COURTESY SHARKNINJA
The perfect blend
SharkNinja focuses on innovation
Asearch on the social media platform TikTok should tell you all you need to know about the Ninja Creami ice cream maker, SharkNinja president Mark Barrocas says. “Type in ‘Ninja Creami’, ” Barrocas adds. “There are 35 million views of people making all kinds of amazing stuff.”
SharkNinja’s impact on the housewares industry can be seen through viral videos and five-star reviews, something the company takes seriously.
“Twenty years ago, if you [liked or] didn’t like something, you maybe told your mom or dad or husband or wife,” Barrocas says. “Today the consumer has so much power.”
The company, which was started in Montreal in 1994 under the name Euro-Pro, offers more than 150 products to consumers worldwide. The name has evolved into SharkNinja, with cleaning solutions, such as vacuum cleaners, falling under the Shark brand, and kitchen products under Ninja.
Collectively, SharkNinja has become a staple at Costco. “You can go to a warehouse and see multiple SharkNinja products,” Barrocas says. “The consumer is going to get the same value and affordable innovation, the same attention to detail and hopefully the same delight out of the products they buy.”
Breathing new life into old ideas is a SharkNinja tradition. Mark Rosenzweig, who founded the company, focused on research and development early on. What resulted were improved takes on vacuum cleaners, traditional food processors and coffee machines, with products like steam cleaners, upright vacuum cleaners, multi-functional food processors and craft coffee makers.
Creating devices that people love is the goal, says Barrocas, who adds, “The validation of what we do comes from the consumer. Engineering is one part of that. As an organization we have over 750 engineers globally. The testing of the products is the other. Before the product launches in the market, about 1,000 consumers have interacted with it. We’re not launching with our fingers crossed, saying, ‘I hope people like it.’”
COMPANY INFO
Name SharkNinja
CEO Mark Barrocas
Employees 2,800
Headquarters Needham, Massachusetts
Items carried at Costco Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-iQ (Item 1605291); Ninja Professional Plus Blender (Item 1502667); Ninja Creami (Item 2603480). Warehouses/Costco.ca.
Quote about Costco “One of the reasons I think there’s such a good alliance with our businesses is because Costco is also bringing extraordinary value.”—Mark Barrocas, president