Бывший владелец ландшафтной компании Стивен Коэн запускает производство снегоочистителя для газонокосилок

A year after the sale of his Ashland-based landscaping company, Steven Cohen hasn’t left the realm of lawnmowers entirely. Cohen, who was previously the owner of BCLS Landscaping Services, recently co-launched E-Zee Manufacturing, a new company that is bringing its first product – a lawn mower attachment for snow removal – to market. Called the Ez-Plow Mount System, the product includes a 5-foot-long snow plow and bracket assembly to attach to commercial stander lawn mowers. Cohen, 64, told BizSense the goal of the product is to put to use equipment that landscapers already have, without needing to purchase a separate, often-expensive snow plow. “This machine could push snow … and it solved a lot of problems,” Cohen said. “If you wanted to buy a true snow sidewalk clearing machine or small parking lot machine, you were spending $15,000 to $20,000.” Cohen, who remains in the Richmond area, and his E-Zee business partner, Dave Goodin, have opened up pre-orders for the product in recent weeks, with about 200 pre-orders garnered as of late last month. Cohen and his wife, Melannie Huber-Cohen, acquired BCLS in 2016 and sold the company last year to private equity-backed, Birmingham, Alabama-based Landscape Workshop. Though the plan at the time was to retire, Cohen said that he was approached last year by Goodin, a former client of his with whom he’d remained in touch, about a new idea Goodin was working on. Goodin, currently based in the Indianapolis area, told Cohen he had filed a provisional patent for a power-angle snow plow that could attach to most standard lawn mowers. Goodin currently owns a snow and landscaping company, Goodin Ground Maintenance, in Indiana. Goodin sold around 100 prototype versions of the bracket assembly to small landscapers through Facebook, and reached out to Cohen when he wanted to pursue the product as a serious business. “(Goodin) said … ‘I have this provisional patent, somebody’s offered me money for the patent already, which tells me I have something of value,’” Cohen said. “I said to him, do you want to be an inventor of a product, or do you want to be an inventor of a product and then wrap a business around it?” Intrigued by the idea, Cohen said he put notions of retirement aside to pursue making the snow plow product into a company with Goodin. Cohen and Goodin entered into a 50-50 partnership and established the business in March. After a few months of getting the company off the ground, they recently launched pre-orders. E-Zee Manufacturing has bracket options to fit the “majority of the commercial mower manufacturers,” like Scag and Exmark. Cohen said the product is especially targeted at areas that receive a modest amount of snow. “It’s a great product for Richmond, in particular. Areas that get snow, but they don’t get bombarded with snow constantly,” he said. “Our target is the smaller landscaper, independent landscaper … maybe they do snow, maybe they have a truck, but they don’t have all the resources of labor they need to clear the sidewalks or the specialized equipment.” Manufacturing is currently underway for the bracket assembly in an Indianapolis-based facility, while E-Zee is currently buying its snow plows from a Connecticut-based third-party manufacturer, with plans to begin making the snow plows in-house eventually. Cohen said they plan to sell the product both through e-commerce and through other distributors to customers. Though still finalizing pricing, the bracket piece of the product currently ranges from $400 to $900 depending on what mower a customer needs it for, while the snow plow will be around $3,400 to $3,800. “For less than $5,000, you can convert an idle, sitting standard mower machine into a fully-functional snow plow,” Cohen said. “During snow operations, you can bill out anywhere from $65 to $95 an hour, so the return on the investment for someone who acquires it, in a reasonable snow season, they’re going to make their money back on their investment.” For one of their first forays into the public sphere, E-Zee Manufacturing showcased the snow plow product at a Louisville, Kentucky-based landscaping expo in late August. Cohen and Goodin are currently self-funding the company. Cohen said they’ve invested around $200,000 in total thus far. Cohen is running business operations for E-Zee Manufacturing out of an office at 8401 Mayland Dr. in Henrico. He said Goodin typically handles manufacturing and product design while he works more so on the business operations side. Cohen’s wife is working on some administrative operations for the company, and Goodin’s marketing department at his landscaping company is doing some social media work for the company. E-Zee Manufacturing is currently looking to add a few more employees in the near future. Cohen said he and Goodin see the exit strategy for the company as, potentially, selling