Driving Our Economy Forward: K Tenn Cans
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Dr. Curt Koontz, Owner and CEO, Dr. K’s Tenn Cans, says “I’m Dr. Kurt Koontz and would like to welcome you to Dr. K’s Tenn Cans. Dr. K’s Tenn Cans is a product I came up with it turns any grill into a smoker. Well, some people when they grill they like to add smoke flavor to their food and some people have these sophisticated smokers. And now you can use just your own grill and turn it into a smoker without that complexity. So we have seven different flavors. We’ve got Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan. We got Apple and Cherry and then we’re the only product on the market that has a combo of Apple-pecan and Cherry pecan. Gas grill. you lay it on top of the grate and what we call a double barrel technique. We like two cans on the gas grill gives you more smoke flavor. On the charcoal or Egg or a Komodo kind of grill you basically put it on the charcoal. And so again you get your charcoal going, you lay down on the charcoal and then when I can start smoking, you start cooking. I came up with the idea, filed for the pattern and we’ve been waiting on that to come through. Up until that time we were just on the website online it was me and my son and family upstairs in the house making them and shipping them out of our house. And we’d have some high school buddies that come over to help us out. But as we started growing, we started seeing that this could be of a viable business. And then I got with the Incubator, and they have been kind enough to mentor me and allow me a space to produce our product.”
Cody Mays, Operations Manager, Dr. K’s Tenn Cans, says, “So as operations manager, I wear a lot of hats right. Anything from sales to customer service. Fulfilling orders every day, the day-to-day process of ordering what we need, making sure we have what we need. Make sure that you know all our inventory is here to get out the orders that we need to fill. Everything all above shipping receiving you name it I can take care of IT. Inside the can is an all-natural wood product. There’s no liquid involved or anything like that. So, from here you know we apply the product in the can, go to our manufacturing process. Put a label on it bring it, over here to our inventory pile, and snap it together in our six pack carriers. It’s like a microbrew and ship it out to our customers whether it be a retail store or to someone’s door. We are currently in 97 stores across 19 states. We do it all right here in the Incubator. It’s a great place to be for a small business. A lot of resources and great community.”
Dr. Curt Koontz continues, “He and I have been able to get this off the ground. Our sales have doubled over the last two years. We are now 97 stores in 19 states.”
