1. How did Judson Labs & Truckmounts come about?
Judson Labs started about three years ago, when I walked out to a customers' truck and on his chemical shelving I saw about 50 bottles of different chemicals.
The guy was new to the business and had just come back from a certification school and they told him that he needed one bottle of chemical for lightly soiled carpets, one bottle of chemical for medium soiled carpets, and one bottle of chemical for heavily soiled carpets.
This incident kind of put the icing on the cake with my opinion of the present-day carpet cleaning industry.
I already knew that chemicals were being sold at a ridiculous dilution ratio, like 6 - 12 ounces to a gallon.
I also knew there were too many different products that do the same things.
That is what the other 45 bottles were on his truck. Just go and look at anyone that is in the chemical business now and look at all the different products that are available.
These guys are expecting you to buy them. So I took it on as a project to see if we could develop a way to clean fibers with the least amount of products.
The second project was to try to develop a product with the highest concentration possible. I wanted the O2 system to be the most diverse system on the market, so we knew it would have to be able to clean wool. We also knew that it had to be safe for fifth generation warrantied carpets.
I released the O2 System to the public about 2 years ago on Mikey's Board and started receiving feedback from users. We continued to modify the O2 System using this feedback.
The last improvement on the O2 was the development of the Hot Sauce modifier that bob foster named. We feel the O2 System is the most versatile and cost-effective system on the market. It is capable of cleaning any fiber.
It has extreme deodorization properties with the sodium borate. It can be used straight to remove gum and mixed stronger to be used as a spotter.
Other products Judson Labs manufactures is Quat-A-Lot for extreme biological odors and a deodorizer with fragrance called DD-12. Both of these products are sold at a very high concentration also.
The history of truckmounts and Judson goes back to the beginning and it really starts with my Dad, Judson Jones. My Dad graduated with a degree in textile engineering from Clemson University.
After graduation he started developing small electric portable extractors. The name of the company was Deep Clean Systems. At this time carpets were basically being shampooed.
When portable extractors first came onto the market you had to use a tremendous amount of defoamer, because most carpets were full of soap. During this time Judson Jones was contacted by Monsanto, the developers of Astroturf, to deal with the same problem.
There was just no way to clean a football field. The only option they had was to use shampooing or extractors, but everyone knew that was not going to work. The only extraction method at the time was portables.
My Dad developed a gasoline powered truckmount in 1967. This unit was so massive that it used a 350 Chevrolet engine to do nothing more than operate the blower which was a #8 Sutorbuilt 1200 CFM. The vacuum hose was 4 inches and the wand was 4 feet wide and pulled benind a tractor.
This unit was developed in 1967 and received it's patent in 1971.
My brother Dick Jones is in Florida with my Dad where the truckmount manufacturing facility is located. Here in Greenville we are manufacturing chemicals and central vacuum systems for the government contracts.
If you would like more detailed information about this unit, just look at my signature on Mikey's Board. There is a link to the patents. My Dad has 16 patents in total. One other very interesting patent is the patent he holds for the cleaning wand.
2. Describe the average day at your company.
An average day at Judson is pretty hectic because of the success of the O2 System, our deodorizers, and a recent increase in interest in our truckmounts.
We are also a government contractor with Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to eliminate use of the air hose for maintenance in mail processing facilities.
It seems that I am spending at least 3 - 4 hours a day on the telephone. Mostly it is new people calling discussing truckmounts or the carpet cleaning industry in general.
I am meeting a lot of new people now thanks to Mikey's Board.
There is one thing about Judson that we could absolutely not function without; my wife Joyce. From the moment she wakes up in the morning until late at night, she is going as hard as a human being can go. I have to be the luckiest man in the world to have found her.
3. Please list the products and or services you provide.
Products: The O2 System, Quat-A-Lot, DD-12, Foam Destroyer, Stain Blocker Protectant.
Services: Sales and Repairs of Truckmounts, Truckmount Parts, Truckmount Reengineering to provide a more reliable unit.
4. Where would you like to see your company in five years?
I would like to see my company grow the same as the Forest Gump Shrimp Company.
Do you remember how he weathered the storm and he was the only shrimp boat left? That is how I want to see it in 5 years.
Future plans are to build a new facility and I do hope to get this done way before five years, however.
I want to build the facility big enough to include the world's first carpet cleaning museum.
In this museum I hope to have all methods of cleaning and carpet weaving machines to show how carpets are made.
5. How do the Bulletin Boards help your company?
Since 1987 we have been private labeling our truckmounts and we did not do any retailing from that point up until about a year and a half ago through Mikey's Board and Pro Cleaner's Network.
In 1987 the marketing world was totally different. The only options we had for marketing was to run ads in magazines, direct mail, and trade shows.
With the use of bulletin board marketing, you have immediate interaction with people. Sending letters and literature is very impersonal.
6. What is the biggest challenge you face on a daily basis?
Our biggest daily challenge is keeping up with demand in a facility that we have outgrown.
7. What Mikey Boarder would you like to punch in the throat?
Currently at the top of my list would be
John Olson for posting over on ICS that I don't have any balls.
