A broader client base propels hot growth in sales at Minnesota Thermal Science

Minnesota Thermal Science (MTS) is a small Plymouth company with a big-time product line: thermal-insulated containers that protect temperature-sensitive medical and biological materials for several days during shipment, even in extreme temperature fluctuations.

The payoff is an eye-fetching run-up in 2009 sales, which are on track to reach $5 million -- triple the 2008 total of $1.7 million. Better yet, sales since July have grown to an average of about $750,000 a month on the way to a projected 2010 total of $10 million to $12 million, said MTS President Thomas Anderson.

The growth pattern hasn't always been so promising. The company's original client was the U.S. military, which uses the MTS product to keep blood needed by combat casualties from spoiling under extreme heat.

However, it was not a particularly reliable customer given the vagaries of the congressional appropriations process and military budget limitations.

Consider: Thanks to a spike in funding, MTS sales quadrupled to $6 million in 2006 -- then plummeted to $1.2 million the following year when spending for the containers was slashed.

So in 2007 MTS began wooing commercial clients -- pharmaceutical companies, tissue suppliers, blood banks and hospitals -- with containers designed to meet their specific needs.

The result has been rapid growth in nonmilitary sales, from less than 10 percent of the total in 2007 to a projected 80 percent this year.

Refrigerant fills box's walls

The 9-inch-square container involves a vacuum-insulated outer shell of carbon silica and a plastic inner "thermal isolation chamber," the walls of which are filled with a variety of refrigerants, depending on the temperature level required by the product it carries.

Dubbed the "Golden Hour," a reference to the first hour after a serious front-line injury when most deaths occur, the technology offers longer, more reliable temperature control than conventional Styrofoam containers and gel packs or dry ice, Anderson said.

Moreover, containing the coolant in the surrounding walls means more constant temperature control without the cold or warm spots that can occur when the contents touch the coolant, he added, noting that the design also eliminates the risk of hazardous material leakage.

Mayer, who died in 2008, had modestly described his invention as "just a box ... not all that complicated." But an MTS pharmaceutial client called it "a magic box," and the Army gave the "box" its Greatest Invention Award in 2003.

High praise from clients

Brent Dalley, a paramedic with a Louisiana air medical transport company, agreed: "If we had no thermal units, our blood-transport program would not exist, and blood would not be readily available in patient interventions."

MTS began courting commercial clients with a variety of design modifications to meet their specific needs. Containers were upsized to handle bulk shipments and designed to be collapsed or broken down into smaller pieces to minimize space required for storage in freezers before use.

The result is a blue-chip clientele that includes Schering-Plough Corp., Pfizer Inc., Bristol-Myers, Roche Pharmaceuticals and Stanford Medical.

For some clients requiring a large number of MTS containers, costs ranging from $200 to $400 apiece can be daunting. So the company recently began offering a leasing program that costs $10 to $15 a month per container, depending on size and refrigerants required.

Taken together, they add up to "promising new growth opportunities," said sales Vice President Kevin Lawler, who has been leading the marketing transition.

There have been nonfinancial rewards along with the financial growth, said Anderson, recalling an encounter he had with a pair of Army medics at a conference of the American Association of Blood Banks in Miami three years ago.

"They spotted our exhibit and came over to thank us," Anderson said. "They said, 'We're using your product and it's saving lives.'

"That felt so good," he said.