"What will I do when I retire?"
That thought crossed Frank Lauyans' mind often as he prepared to exit from his longtime engineering and material handling firm, Lauyans & Co. Yet by the time he sold the 35-year-old company to W.M. Kelley late last year, he already had a new venture in the works.
It's called AnchorHog Inc. and it recently landed a significant retail deal with Lowe's after Lauyans placed second in a national competition.
The idea for AnchorHog's patented product came from Lauyans' experience splitting his time between his vacation condo in Florida and Louisville, his home of 75 years. He had accumulated a fair amount of outdoor equipment in the Sunshine State, such as bicycles, a grill, a generator and other tools, and wanted to make sure it'd all be secure when he wasn't around.
At first, Lauyans believed there was probably some kind of product out there in the market that could be used to anchor that equipment to a wall or concrete floor. But his search left him empty handed.
"I wanted something unique, I wanted something small and compact, I wanted something that was theft-resistant and I wanted something that was affordable," he said. "I looked on the internet and I went to the hardware stores, and I just couldn't find anything. Since I had this background in engineering and manufacturing, I thought, 'Well, I'll invent one myself.'"
Lauyans launched AnchorHog in December 2018 and got both U.S. and Canadian patents approved by the end of 2020.
Here's how the product works: It starts with a base plate that can be mounted to concrete, brick or wood. It then uses an interlocking top plate to cover the bolts, preventing any would-be theft from dismantling the unit from its mount. Each anchor can accommodate up to three padlocks, meaning three items can be secured to one anchor.
Lauyans had been primarily selling AnchorHog via its own website and Amazon.com, but it will soon be available in retail locations across the country thanks to a unique opportunity with Lowe's.
In the midst of the pandemic last year, the home improvement retailer launched a program called "Making It – With Lowe's," inviting diverse entrepreneurs from across the country to pitch their innovation. Lauyans said he heard about it through an email advertisement, admitting he frequents Lowe's regularly.
"I thought, 'How can I participate in that?'" he said. "I went to the stores and I called, and no one knew anything about the program. I called customer service and they knew nothing about the program either, but the guy said if I wrote a letter — not an email — to the CEO Marvin Ellison, he would respond."
While Lauyans never got a letter from the CEO, he did get an invitation to participate in this year's program. He was one of more than 1,300 applicants from across the country and went through a rigorous selection process that whittled down the competition to just five finalists and one fan favorite.
AnchorHog came in second during the finale, hosted by "Shark Tank" investor Daymond John and judged by a panel of Lowe's executives. With the second place win, Lauyans is getting $5,000 in grant funding and assistance from Lowe's with marketing and business development.
You can watch the deliberation in the video below.
The best part? Lauyans has the opportunity to sell AnchorHogs products in Lowe's 2,000+ retail locations and on Lowes.com.
"This is really a big deal for me to advance my product to the next level," he said. "The volume is just unbelievable — it's definitely something that would move anyone up to the next level of success."
Over the next few months, Lauyans said he will be focused on scaling AnchorHog both in staff and inventory to supply Lowe's. He and his team will be moving to a 3,000-square-foot facility in Salem, Indiana, to assemble the products.
"It's going to be challenging because we're crawling and not running yet, but we're going to have to get up and run," he said.
