant with a huge employee base.
The year 1994 saw Gerber merging with Sandoz Ltd. Sandoz itself merged with Ciba-Geigy Ltd in December 1996, which made Gerber a subsidiary of the newly formed entity - Novartis.
Today, Gerber Products Company operates from its headquarter office in New Jersey. It has manufacturing facilities in Michigan, Arkansas and Wisconsin. The company has an international presence in Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Poland and Venezuela.
All along concentrating on baby food, Gerber's entry into the breastpumps industry has been quite recent. The company threw its hat in the market in April 2004, with the launch of their flagship product, christened the Premium Feeding System. The major attraction of this package is a dual massaging manual breastpump which was developed in collaboration with Dr. Tone Fleischer, a Norway-based physician.
The package also has triangular-shaped bottles that can be gripped by the infant quite comfortably. Their wide opening ensures their easy cleaning. The silicone nipples that accompany the bottles are designed such that less air can go in the baby's stomach. A 7 oz. "Transition" cup also forms part of the package. This cup is so named, because at one stage the mother weans, or transitions, the baby away from drinking-from-bottle to drinking-from-cup; and this cup helps the transition process smoothly. There are adjustable handles that can be moved by the child into various positions which it finds the most convenient.
The company also sells accessories that a breastfeeding mother requires all the time - such as nursing pads, warm or cool relief packs and gentle moisturizing balm for the breasts; as well as storage bags to collect and seal expressed milk.
Gerber's tie-ups with national retailers such as Babies R Us, Target and Wal-Mart has ensured that its breastpump products and accessories have reached the ultimate consumer - the breastfeeding mom - without any delay. The company also has taken the initiative of setting up a toll-free number where a certified lactation educator is available for all twenty-hours, to answer any breastfeeding issues that mothers might be facing.
The management has, through these steps, signalled their seriousness about staying in the market. Only time will tell how much of the marketshare they are able to capture with new and innovative products and strategies.