Simple Modern, which specializes in the design and manufacture of insulated stainless steel and plastic drinkware, is opening a 175,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in southeast Oklahoma City to produce many of its products. The company produces water bottles and tumblers, which are reusable and sustainable, as well as various accessories, including replacement lids, straws and bottle brushes, reports VeloCity.
Headquartered in Moore, Okla., Simple Modern opened in late 2015. The company grew fast--requiring three moves to accommodate growth.
Company co-founder and CEO Mike Beckham said the company has invested about $5 million in its expansion efforts. Their goal is to manufacture about 2.2 million units between now and May 2023. Production will begin as soon as all of the equipment is moved in and installed, all part of a highly automated production line. The manufacturing facility should be operating at full capacity sometime in September, he said.
Simple Modern also manufactures products with professional and collegiate sports teams’ logos and can customize orders to fit any organization or groups’ needs.
“We basically built the company on the idea that life is primarily about relationships. The people you spend your day with and the type of interactions you have with people really ends up being the single biggest driver of happiness and fulfillment. And so, we wanted to build a company that had fantastic relationships with each other and not just coworkers, but actually people that you really valued and that you know. And then kind of a natural outcropping of that is we’re very focused on generosity,” Beckham said.
"In a lot of ways, we’re a lot more of a mission-driven company than we are about selling water bottles. I kind of say it’s about creating generosity for everybody we interact with -- our customers, our employees, the community. We just so happen to sell water bottles,” said Beckham.
Simple Modern’s mission and company culture of being generous and relational is sprinkled all over the company’s website, including a wonderfully produced video that tells the story of Simple Modern and how the culture they have created impacts practically every idea and decision it makes. The results are telling: 1,055 organizations supported, $1.5 million in monetary donations, $1 million worth of bottles donated and 10% of profits given away annually, reports VeloCity.