Thanks so much to the customers who sent in the pictures below and told us where they snapped them!

Now send us YOUR pictures of PIG® products doing dirty deeds to keep workplaces clean and safe!

Near the generators at Hoover Dam

At the Louvre near the Mona Lisa (ooh-la-la!)

Drawing a blank on the location, but I do know that it’s PIG® Elephant Mat!

A local customer (call them Company X) called about a spill this afternoon. Customer Service immediately started working with Distribution on an emergency delivery.  Tim in Facilities was even working on getting the order on a New Pig truck until we confirmed that it could ship with one of our shipping partners, Ward Trucking. The Ward Truck got there so fast with the PIG® products needed that the people at the front gate of Company X hadn’t been informed yet that the delivery was coming. A Pigger in our Distribution area placed a call to Company X to please open the gate.

Appreciative emails started flying around here, aimed largely at Piggers in Distribution for making this happen. Ya gotta love this email from Janet in Distribution:

Thanks for all the praise but keep in mind “THIS IS WHAT WE DO” not just for [Company X] but for all of our customers.  Monday, [Company Y] had a spill and needed our product ASAP. We got the call at 3:00 and the product was on a truck leaving New Pig at 3:45. We appreciate our customers and give them all the same New Pig service.

Right on, Janet: THIS IS WHAT WE DO.

I happened to come across Pig Wheels for skateboards.

I relate to the marketing theme, the graphics are cool, and the catalog has a wide selection, but I’m not about to test the products myself. Are they good?

I did watch a video of Pig Wheels in action. Lots of hard falls by users perfecting tricks. Looked painful. Hope there were first aid kits handy.

Our sensitive little mascot does not—repeat, does not—need to know that this recipe has gone viral.

Are these cool—er, warm—or what?! Get ‘em at Perpetual Kid.

Maybe we can add these to our own work gloves collection.

Two toasty thumbs up!

Here’s one mention that businesses are more likely these days to make do with older equipment.

Older equipment is more likely to leak and therefore need absorbents. So one way that we might serve in tight times is by offering what we always offer.

On the other hand (or hoof), if manufacturing declines, which it definitely has, then equipment is used less, and needs less absorbents.

The important thing for any business is to serve in ways that are valuable to customers. New Pig constantly works on new ways to serve. What helps you helps us.

One quick example: our new GripZone™ collection of products focused on a consistent concern in workplaces: preventing slips and falls.

Father from home, I like this down-to-earth (okay, down-to-snow) example of a business finding a new way to serve in a harsh climate (literally): roof rakes for snow.

Image © Dean Pennala – Fotolia.com

I just received a call from a delightful gentleman in Connecticut. He’s an auditor who was overcome with curiosity after seeing many invoices carrying the odd phrases that we tend to use at New Pig, such as “Con-grunt-ulations!”

When you use it a lot, you forget, but we do have some odd vocabulary, don’t we?

For the auditor in Connecticut and anyone else who’s curious, here’s some quick information on what we say and why we say it:

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD
In the mid 1980’s, New Pig grew out of an industrial cleaning business in Central Pennsylvania run by Donald Beaver, Jr. and Ben Stapelfeld. Their business suffered particularly high labor costs in sites where clay pellets (familiar as cat litter) were spread around machines that leaked liquids such as oil and coolant. The clay gave some traction but made a bad mess even worse.

Beaver and Stapelfeld invented a tubular absorbent (the ground-up center of corn cob in a cloth tube) that was a much easier way to control leaks and spills. This product, which resembled a sausage and was developed in a messy testing area called the Pig Pen, become the PIG® Absorbent Sock. The founders recognized the word-of-mouth potential in marketing their company and products using a humorous pig motif, and it made sense because the products were used in dirty situations and had big appetites. They went “whole hog” with names that eventually included:

COMPANY
New Pig Corporation, usually shortened to “New Pig.” They preferred “Pig Corporation” but that was already taken by a Pennsylvania pig farmer. “New Pig” follows the pattern of “New England.”

ADDRESS
One Pork Avenue

TELEPHONE NUMBER
1-800-HOT-HOGS (468-4647)

PRODUCT CATALOG
Pigalog® (not cat-alog, but pig-alog)

BRAND
PIG® is the brand used on our wide range of products used for leak and spill control.

PRODUCT NAMES
Pig-oriented product names include:

• HAM-O® Absorbent Mat (this mat’s pattern is not cam-ouflage, but ham-ouflage)
• FAT MAT® Absorbent Mat
• HogHyde™ Skin (referring to the reinforcing layer in some of our DRAINBLOCKER® Drain Covers, used to seal storm drains in emergencies)
• ShopHog® Wipers (wipers for your industrial floor or shop)
• Sporksball (a promotional item—a football shaped like a pig)
• WatchHog (a promotional item—a motion-sensitive “watchdog” swine that oinks when activated)

Many other product names aren’t pig-oriented but are still fun in themselves:

• Elephant Absorbent Mat (which resembles an elephant’s skin)
• CHAT MAT® Absorbent Mat (which “talks” to you with printed safety messages)
• BubbleZorb® Packaging Material (which combines cushioning bubbles with absorbent material)
• CHUCK® Boxes (shipping cartons designed for use as trash containers; “chuck” in products after use)
• Burpless® Funnels (vented so that you can pour in liquid quickly without its “burping” back)
• Sticky Steps® Mats (which feature non-transferring adhesive where dirt “sticks” when you walk on it)

CATCH PHRASE
Partners In Grime (with initials P.I.G.)

SALUTATIONS OFTEN USED IN CORRESPONDENCE OR PHONE CALLS
Swine-cerely
Oinks very much
Con-grunt-ulations

And one more …

Have a swine day!