Noel | Westminster | Yosha! Enterprises | travel products

All told, counting products sold by a sister company, Westminster, which sells lower-priced items in supermarkets and drugstores, the Zellers now market some six dozen different items, three of every four of which they develop in-house.

Reasons for Success "Good design adds a lot of value to the products we create," says Noel. Indeed, not many companies can boast of having a product in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Nor, he adds, does eye-pleasing design stop with the product. "We think of the packaging and the marketing of the product at the same time, not as an afterthought." The "itty bitty" Booklight hit the market in a buzz-generating box that looked and opened like a book. The creative packaging won an advertising industry Clio award.

Noel also stresses that unlike many companies that stay true to their initial product category, Zelco has gone well beyond lighting products and reading accessories, branching into home office, gourmet, and travel products. "This way," he says, "we're less vulnerable if one category suffers."

Latest Offering The Slim Bookstand is an origami-inspired book holder that folds flat to fit inside a book when not in use. Marketed by Westminster. Hardcover version, $6; paperback, $4.

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SAVORING THE MOMINT Yosha! Enterprises
Year founded 2002
Headquarters Westfield, NJ
Start-up funds $200,000
1st year sales $1.2 million
Projected 2004 sales $15 million
Number of employees 3

Eureka Moment Anthony Shurman is that rare entrepreneur who envisioned his package long before he knew what his product was going to be. In 2001, he trademarked his E-Z Slide plastic pack, but had nothing to go inside it. Eager to start his own business, Shurman left Warner-Lambert when it was acquired by Pfizer and used his exit package funds to seed his start-up, Yosha! Enterprises.