Plugging into a good idea: Fairbanks man rebounds from being homeless to company owner.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: PUBLIC COMPANIES

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Why is everyone walking around with sloppy, bulky extension chords instead of having them in a self-contained, compact retractable unit?

When Ken Forster moved to Fairbanks in the winter of 2000, this is the question he asked his engineer friend.

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"He told me that if it could be done it would have already been done," he said. The friend thought the idea would probably never get the necessary approval from Underwriting Laboratories (UL) because the unit would likely get moisture inside of it and freeze up.

Scrappy, industrious and never one to take no for an answer, Forster jumped on the Internet, starting with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Web site, to see if a patent for such a device already existed that just needed someone to market it. When he typed in "retractable blockheater cord reel," up popped a story from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, about two Canadian schoolteachers who had invented a watertight retractable cord reel. Within 24 hours, Forster contacted the developers of the unit and after several more phone calls they reached an agreement to give Forster sole distribution rights in Alaska and the northern tier, cold-climate states.

"I realized the units were well made after giving them the once over and that there was far more the markets would bode, well beyond just the vehicle application in cold climates," Forster says.

The more he thought about it, though, the more he realized the potential of the invention and the unlimited market possibilities: all he had to do was look around to see that there were hundreds of uses in countless industries for these modified extension cords. Within four months, he and partner Jim Rasmussen--the same engineer who had questioned the feasibility of the idea--went back to the Canadian inventors and for $1 million bought everything outright, including the patents, the molds and the debt.

Today, Forster is president and CEO of APC Group, and while Rasmussen is no longer involved in the business, Forster does have other investors. The company does business as Arctic Leash Brand Products, which besides the auto plug-ins, includes more than 100 different styles of watertight cord reels, medical-grade cord reels, heavy-duty extension cords, lawn and garden accessories, and automotive and shop accessories available online and at major retailers such as Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, NAPA auto parts and the chain of Canadian auto parts stores called Bumper to Bumper. Although the...