Safetray

The Safetray brand serving tray product attaches a wait staff tray to the hand using a concept similar to how flip-flops attach to the foot.[10]

In December 2009[11] Alison Grieve, a 32-year-old waitress and event manager from Bruntsfield,[12] Edinburgh, witnessed a waitress drop a tray full of glasses of champagne at a corporate event for a delegation of international lawyers.[10][13][14] To address how a tray could right itself at the moment of impending tilt,[14] Grieve, a first-time inventor with a university background in 'History of film and photography',[14] developed a finger receiver attached to the bottom of a wait tray based on first-principle physics, load dispersal, and counter movement.[13][14] In a closed position, the finger receiver lays flush with the bottom of the wait tray so that the tray can sit on the surface of a bar or table without wobbling and can be stacked onto other trays.[1] When the device is open, two slots can be accessed into which a waitperson may secure their two inside fingers,[1][2] similar to how a flip-flop structurally attaches itself between the toes of the foot to counter the large stresses place upon it.[10] The Safetray product's arrangement creates a strong cantilever advantage for the waitperson to allow them additional control over torque caused by items placed in various locations around the tray.[1][14] The stability achieved with the Safetray product allows a waitperson to place a bottle of wine right at the edge of the tray while still keeping the tray in a horizontal position by reacting instinctively against the bottle's off-balance downward force.[14][15]

Grieve filed for a Great Britain patent in March 2010 and began seeking investors.[1][16] By April she had formed Safetray Products Limited, which sought to register the intellectual property "safetray, safetray," as a trademark in the United Kingdom,[17][18] and sent 2,500 Safetray devices throughout a Scotland hospitality chain as part of a testing process.[13] In August 2010, seeking to secure financing from a panel of venture capitalists, Grieve appeared with the Safetray device on a Dragons' Den-style "Brand of the Future" competition at the Edinburgh International Marketing Festival.[15][19] Bill Jamieson, writer for The Scotsman and a judge at the competition, noted that the product was a step towards making drink service trays in hotels and bars spill-proof.[15] The Safetray device lost the competition to a company that turns discarded plastic into chairs, lighting, and other eco-focused products.[15] A month later, Safetray Products Ltd uploaded the first of several Safetray promotional videos to YouTube.[11] In 2011, Safetray Products Ltd won the Marketing 4 Start-Up Britain award at a competition run by the Marketing Agencies Association and the Government-backed StartUp Britain initiative and the company received creative ideas and marketing advice free of charge for a year from Iris Worldwide.[19]

Inventor Alison Grieve holds a Safetray

By June 2011, the Safetray device was being manufactured in China to meet orders that had been placed by customers throughout Europe and across America.[10][14] In December 2011, after the Safetray product had been exhibited at trade shows in Las Vegas and Chicago,[14] Safetray Products Ltd had sold 3,000 units worldwide for around £16 each (about US$25) and was awarded contracts to supply the device to the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Sodexo, and Compass Group.[12][14] Grieve, on behalf of Safetray Products Ltd, received £200,000 (US$310,000) from an investor syndicate composed of investment group Equity Gap and individual investors.[20] She used the money to strengthen the worldwide patent protection of the product,[1] expand its markets to United Arab Emirates and United States hotels,[12] and shift mass production of the now eco-friendly Safetray product from China to the McLaren Plastics factory in Loanhead, a small town in Midlothian, Scotland, creating four new permanent jobs in that municipality.[20] The company was valued at £1 million ($1.5 million US dollars) at the end of 2011.[14]

In February 2012, Safetray Products Ltd exhibited the product in the Scottish Development International pavilion at the Dubai, UAE Gulfood Exhibition 2012, a large annual food and hospitality show.[21][22] In April the company hired the law firm of Baker Hostetler of Washington, DC, to seek trademark protection in the United States for the mark "SAFETRAY," with a design of a bottle and glass supported at a distance from and above the letter T in the Safetray name.[23] In June First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond honored Grieve's Safetray innovation and business success at the 2012 Business in the Parliament Conference.[24]