Suppliers to UDECX through 2012 include:
• Aerospace Business Development Associates, Fairborn, sales partner.
• Atomic Interactive, Dayton, web services.
• Brady Ware, Dayton, accounting.
• Hafenbrack Marketing, Dayton, marketing and public relations.
• IonVentus, Xenia, prototype building.
• John C. Ferneding & Associates, Centerville, insurance.
• LJB, Miamisburg, structural and civil engineering
• Miller-Valentine Partners, office management.
• Pickrel, Schaeffer & Ebeling, Dayton, legal.
• Stress Engineering Services, Mason.
• Thompson Hine, Springboro, patent law.
• TJAR Innovations, LLC, Xenia, mold production.
A Dayton manufacturer is pursuing a down-home product with an alternative materials twist with the help of allied area and Ohio-based manufacturers and suppliers.
UDECX LLC is a Miami Twp.-based manufacturer of a long-lasting patio decking system that its designers say can be assembled by just about anyone in about an hour and removed as quickly.
Made of thermoplastic materials, the patios can be quickly assembled with pre-fabricated panels and braces called “piers” without any cutting, digging, drilling or nailing, the company’s principals say.
Competition in the overall $3.4 billion decking and patio industry is tough, UDECX Chief Executive Tony Desjardins admits. Each year, more than three million decks and patios are built. “It’s a huge industry, and it’s on an incline again,” he said.
He thinks an “innovative product” will help set his company apart.
“If you look at what’s on the market today, it’s a very complex and a very cumbersome process to build a patio or deck,” Desjardins said. “It’s very difficult. There’s a lot of planning, a lot of designing, numerous trips to Lowe’s or Home Depot.”
Instead, “easy as one, two, three,” is this company’s mantra, he said.
With one hand tool (provided by the company) , UDECX customers can tightly mount the pre-cut thermoplastic panels or pads on a series of piers, which can be raised to compensate for gently sloping ground. If customers move, they can disassemble the decks and take the parts with them.
“Don’t forget the hassle of getting a building permit for a traditional deck in just about every case is taken out of the equation with UDECX,” said Michael Weaver, the company’s chief marketing officer.
One correctly mounted 40-by-40-inch pad can support 1,100 pounds.
The target market is the 95 percent of deck and patio customers who rely on a contractor but wouldn’t mind tackling a do-it-yourself project, according to UDECX.
The “ideal” UDECX customer has a a property value of $300,000 or less on relatively flat terrain, Desjardins said. He thinks 74 percent of households in the United States fall into that target audience.
Another key target: The Department of Defense. UDECX leaders believe their decking is perfect for outdoors military camps in rough areas, and the company has two orders of 20-by-32-foot floor systems to fill for the Defense Department by the end of January.
The company was the first recipient of the Connor Group Foundation Seed Investment Fund in 2010, the private investment fund of local real estate investment firm the Connor Group. That fund provided $50,000. Another early supporter was the Dayton Development Coalition, which provided $30,000 from its Ohio Entrepreneurial Signature Program for market research.
UDECX is small with just six full-time employees. But the company has allied itself to more than 30 firms in the region, including Xenia’s IonVentus, Miamisburg engineering firm LJB, Mason’s Stress Engineering Services and many others.
There’s not just an Ohio focus to the company, but a southwestern Ohio focus, UDECX managers say.
It’s “all about made in America,” Desjardins said. “More importantly, it’s all about made in Dayton. Our goal is to bring manufacturing back to its roots.”
The company spent $800,000 with 30-plus local and Ohio companies through 2012 and projects that it will spend more than $4 million with a similar array of suppliers going forward.
All of the company’s principals are veterans of international brand consultant Interbrand. They started developing UDECX while still with Interbrand, made progress and decided to devote themselves to the product full-time. The company won a patent on the idea in September 2011.
So far, the company has gathered 13 “angel” investors and has raised $1.2 million in investment capital. But Desjardins believes the business needs another $700,000 to “fully execute the brand and the strategy of where we’re going to take UDECX.”
“We have a long road ahead of us, but we’re dedicated to it,” Desjardins said.
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