“Ideoli is on the road again and this time in beautiful Guam,” says Chris Hartswick, Ideoli CPO and Co-Founder. We have been working with a large California-based restaurant chain to furnish their locations internationally. From the Middle East, to Asia…and now into Guam, we are creating custom furniture for their vibrant restaurants. “We now have two restaurant chains we’re working with here and the locations are absolutely stunning,” says Chris Hartswick, Ideoli CPO and Co-Founder. Guam is an island we never dreamed of working on, but it is incredible how business relationships evolve and develop – bringing us here. We worked with the team to design, prototype and fabricate custom service stations, chairs, stools and tables that are featured throughout the restaurant. Until next time, see you later Guam.
We are back on the road again, this time in the far-out destination of Jakarta, Indonesia. It doesn’t matter how many countries you visit around the world, you can always learn about its culture, its people and its manufacturing industry. That’s why we are here in Indonesia. With a population of over 250 million, Indonesia is a vibrant country that is quickly becoming a player in the global manufacturing market. Jakarta is known in the manufacturing world for having a skilled labor force, quality factories and a positive outlook. Having done extensive research into new markets, we are very excited to expand our discussions with new partners and suppliers here. Indonesia is centrally located in Southeast Asia and a major hub for commerce and finance in the region. We have toured several partner factories around the country and have established significant agreements needed to expand our product offerings. Ideoli is always looking for new international markets and being in Indonesia is an example of its dedication to doing so.
With clients and projects based in every part of the world, Ideoli ships its products via air, ocean and train. We need to work with the best in the freight industry to succeed. The freight industry is adjusting and we want to know how it has changed over the last few years. Lauren, a Freight Expert, says, “Beginning with the collapse of Hanjin in the summer of 2016, we’ve seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions among global carriers. Just a short 5 years ago, we had about 20 major players, whereas this year, we’re working with 14. We also saw in 2018, the merger of 3 major Japanese carriers into ONE (Ocean Network Express).” That’s important to know. How are the new and proposed tariffs changing the way freight is being handled from Asia to the USA? She says, “The immediate impact that we’ve seen has definitely been an extended peak season. Shippers are trying to get their goods out of China before newer tariffs hit or the current tariffs are increased. In the long term, I think we’re going to see people really starting to try and diversify their sourcing. Although not plausible right now to eliminate China altogether, as other origin countries don’t really have the infrastructure or people resources. I think shippers are really going to start to try and source from different places to avoid these tariffs.” That’s some helpful advice from the freight experts we deal with on a daily basis.
Ideoli is only as good as the people supporting it. With that being said, we’d like to introduce you to Armando Vargas – Ideoli’s Applications Engineer: “I work directly with everyone from assembly line workers all the way up to general managers to make sure everything leaves here 100% to specification.” Armando travels the world to oversee Ideoli’s production lines, while being on site to help facilitate installation projects. He’s responsible from reviewing anything from incoming components to final product assembly. Armando has made a tremendous impact on the overall operations of Ideoli, “With operations and clients around the world, it is important to have people that embody the overall brand and what it represents. Ideoli does things differently, it’s a brand that I am proud to be a part of.”
Ideoli is working on a new project in the heart of Hollywood. A luxurious condo complex is being built off Hollywood Boulevard and Ideoli is helping light the 500 plus units in this state-of-the-art space. This is still a construction zone, but we wanted to give you a little sneak peak before it opens in a couple months. We designed and developed a custom LED light fixture with the latest LED technology, highest glass finishes and aesthetics needed to enhance the living spaces. We are excited to be a part of this and will show you the finished project upon completion.
Everyone always brags they have the best team and the best company culture – congrats. We are not making those claims because they seem vague and cliché, but what we do have is a team that has a lot of fun together while doing some incredible things for our partners. Being a truly international company it’s so difficult to shut off. At any given time during the day one of our offices is up and fully operational. That’s why we like to make sure we take the time to relax, get out there, sort of vent, let loose. It’s so important that we have fun in our personal lives as well as in our work place. We have a rule of not hiring assholes… and enjoying the people we work with. Such a simple concept. We’re spending so much time together in the work environment that we really need to make it a point to socialize, unwind and not talk about the office, or shipping or products that we’re doing. If we aren’t laughing, then what’s the point. Ideoli and the energy of the team is contagious… just ask our partners.
