We ran a promotion of some sort on KITV-TV in late 2001 or early 2002, and
something went wrong. I don’t even remember what it was, but I do recall
that KITV-TV offered us a complimentary block of ads to apologize.
When we sadly decided to close The Poi Company, Inc. we decided to use these
free ads to try to sell the Company — our desire, in particular, was to save
our colleagues’ jobs.
The ads ran quite prominently, but we received few calls, and none from
qualified (or serious) purchasers. I just ran across the ad when clearing
out some old computer files, and it was quite a sentimental journey. While
the Company is no longer for sale — the ad is fun to watch.
ive been searching for a poi grinder in the internet still with no luck..your help will be highly appreciated
looking for a poi grinder….your help will be higly appreciated
A “poi grinder” covers a multitude of things. The Poi Company had a $168,000 Koruma grinder, made in Switzerland. As a back-up, we had a much smaller flour grinder — cost (new) about $2,000.
You won’t find a grinder made to grind poi. You have to find a generic grinder that will grind taro. Trust me, it won’t be an easy task. Most grinders are made to grind dry material, and the taro corm is a very gnarly, wet beast!
Did you ever sell your business? I am an employer of persons with disabilities and we are interested in starting our poi business. Do you still have the flour mill, what model and make was it? Would you help us start up this? 200 lbs of corms a day?
If you still have your business for sale, how much are you asking?
We were unable to sell The Poi Company as a going concern, so had no choice but to close it down in May 2002.
Are you growing your own taro (the 200lbs per day that you mention)? If you don’t own/control your supply of taro, I couldn’t possibly recommend the poi business.
Don’t let a love of poi and the culture and history of Hawaii blind you to the stark economic realities of the poi business. Taro supply is the key.
The other huge problem is the cost of distribution, particularly when you only sell one product. The grocery stores in Hawaii — at least when we were making poi (1998-2002) — expected their suppliers to do all the work. This means delivery, stocking shelves, removing product that is about to go out-of-date. The supplier was also expected to take all of the losses on unsold product.
It’s one thing if you’re a big supplier delivering a multitude of products: such as breakfast cereal or cans of vegetables. But when you’re just delivering poi it’s difficult.
Each store delivery took (at the store) a minimum of 15 minutes, if we were lucky. Receiving hours were limited, and traffic often meant missing our delivery “window.” When you’re spending, say, 30 minutes to deliver to one grocery store — and your delivering maybe $30 of product at wholesale prices — its hard. There’s the driver’s salary, workers’ comp, cost of truck, insurance on truck, etc.
And the grocery chains would say, “Deliver to one, deliver to all.” So we’d have to deliver to Laie and other distant stores, and deliver to stores in areas where people just didn’t buy poi.
Stores would also insist that we contribute to advertising costs, HawaiianMiles, etc. And even pay “fees” to introduce new products. If you wanted more shelf space, you usually had to pay for it.
Maybe things have changed in the past six years….
I have lived in Europe since 2002 so am not really able to help set up a poi business. And ours failed: never get advice from someone who failed!
Aloha nui!!
So, you’re a long way from Home….
If I may ask some help and advice from you, it would be greatly appreciated. We have a 7 acre farm on the Hamakua coast of the Island of Hawaii, as we are implementing a recirculating wetland taro system, although we are on dry land. (Please see http://www.FriendlyAquaponics.com/taro.html for more details and some photos.)
We’d love to learn from you what the biggest obstacles were for your poi business, and to share a little bit about our long-term plans. Is there a way to contact you directly? (I will see if I can find a better contact link here on your site).
Thanks!
**Susanne**
Never get advice from someone who failed? I think not ! If i was gonna start a business – I’d wanna chat with CRAIG !! GARANS !
it’s been a long time — you won’t remember me – but I miss my POI – and i still have two cans of the FREEZE-DRIED – UNOPENED- HMMM wonder if they’re still good ?
Hope you can e-mail me so we can talk story sometime.
Ciao Sayonara ! J
Aloha Jeff —
I am flattered that you have two cans of freeze-dried poi unopened. We have about four ourselves, also unopened. They’re collectors items.
I am tempted to open one and see if it’s still good — seven years after manufacture. I just need to figure out how to make a lau lau in England. We do have a banana bush (not large enough to b a “tree”) growing in our hothouse.
I’ll e-mail you directly.
Mahalo for your message.
Craig
Hi,
I am interested to buy spare parts for Koruma grinder type T2 and T3.
Can you please help me?
Best regards,
Badr
HI craig. My name is Madison and I would be very interested in discussing ideas that could potentially be something that would help millions of people. I work with disaster relief with third world countries. A personal email would be more than appreciated. Thank you, Madison.
Hi, sorry to hear you guys had to shut down. I worked for Jim Kerr at SuperGeeks, and spent many hours making your computers work. (I was the haole who talked funny.) You and the two girls were so nice and friendly. Even when you chewed me out once.
Hope you are doing OK over in England.
Aaron