Kibbutz finds a US market

KIBBUTZ AFIKIM , Israel -- The obesity epidemic in far away America would seem to be of little consequence to members of this Jordan Valley collective, a holdover from the early Zionist communal farms whose residents shared everything and lived simply.

But overweight Americans have started to pay big money for the electric scooters produced here by Afikim Electric Mobilizers, a collectively owned company that is a rapidly growing source of income for the kibbutz members.

According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, about 30 percent of American adults are obese -- more than 60 million people, and counting.

That health crisis is Afikim's business opportunity.

The kibbutz factory, which designed its first scooters 15 years ago for elderly and infirm kibbutz residents who could no longer walk or bike to the store or communal meal hall, has super sized its latest top-line, four-wheel, battery-powered scooter, upgrading the motor and replacing a two-person bench with a single bucket seat. The model, which previously had been marketed in Israel to carry two or three passengers, has been reconfigured to move a single passenger weighing as much as 500 pounds.

Afikim still sells most of its scooters to elderly people who are still mobile but can't walk long distances.

Shachar Hillel, the company's marketing manager, said that in the last year, the company sold nearly $2 million worth of scooters to "heavy customers," amounting to about a fifth of the company's revenue.

American sales of the heavy-duty scooter have doubled in the last nine months, making it the fastest - growing slice of the company's business, and Hillel thinks overweight Americans will continue to fuel the company's growth.

Obesity, he said, "is part of American life. More and more obese people want to go out and feel independent."

The company's small factory is in a two-story white warehouse at the edge of the kibbutz, one of the early Zionist communities founded in the Jordan Valley, just south of the Sea of Galilee in one of the most fertile regions of Israel.

Afikim still adheres to the communal socialist principles of the kibbutz movement. The company is jointly owned by every member of the collective, and its revenues are shared among the community.

The community sits astride the main Jordan Valley highway, with the mountains of Jordan to the east and the hills of Galilee to the west looming above banana groves and cow pens. The kibbutz also does a brisk business manufacturing specialty dairy farm equipment.

The kibbutz projects something of a crumbling, old socialist air. The bare-bones communal cafeteria serves up tasteless boiled chicken floating in an oily broth, along with bland, mealy matzo balls. Residents zip around on bicycles and decommissioned early models of the Afikim scooters, industrial relics designed for workers to move boxes around a warehouse.

But inside the scooter factory, the 45-odd workers -- most of them kibbutz members but some hired from outside -- buzz along with capitalist energy. The kibbutz hired a new American distributor last year, EV Rider LLC , and is in the process of hiring 10 more workers.

Specialized mechanics custom-build each vehicle. For the Israeli market, they usually produce no-frills models, often with a bench that can hold two people rather than the massive bucket seat that is increasingly popular in America. American customers are also interested in the kind of add-ons that Hillel said never appealed to Israeli customers, such as extra shopping baskets, compact disc players, and cup holders.

Engineers design future models in a room connected to the factory floor.

The world market for motorized chairs has been dominated by cheap Chinese-manufactured electric wheelchairs and scooters, leaving only small niches for specialized -- and pricey -- products such as Afikim's Breeze IV, which retails in the United States for $3,900.

The Breeze IV marks the high point of Afikim's approach, taking design values from the auto industry and Italian scooters, rather than from the wheelchair industry.

"We want it to look like a motorcycle, not a wheelchair. We want the design to make our customers feel good," Hillel said.

The Breeze IV, with a top speed of 10 miles per hour, can go 25 miles on a single charge.

According to Juan Carlos Rivera, president of EV Rider LLC, the typical disabled customer weighs 250 to 300 pounds.

With its two-horsepower engine, zippy look , and ability to navigate sidewalks, street shoulders, and malls, the Breeze IV has quickly become popular with obese consumers, Rivera said.

Initially, Rivera said he expected to sell the Israeli cars mostly to seniors, focusing on the snowbird market in Florida, Arizona, and California.

"I saw the potential for the obese market because these scooters are designed to carry 500 pounds," Rivera said by telephone from Fort Myers, Fla. Rivera spoke to Afikim managers, who were quickly sold on the idea of redesigning the powerful scooter and marketing it to the obese.

The company is in the process of designing even fancier models for American customers, who have deeper pockets than Israelis.

Hillel seems surprised that Afikim is reaping so much revenue growth from a market sector so distant from the kibbutz company's utilitarian roots.

But over the years, Afikim expanded its range, developing collapsible electric wheelchairs, golf carts, even a fully enclosed, heated snow-worthy model for Scandinavian customers.

In the Afikim factory, Hillel energetically demonstrate d the Breeze IV, taking a ready-to-ship model at top speed over speed bumps, into the grass, and up a loading dock ramp to show its durability. "We listen to the market," he said with a smile. "The heavy clients are new, they're younger, and they have many demands."