PhillyInc: Industrial-design firm looks to grow against the odds

Perhaps the only thing harder than building the proverbial better mousetrap for an entrepreneur is knowing when it's time to step away from the business he created.

Peter R. Bressler, an industrial designer who founded Bresslergroup Inc. of Philadelphia, 40 years ago, has done both.

Over the last two years, Bressler has been transitioning the ownership and management of the 20-employee product-design consultancy to three longtime senior managers: Mike Flanagan (in charge of marketing and strategy), Mathieu Turpault (design), and Andrew Weiman (commercialization and engineering).

Bressler remains chairman and adviser, but he has stepped away from day-to-day operations.

In interviews with all four professionals, I kept hearing the same phrase. All wanted to see Bresslergroup expand to the next level. The goal is to double in size within the next three to five years.

Is that even possible during an economic recovery in which business seems to be stuck in first gear?

Well, considering what Bresslergroup has accomplished over the years with big clients, such as toolmaker Black & Decker Corp. and medical-device-maker Becton Dickinson & Co., that's not an outlandish ambition.

Bresslergroup has built its own brand in the small professional community that is product design, having amassed 80 design awards and 150 patents. Bressler himself last month received a lifetime-achievement award from the Industrial Designers Society of America trade association.

Large corporations certainly have their own product-design teams. What would Apple Inc. or Ford Motor Co. be without them? But companies also tap outside designers for fresh perspectives, for expertise they may not have in-house, or for flexibility of not adding permanent design staff.

What Bresslergroup does involves more than designing pretty packaging or cool-looking products. After all, these products must be mass-produced. Optimizing manufacturing costs, employing new technology, minimizing raw-material waste, and understanding how customers will use a product are critical to the design process.

Back to that mousetrap. Over the years, Bresslergroup has worked with Woodstream Corp., the Lititz, Pa., company behind the Victor brand of mousetraps. Recently, Bresslergroup redesigned the Victor Quick Set Mousetrap so that Woodstream could reduce assembly and parts costs and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from China.