Bottle cutter changes entrepreneur's life: Sudbury man has made $4m in revenues with glass-cutting device.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan
• Position: SUDBURY

Thanks to a good idea and a lot of perseverance, a Sudbury entrepreneur was able to change his life for the better.

In 2012, when the crowdfunding website Kickstarter was still a novel concept, Patrick Lehoux decided to test the waters of public opinion online and see if he could receive funding to put a prototype to market.

After a lot of brainstorming, he decided to build a bottle cutter that would allow users to create their own custom glassware out of their favourite brands.

Bottle cutters had been around since the 1970s, but Lehoux believed his design, which he eventually called the kinkajou, simplified the process to make bottle cutting an accessible pastime for anyone.

The product is named after the kinkajou, a small mammal native to the rainforests of South America, that is around the size of a cat but has four oversized teeth.

Lehoux's botde cutter has its own oversized tooth in the form of I a small metal wheel that scrapes a circular line around any bottle.

Pouring hot and cold water over the scratch line breaks the bottle apart in two perfect halves. With sandpaper one can round the glass' edges to make it perfectly safe for drinking.

Lehoux's 30-day Kickstarter, which ended July 8, 2012, exceeded his expectations and raised more than $80,000 Through the Kickstarter campaign he got in touch with an American who had lived in China for 18 years, and offered to help him manufacture his products.

"Originally when I launched my Kickstarter I was going to have this made in the U.S.," Lehoux said. "I didn't know anyone in China."

But through his new business contact he was able to take advantage of China's established manufacturing base to build the kinkajou and other products by his company, Bottle Cutting Inc.

The parts for the kinkajou are actually assembled in seven separate plants in China.

"My overhead is extremely low and my margins are super high," Lehoux said. "Higher than any business I've ever had."

Once the units are built, they are transported to Atlanta, GA., where Lehoux deals with a fulfilment company which ships his products directly to customers around the world.

Lehoux sells the kinkajou and his other bottle-cutting products directly through his website--www.bottlecutting.com--and through Amazon. He in the process of negotiating with Europe's seven Amazon sites to carry his products.

To date, he has sold bottle-cutting products in more than 70 countries, and has generated around $4 million in revenues.

"At the growth...