Ideoli has quickly become a leader in developing custom furniture elements for international retail, restaurant, hotel and commercial clients. Today we are on site at our furniture factory to give you a glimpse into our manufacturing capabilities. As you can see, we have the capacity for large, multiple location rollouts for the world’s largest chains. For our chairs, it all starts with the spinning of the metal. We can produce enough metal to make thousands of chairs daily. Depending on the product requirements, we use the latest technology in fabrication equipment, such as our CNC machines – carving out the perfect seat imprints. Each seat is hand-stained depending on the finish requirements. Each table top is customized depending on the wood, finish and quality requirements – such as solid, laminate, MDF or other materials. For outdoor metal seating, we have an industrial stamping machine to create patterns on the seat and back. Each and every chair we produced is hand-welded to perfection. That is the only way we can guarantee durability in the fields. Each metal chair frame is passed through the electro-plating painting process. Whether it’s a chair, table base or table top, Ideoli can customize exactly what you need for your national rollout.
“We literally fly to international destinations for a couple meetings in the same day, then head back. It’s what we do. “It’s a little after 10pm and I have a flight boarding in 45 minutes. My GPS says I’ll be at the airport in 55 minutes. So, a good way to start a trip,” says George Stroumboulis, Ideoli CEO and Co-Founder. So what’s the game plan? “Getting ready to hopefully catch a flight to Texas. Connect and then go to Mexico then back here tomorrow night within 21-22 hours,” says George. George got lucky this time, with a flight delay in his favor. On to Texas we go! “Want to get out there and do what we have to do and get home to my family,” says George. After 8 hours of travel, we arrived in Mexico City. “We just landed in beautiful Mexico City in a fantastic ride heading to our first meeting. The city is just vibrant and millions of people everywhere,” says George. Straight to the meetings we go. “We’re sitting here in beautiful Mexico City. I have a meeting in one of the tallest buildings in the Reforma District. Absolutely stunning here from what we’ve seen. Mexico is a big market for us. We started here from a manufacturing standpoint. And now we’re actually coming back here from a client facing standpoint and getting our products into various locations,” says George. That being said, back to the airport we go! Viva Mexico!
Sure, we make some really incredible products for our client’s spaces… but how well can we cook? We like to unwind with the team over some drinks and gourmet cooking lessons! The Ideoli team rented out the luxury-mattress retailer, CocoMat, showroom in SoHo, New York to learn how to cook authentic Greek food. Opa! How fun is this! We learned and mastered how to create four amazing Greek dishes from appetizers to dessert. The team learned that the best ingredients to cook with is all fresh organic ingredients. And lots of olive oil, of course. We also took time in between lessons to try out some luxury mattresses made in Greece and ranging in cost up to $40,000 per mattress. Wow! It was an entertaining night and the Ideoli team discovered that cooking is a great stress reliever. Check back with us to see what food we cooked, and how well it turned out!
California is so sunny all year round… but this week, no sun for us as we are indoors at our client’s warehouse. We’re not perfect, but we are pretty damn close… On a recent order, the client requested a vital component be added after the order left our factory. With some quick thinking and proactive actions, we received the shipment and repaired hundreds of the custom furniture units on site with our superhero team. Within a couple days, we were in and out, making sure the client could proceed with their operations.
Ideoli is a global company based in all parts of the world. Being so extended makes it very important for us to host team summits where we fly in all associates from around the world to strategize in person. We brought in our whole team from around the world, representing 12 different countries and everyone flew in. And there is just magic that happens when everyone is in the same room talking about stuff and team building. It’s a great bonding experience for the Ideoli team to connect together to discuss current projects, new strategies and have a little fun while we’re at it! Because we are spread out all over the world, there is nothing as good as when we’re together. Going through everything, our processes, projects and just every aspect of the company. Sounds like extremely productive meetings – how often do we host these exactly? Seeing what really happens when we’re all together versus being in a remote office it’s just pretty cool. Then you see how every six months when we bring everyone together, it’s growing, everyone’s excited and that’s what we’re all about. It’s unbelievable how we grow too. We need another bigger conference room, a bigger space because we’re hiring that many more people. And the team we’re building is unbelievable and it’s an exciting time. That’s amazing that the team is growing so quickly – and that we all hang out so frequently outside of the office environment. Having activities from bowling to Downtown Manhattan, doing a bunch of fun activities, it’s absolutely awesome. It’s unbelievable what we can accomplish. The results are on another level – until the next team summit!
On a recent trip to Tokyo, Japan, we indulged in some of the most delicious food we have ever experienced. When you hear Japanese – you immediately think of sushi, right? Well, we took a different route on this meal. Our 4 course meal included a delicious Vegetable Salad… steaming Miso Soup… 100% Kobe Beef with Fried Rice… and topped off with authentic Cherry Blossom Ice Cream. And can we just say, that the Kobe Beef was so soft, you didn’t even have to chew. Culinary bliss… what Ideoli is all about.