Now it’s time to take a close look at a small but competitive business making a difference for the Korean economy. This week’s spotlight is on Zaigle, maker of an innovative cooking appliance that uses infrared rays.

When we have a barbecue the biggest problems are the smoke and fumes. Now there is a new roaster that does away with these two headaches. Its name is Zaigle and here’s the company’s CEO Lee Jin-hee to tell us more about the product.

(Male) This product produces heat from above. This is a new way of thinking, because most cooking appliances provide heat from below. But with our roaster, light is emitted from the top part. It is also easy for homemakers to operate. If you want to increase the temperature, just lower the hood, and raise it back up when you want to lower the heat. The pan at the bottom has no heating coils or heat source, and there is a compartment to catch the oil drippings. The heat source at the top is very efficient, just as effective as the sunlight. We use an infrared lamp, which produces 100% far-infrared rays.

The Zaigle roaster cooks fish, meat, and vegetables to perfection, without any lingering smells, smoke or noise. Its secret is the infrared light source attached at the top of the apparatus. Zaigle CEO Lee Jin-hee used to hate the smoky odor that clung to his clothes after a barbecue party. When he realized that there was no product out there for odorless and smokeless barbecuing, he decided to set up his own business in 2005. Having worked many years in the food industry, Lee was confident about his product development capabilities. At first, he made large-capacity cooking apparatuses for restaurants. But they were big, heavy, and had several problems. He went back to the drawing board and three years later, came up with a roaster equipped with an infrared heat source. The primary source of heat is the infrared lamp attached to the top of the roaster. The heat is absorbed by the pan at the bottom and then reflected back again, serving as the secondary heat source. This reflected heat is what cooks the food. Lee even earned a patent for this cooking apparatus with the two-way heat-generating structure.

Since no such product was available in the market, there were no standards for it, even at standards accreditation organizations. When I was trying to get Korean, European and Japanese certification for this product, it took me between nine and 14 months, when it usually takes three or four months on average, because they had to devise new standards. In order to meet the new standards, our product had to be upgraded continuously. European standards stipulated that there be no standby power or electromagnetic waves. I had to revise the product to meet those standards and in the process got to substantially improve its quality. We have between 400 to 500 patents, including some 200 overseas ones.

The infrared roaster prevents smoke and odor generation, and is also great for preserving nutrients and cooking meat more flavorfully by trapping the juice inside. It’s truly a revolutionary cooking utensil. Zaigle CEO Lee had a hard time obtaining patents and certifications, but finally ended up with quality assurance marks and safety certificates from Korea, the U.S., Canada and Europe. Zaigle roasters are even being exported overseas, thanks to the word-of-mouth advertising by its loyal users.

Our first export was to Switzerland. Then we sold to Japan, the U.S. and Southeast Asia. The biggest customer response we got was from Japan. The largest Japanese home shopping channel aired our product for 15 minutes and sold 4,500 roasters in just 15 minutes. The roasters were priced at almost 300 dollars apiece, which amounted to about 1.15 million dollars in total sales. We were told that no other product sold like that in 15 minutes.

Zaigle Co. pioneered new export markets by advertising the roaster on foreign websites and sending samples to overseas buyers. The CEO’s tireless effort resulted in the Zaigle roasters making it into American, Canadian and European stores. The product is especially popular in Japan, so much so that the country’s two largest private broadcasters – Fuji TV and Asahi TV – even aired in-depth reports on Zaigle and sold them on air. Zaigle CEO Lee remembers that he was faced with obstacles every step of the way, from development and certification to marketing, but says that every hardship was worth it, because he was able to maintain the name Zaigle and advertise the product to the world. His hope is to make Zaigle a leading brand in the home cooking appliance sector.

I can’t retain the patent for this product for very long. At some point in time there will be numerous knockoffs. But I will still have my brand name. I think a brand name can have its own competitiveness, which is why I’m going to keep the name Zaigle. Right now Zaigle Co. is just a small business, but I want the company to grow bigger. Although it can never be a multinational corporation like Samsung or LG, I want Zaigle to be a company that leads the cooking apparatus area.