By Carolyn Slater

Based on the interest it’s already receiving, one of the hottest places to be in January 2010 at the International CES will be the Sustainable Planet spotlight. This spotlight features exhibitors who have “green” products or services. For one of these exhibitors, Bits Limited, it will be their eighth year at CES.

Recently we caught up with Russell Barton, owner and president of Bits Limited to learn more about his company and the products they will be showing us at CES.

What does Bits Limited do?

Our primary focus by far is the manufacturing of our energy saving product called the Smart Strip Surge Protector. We are the inventor and the manufacturer of the Smart Strip.  In addition to manufacturing, we have a small retail presence, accessible on-line. Our intent is to continue to invent and bring to market products that are energy savers for the end users as well as being environmentally friendly.

How many employees do you have and where are you located?

We currently have nine employees between two locations. Northport, NY is what we consider our home office and where the family-run business began. The owners of the company reside in Northport and oversee the operation of the business from there. Our Warehouse, in Largo, FL, is home to the remaining six employees and is where the majority of our operation occurs, including the storage and shipping of inventory.

How long have you been involved in "green" technology and what made you decide to sell green products?

The story goes back to the days my brother Bruce and I were working in the medical equipment industry. We were in the process of designing a better gradient system for an MRI machine. Bruce was getting very tired of turning off all of the switches on his computer every night, and at the same time, he didn’t want to leave them on, knowing that there would be a lot of wasted energy.  It seemed real obvious to us that this was a problem that everyone had, so as engineers, we set out to solve the problem. The end result was the invention of the early models of the Smart Strip. When we began working on the original prototypes we realized that we had a product that truly could help make life a little easier for people as well as helping the environment and possibly even providing a living for our families. With that in mind we began working full time on the project in late 2001 and our first full-scale production of a Smart Strip took place on December 17, 2002.

You’re probably best known for your Smart Strips – is that what you’ll be demonstrating at CES?  Will you be launching any new products there?

Yes, the Smart Strip will again be our feature product at CES. In addition to highlighting our third generation technology Smart Strip, we hope to showcase two new products that we are super excited about. One is our Smart Charger, a unit that uses the Smart Strip technology in a surge protector designed for cell phones, laptops, power tools and anything else that needs a battery charger.

The other new product is for the international market, a Smart Strip that has the ability to function on 220V electricity. We have a time slot reserved on the Sustainability Planet Stage at the show on Saturday, and it’s our intent to include these two products in that presentation.

Have any of your products won any type of "green" award?

Yes, at the RetailVision Spring 09 Show we received the "Best of RetailVision Award". The person presenting the award stated "the factors considered decisive in the victory include engineering quality, ease of use, environmental impact, efficiency of design and the fact that it’s proven to be the best reduction on electricity use nationally for a consumer-level power management device."

Do you sell your products internationally?  If not, do you plan to expand into that arena in the future?

Right now our presence in the international market is limited to Canada primarily. The limitation is mostly due to the Smart Strip requiring 110 voltage outlets, but that’s about to change. As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been working on a 220 volt version of the Smart Strip that will allow us to go international in a very big way. We hope to introduce it at CES 2010.

How did exhibiting in the Sustainable Planet Spotlight at the 2009 CES affect your business?

It’s always a challenge to know just how much a show impacts your business, especially after the initial influx of interested potential customers have been followed up with, so to provide any kind of tangible number is difficult. However, we do know that many new customers became a part of our Smart Strip Team as a result of our presence last year in the Sustainable Planet area. We also are very confident that the sustainable focus at CES is right where we needed to be and provided exposure for us to the consumer electronic market which will always have a lasting impact in our favor.

Will you (Russell) be at CES? What’s your booth number so our readers know where to find you?

Yes, I will be there along with my wife Kathy and my brother Bruce, all a part of the family business. We’ll also have our Vice President of Sales attending, Scott Wilson.

Our booth number is 4320 located in the Sustainable Planet area in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 9:25 am and is filed under CES, Environmental, Growing Green Businesses. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.