the product to an original equipment manufacturer. A year after the sale of his Ashland-based landscaping company, Steven Cohen hasn’t left the realm of lawnmowers entirely. Cohen, who was previously the owner of BCLS Landscaping Services, recently co-launched E-Zee Manufacturing, a new company that is bringing its first product – a lawn mower attachment for snow removal – to market. Called the Ez-Plow Mount System, the product includes a 5-foot-long snow plow and bracket assembly to attach to commercial stander lawn mowers. Cohen, 64, told BizSense the goal of the product is to put to use equipment that landscapers already have, without needing to purchase a separate, often-expensive snow plow. “This machine could push snow … and it solved a lot of problems,” Cohen said. “If you wanted to buy a true snow sidewalk clearing machine or small parking lot machine, you were spending $15,000 to $20,000.” Cohen, who remains in the Richmond area, and his E-Zee business partner, Dave Goodin, have opened up pre-orders for the product in recent weeks, with about 200 pre-orders garnered as of late last month. Cohen and his wife, Melannie Huber-Cohen, acquired BCLS in 2016 and sold the company last year to private equity-backed, Birmingham, Alabama-based Landscape Workshop. Though the plan at the time was to retire, Cohen said that he was approached last year by Goodin, a former client of his with whom he’d remained in touch, about a new idea Goodin was working on. Goodin, currently based in the Indianapolis area, told Cohen he had filed a provisional patent for a power-angle snow plow that could attach to most standard lawn mowers. Goodin currently owns a snow and landscaping company, Goodin Ground Maintenance, in Indiana. Goodin sold around 100 prototype versions of the bracket assembly to small landscapers through Facebook, and reached out to Cohen when he wanted to pursue the product as a serious business. “(Goodin) said … ‘I have this provisional patent, somebody’s offered me money for the patent already, which tells me I have something of value,’” Cohen said. “I said to him, do you want to be an inventor of a product, or do you want to be an inventor of a product and then wrap a business around it?” Intrigued by the idea, Cohen said he put notions of retirement aside to pursue making the snow plow product into a company with Goodin. Cohen and Goodin entered into a 50-50 partnership and established the business in March. After a few months of getting the company off the ground, they recently launched pre-orders. E-Zee Manufacturing has bracket options to fit the “majority of the commercial mower manufacturers,” like Scag and Exmark. Cohen said the product is especially targeted at areas that receive a modest amount of snow. “It’s a great product for Richmond, in particular. Areas that get snow, but they don’t get bombarded with snow constantly,” he said. “Our target is the smaller landscaper, independent landscaper … maybe they do snow, maybe they have a truck, but they don’t have all the resources of labor they need to clear the sidewalks or the specialized equipment.” Manufacturing is currently underway for the bracket assembly in an Indianapolis-based facility, while E-Zee is currently buying its snow plows from a Connecticut-based third-party manufacturer, with plans to begin making the snow plows in-house eventually. Cohen said they plan to sell the product both through e-commerce and through other distributors to customers. Though still finalizing pricing, the bracket piece of the product currently ranges from $400 to $900 depending on what mower a customer needs it for, while the snow plow will be around $3,400 to $3,800. “For less than $5,000, you can convert an idle, sitting standard mower machine into a fully-functional snow plow,” Cohen said. “During snow operations, you can bill out anywhere from $65 to $95 an hour, so the return on the investment for someone who acquires it, in a reasonable snow season, they’re going to make their money back on their investment.” For one of their first forays into the public sphere, E-Zee Manufacturing showcased the snow plow product at a Louisville, Kentucky-based landscaping expo in late August. Cohen and Goodin are currently self-funding the company. Cohen said they’ve invested around $200,000 in total thus far. Cohen is running business operations for E-Zee Manufacturing out of an office at 8401 Mayland Dr. in Henrico. He said Goodin typically handles manufacturing and product design while he works more so on the business operations side. Cohen’s wife is working on some administrative operations for the company, and Goodin’s marketing department at his landscaping company is doing some social media work for the company. E-Zee Manufacturing is currently looking to add a few more employees in the near future. Cohen said he and Goodin see the exit strategy for the company as, potentially, selling the product to an original equipment manufacturer.