MORINVILLE, Alta. – Four years ago, Alan Champagne tried to make a friend’s milking cows feel more comfortable in their stalls.
Champagne’s solution, the Cozy Cow mattress, is now sold around the world.
The 33-year-old Morinville man recently took his brainchild into Europe with two tentative deals in late October. A company called Kit Speakman Marketing plans to peddle Champagne’s product throughout the United Kingdom. Champagne also signed a proposed deal with Spinder to sell Cozy Cow mattresses on most of continental Europe.
The mattresses are already available in Canada, the United States and Asia, but Champagne believes the latest two deals could triple his business.
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“Well, we’re definitely pleased it is going forward. We think it’s going to be very substantial but time will tell on that,” he said. “From what’s already happened, it’s been pretty good.”
Even before the European agreements, Champagne had expanded a small upholstery business that once operated out of his home to a 8,000 sq. foot manufacturing plant in Morinville that employs 16 people and earned $1.1 million in gross revenues in 1995.
Originally, Champagne created the Cozy Cow mattress for Steve Visscher, a friend who operates a dairy farm. Visscher had used wood chips and straw as bedding for the cattle in their cement stalls.
“It was a lot of maintenance and it was expensive to maintain,” Champagne said, estimating the farmer needed 40 tonnes of wood chips for one month’s worth of bedding. “The cows were uncomfortable. It was expensive to maintain and they had a lot of veterinary bills because the cattle were stressed out.”
Visscher said his herd kept damaging their hocks by lying on the concrete.
“The cows tended to lie down on the concrete. Concrete is more abrasive and it scraped through the skin on their hocks,” Visscher said. “We had to cull them earlier than we wanted to.”
Visscher bought seven rubber mats from an Ontario manufacturer.
Although he was pleased with the product, he went to Champagne to see if he could provide a less expensive alternative.
Business born
“We kind of got him started on it,” he said. “Because of the cost, I approached Alan to see if they could make something like that.”
The solution has worked wonders for Visscher, who installed Cozy Cow mattresses in all 120 stalls.
“Our vet bill (has) gone down,” he said. “We are selling replacement cattle now. The average age of the herd is almost a year older now.”
Champagne created a soft, insulated mat to reduce feet and udder problems.
After experimenting with a rubber liner filled with plastic beads, he settled on rubber crumbs from shredded old tires.
Before going into production, Champagne needed to find local suppliers for material and build the machines.
Although the phenomenal growth of his company Champagne Edition has earned national recognition, it has also created some headaches for Champagne, who grew up on a small mixed dairy-grain farm near Legal, Alta.
“We do everything on our own. We have to design and build the equipment,” said Champagne, a nominee for the 1996 Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year. “You are constantly training new staff. Banks are very skeptical. We need truckloads of new fabric and it has to be financed. You have to work around your financing. You can only grow as fast as your cash input will let you.”
The mattress, available at selected dairy supply dealers across Western Canada, sells for about $75. The company has created similar bedding for horses and smaller pets, such as dogs and cats.
Although his original prototypes aren’t even four years old yet, Champagne expects the mattresses will last between eight and 10 years.
Despite his success, he cautions entrepreneurs not to start a new business out of a vision of getting rich. Customer satisfaction is far more meaningful for Champagne.
“Keep at it. If you believe in your product, it will go,” he said. “Don’t get in to get rich. I enjoy seeing the benefits our product gives farmers.
“It’s really nice when I go to a farm and they treat me like a long-lost son because I have solved a problem for them.”
