Local Entrepreneurs Get Help from Price-Chopper Supermarkets

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Local Entrepreneurs Get Help from Price-Chopper Supermarkets

Easthampton, MA, August 4, 2010 - Techistry, Inc, one of the very first graduates of the STCC Entrepreneurial Institute, started as a software design company founded in 1997 by Easthampton resident Jacob Del Hagen. Over the years, he transformed Techistry into a product design company that makes innovative new products for businesses and retail consumers.

One of the projects the company’s founder embarked on in early 2007 was the creation of a caffeinated breath spray called PRIMER®. The product was initially designed for programmers and internet gamers but quickly gained a cult-like following thanks to ThinkGeek.com. The idea is that the caffeine is absorbed under the tongue giving the user an energy boost equivalent to about a cup of coffee, and the breath freshener provides a powerful blast of peppermint or cinnamon.

In early 2010 the company started to expand from the web sales into the convenience store market where it was at first was met with some resistance by local convenience store distributors, regardless of promising sales over the internet.

Their first big break came from New York based Price-Chopper supermarkets who has stocked PRIMER® in its checkout aisles of all its stores.

Del Hagen says “We were hoping to work with local distributors as a launching point since this is my home area. I guess I was thinking home town boy made good kind of a thing. Price Chopper really deserves a lot of credit and we are so very grateful to them.”

Since then, the company has opened up several major accounts inside and outside the US including the announcement that Pine State Distribution of Maine has started to carry PRIMER® and graciously offered to service any convenience stores in Western Massachusetts that would like to carry the line caffeinated breath sprays.

Finally, when we asked Del Hagen how on earth did you come up with this idea? Del Hagen says “My brother and I were on a very late night trip to Manhattan. We were just totally sick of energy drinks, very tired, and our breath was bad. At that very moment PRIMER® was born. It’s the American Dream.” Techistry has several other innovative, energy projects set to hit the markets in 2011 as a follow on to PRIMER®.

PRIMER website: www.itsgotime.com