Client Spotlight: How Coaster Cycles Shifted Gears to Combat COVID-19 - Winmo

by Marilyn Mead Brutoco  |  April 14, 2020

From pedicabs to PPE – the story of how one company adapted its manufacturing to serve a higher good, and save its employees’ jobs

Laying off the majority of your workforce is not a prospect that any of us would like to face, but it’s a reality that Coaster Cycles, like many others right now, are having to live through. The story of Coaster Cycles, however, doesn’t end there.

Ben Morris, the company’s Bay Area-based CEO, saw business come to a screeching halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted manufacturing, advertising, experiential marketing and operations – the four key business areas of Coaster Cycles, maker of three-wheeled cycles shipped around the world. Their media division, Coaster Outdoor, utilizes Winmo, and is responsible for working with all of their agency/brand partners to place ads on bikes and run OOH and experiential campaigns.

With business coming to a standstill, Morris had no other choice but to lay off the majority of his staff, a decision that flattened him. That same Friday afternoon, he saw a LinkedIn post from the engineering firm that designed Coaster Cycles’ original pedicab. The post shared an open-source face shield design. And an idea sprang to life.

Morris emailed the face shield design to Missoula-based Justin Bruce, the COO of Coaster Cycles.

“Within 7 minutes of receiving the email, I was sourcing components and Ben was emailing hospitals,” said Bruce, who oversees the company’s plant in Bonner, Montana. “When Ben and I get our mind on an idea, it is hard to stop us. We decided to give this project everything we had for one week and the news stories kept supporting the need for businesses to retool and help in the fight. We both worked non-stop that weekend and assured each other that this project could be what could help keep healthcare workers safe and we had the idle factory that could be put to good use. We wanted to bring back our staff from lay-off.”

They were confident in the face shield design, and had experience working with plastic, foam and upholstery suppliers in their bike business. “The face mask was an open-source design, and it had already passed Infectious Disease at one University Hospital and it was being utilized in many more hospitals. So many businesses collaborated to help each other out, and they sent us components to build a handful of them. I built them and then overnighted them to numerous hospital groups,” said Bruce. “Days later, we were told of its approval and we were contracted for building 500,000.”

And just like that, they were able to re-hire back a number of key people. Within hours of getting the call, some of their staff began showing up ready to tackle the project.

“We rearranged 2/3 of our facility, we built workstations, we created new safety protocols, we engineered jigs, we sourced components, and worked together on a plan. It was the most incredible display of teamwork I have ever witnessed. The biggest challenge has been trying to shorten what should have been a year-long project into 1-2 weeks. Or maybe it’s the 16-18 hour days and still running out of time in the day.”

Coaster Cycles is currently making 500,000 face shields for Providence St. Joseph Health and their 51 hospitals across 7 states. They’ve been contracted for 150,000 face shields in New York, and waiting to hear back on additional units.

Many companies are wondering how they can transform to serve their communities, and to stay afloat, and to that end Bruce had this advice: “The need is so great right now, and if you know someone in the medical field, ask them personally what they need. Then see if you have the tools, people and facility to help. We’ve really relied on finding a solution that had complementary aspects to our bike business. I love seeing the Distilleries making hand sanitizer, people with a sewing machine making face masks & gowns, and so many other companies making face shields.” There’s still a high demand for PPE, so Bruce advises that anyone who owns a business with the tools, skills and workforce let hospitals know.

“We somehow have been incredibly fortunate to have an amazing team of people that we knew could help us make this happen,” said Bruce. “We did it for our staff, but ultimately, because of our staff.”