Cold comfort

Jackson Chan and his Fridge To Go products

Ever heard of a mobile fridge? Well, that's what Jackson Chan has devised. "It's going to be a truly Hong Kong-created global brand," said Chan. "Fridge To Go is a revolution in the portable cooling technology," he added, with a sparkle in his eyes.

Chan's company, Kado Industrial, is currently in talks with Wal-Mart, which is keen on becoming a dealer of his products.

Fridge To Go is a kind of portable refrigerator that doesn't need to be plugged into an electric socket. The containers of the device, which come in different sizes and forms, are basically insulated boxes with removable cooling panels, he said.

The containers are collapsible. After they are placed in a freezer for 10 hours, the inside temperature will remain cold for up to eight hours. Or, users can simply zip out the removable cooling panels, freeze them and zip them back for the containers to function.

Ordinary cooler bags without ice cubes can maintain the inside temperature at 5 degree Celsius, or 41 degrees Fahrenheit, for one hour and cooler bags with ice cubes 2 hours at most.

A problem-solver

Chan, who has only primary education, worked as a clerk, a telephone operator and a salesman, He started a one-man company in 1970s that supplies lavatory products to hotels. Big companies in the hospitality industry used to come to him as he always offered pragmatic solutions. "I am a trouble-shooter," he said.

The solutions he came up with include mini-pepper and salt shakers served with airline food, chopsticks that work as tweezers for guests not used to chopsticks and plastic ice cubes that don't melt and are reusable.

Where did Chan get the idea for Fridge To Go?

After an airline company complained of the difficulty in keeping food cold in 2001, Chan sat down pondering. Within a month a prototype of Fridge To Go was developed.

Though he couldn't strike a deal with the airline, Chan knew his device had immense potential. He spent HK$3 million to get worldwide patents. Besides improving the product, he spent much of his time on promoting it at invention shows.

Chan has since won 19 awards in Beijing, Taiwan, Geneva and Germany. The most prestigious of them all is 1st Runner Up of the Grand Prix award from INPEX, America's largest invention show.

Fridge To Go has won Jackson Chan 19 invention awards, including 1st Runner Up of the Grand Prix award from INPEX, America's largest invention show. Photos by Edmond Tang

With cooler bags being available for decades and priced lower than Fridge To Go, the biggest obstacle was to convince consumers that the refrigerator with no plug and no ice cubes do work, Chan said.

The first batch of Fridge To Go containers hit the Hong Kong market in 2003. Seiyu (Shatin) Department Store decided to exhibit Fridge To Go for 10 days. Priced between HK$90 and HK$210, 670 Fridge To Go containers were sold in the 10 days even though it was winter at the time. "Even the cashiers were surprised," Chan recalled.

The product has been made available in countries including Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Israel. Through co-branding, Fridge To Go containers are also distributed by baby product dealers Playtex and Pigeon and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

But to make Fridge To Go a global product, Chan knows he has to get into the US market. "It's a 3-billion people market. And Americans are outdoor enthusiasts."

Fridge To Go gained its foothold in the US, thanks to a TV station in Texas, which ran a testing of the seemingly simple gadget. Much to people's astonishment, Fridge To Go lived up to its "cold for eight hours" claim. When home shopping television channel QVC broadcast a demonstration for the first time, 8,000 units of Fridge To Go were sold out within six minutes.

Fridge To Go containers are now available in US chain stores including Khol's, Lowe's, JC Penny and Kmart. Worldwide sales reached 1 million units in 2007 and distribution outlets 15,000.

With more consumers coming to know about Fridge To Go, "we are expecting an explosive growth," he said.

A different inventor

As an Outstanding Member of the Hong Kong Invention Association, Chan is a role model not just for inventors but for the young generation. Fridge To Go has found its way into school textbooks as a pride of Hong Kong and Chan is a popular guest speaker in universities.

Chan said he doesn't invent for the sake of invention. "I try to solve people's real-life problem." He is a versatile inventor. He also knows how to commercialize a product, how to market it, and even how to package a product. The designs of other Fridge To Go products, including boxes, trolleys and shoulder bags, are all done by Chan who has no formal training in art.

Talking about his creative process, Chan said each invention has to go through 10 stages. If stage one represents the conception of an idea and stage 10 is when the invention becomes a popular product, most inventors are at stage four which is when a prototype is developed, he said.

There are many steps that follow: the prototype correction and improvement, financial arrangement, patent protection, packaging design, production planning, market research, price positioning, finding strategic business partners, promotion and delivery. And the later stages may require more time and effort than inventing the product, he adds.

Chan admits that many inventors wouldn't be able to come up with the HK$3 million he had spent on patenting. He was "lucky" because he had profits from previous inventions such as the pepper and salt shakers to fund the development of Fridge To Go.

If an inventor has to look for financiers, it's important for him or her not to set the terms too high. This is why many inventors can't take their inventions further, he said.

What's the key to his creativity? Chan unveils his simple formula: "When there's a problem, focus on finding the solution. Your creativeness will just follow."