Inspired by his wife’s love of waffles, entrepreneur and former restaurant owner Sean O’Connor has spent the last three years developing and launching a clever, convenient solution for quick, wholesome-breakfast preparation. First introduced about a year ago in Los Angeles-area Costco stores, Organic Batter Blaster Original Pancake & Waffle Batter in an 18-oz spray can is currently flipping off store shelves nationwide.
The product, from Batter Blaster LLC, San Francisco, uses a steel can from Crown (www.crowncork.com) and custom-engineered valve technology from Clayton Corp. (www.claytoncorp.com) to deliver a pressurized stream of batter directly onto a pan or waffle iron for “light and fluffy pancakes or crispy waffles,” according to package copy.
O’Connor, president and CEO of Batter Blaster LLC, relates that the challenges to launching this first-ever breakfast product were many. “There were manufacturing challenges, and there were challenges in trying to get the product to work right, which ended up involving patents,” he says. “The other challenge for us was how to—as a startup, small business with one SKU—do a national launch and find our own category.
In looking for a co-packer for the product, Batter Blaster LLC was turned away by existing whipped-topping spray-bottle packagers, who weren’t interested in expanding their operations beyond their well-established liquid-delivery lines, O’Connor says. So the company built its own refrigerated packaging line in Newbury Park, CA. The line accommodates the “largest commercially available can [804X212],” according to O’Connor, and dispenses carbon dioxide into the can, rather than the nitrous oxide used by whipped-topping packers.
