A knife made out of butter – a butter knife may seem to be an odd way to come up with a business idea but not to the people at Kitch-Widgets. According to Steve Polster, Head of Creative Design ‘That’s the way we work here. We take a look at everyday objects from different angles and put them together in different ways. In this way we can design useful and labour saving gadgets that are popular with our clients.’
The ButterKnifeTM is the latest in a long line of products to emerge from the production line at their purpose built factory in Wellesbourne, near Stratford-upon-Avon. ‘We came up with the idea for the ButterKnifeTM after watching people struggling to spread cold butter evenly on bread or toast.’ adds Steve. ‘We pitched the concept to our focus group who really liked the idea and soon had a prototype mocked up.’
Basically the ButterKnifeTM is designed to apply a film of butter evenly and at the required thickness to whatever the customer wishes to spread it on. The butter is held in the handle and the blade can be adjusted to meet any preference. It works by applying the blade to the bread and gliding it slowly across the surface. The angle of the blade causes the spread to flow and a perfect and even coating of butter is produced, just how you like it.
‘The principle is very simple,’ details Polster ‘the trick is to get the flow rate correct by managing the viscosity of the butter. That’s what took us the time to perfect. Once we had sorted that the product became an instant hit, starting out in speciality kitchen and gadget shops but then it really took off when the national supermarkets decided to stock the butter tubes that fit neatly into the handle. It is a great idea. I mean who hasn’t had a problem spreading cold butter onto bread? Every home should have one.’
The ButterKnifeTM comes in two forms now, the domestic version for home use, available in a variety of colours and patterns (which makes an ideal gift at only £14.99) and the commercial version. The latter is for use in sandwich making businesses where a lot of bread needs to be covered and is air powered and has a large butter hopper attached. Steve Polster adds: ‘We’ve shown that it is a great labour saving device. By using the ButterKnifeTM a company can improve their spreading productivity by as much as 80%.’
The ButterKnifeTM is one of several interesting projects that Kitch-Widgets is working on as Steve points out, ‘The sugar spoon has been selling very well since its introduction last year and the cheese knife is expected to go into production in the spring. We are still having a few design issues with the fish knife and the steak knife however but we hope to have those cracked soon.’
We hope so too but the ButterKnifeTM and other Kitch-Widgets’ products are already available from leading retailers.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 
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