Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1004249
do sales, marketing and customer service primarily for East Africa markets but increasingly across sub-Sahara Africa. Kenya is our largest market, with about 30 staffers supporting distribution partners. We have a couple of staff in Uganda. But increasingly, we're finding well-developed distribution partners in many countries across sub-Sahara Africa. In the last six months, we've signed new distribution partners in Senegal, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. So we're able to find partners who have deep relationship with the local communities, who have access to credit to support the financing for their end consumer. We've been able to expand our customer reach pretty rapidly." Tell us about your Solar Home 620 and Fire Pit products. "The Solar Home 620 is sold both in Kenya and outdoor markets globally. It's a really cool product, sort of a grid in the box. Put a solar panel on the roof and get three hanging lights, wall switches, cell phone charging, a radio and MP3 player. "The Fire Pit is for outdoor markets. We can all relate to the problem of having sat around and the wind blows one way and the smoke gets in your eyes. So you're constantly doing a dance around the fire not to be on the smoky side. We've taken our expertise in clean combustion and applied it to the traditional campfire so we have these air jets that improve the combustion dynamics of your fire pit or camp fire and reduce the smoke emission from that fire by 90 percent, just like our clean cooking stoves." What's on the horizon for 2019? "For the outdoor market we're very excited to reveal a product that we've been working on for several years. For a long time, it's struck me that head lamps live with the same technology as the original coal miner lamps, sort of a box on a piece of elastic. I guess they've sort of evolved from gas to using alkaline batteries. But rechargeable batteries really haven't earned a broad place in the market. So this summer trade season, BioLite is coming forward with a very new look at what a headlamp should be. First and foremost, the headlamp is rechargeable. You can easily recharge your product while you are in the great outdoors via solar or our stoves. Secondly, we've taken the headlamp and integrated the electronic into technical fabrics that are very stable and very slim on your head. It is very comfortable, doesn't jostle when you run — essentially, you have a headlamp that you can completely forget you're wearing. So the experience of the light is what comes forward, not the bulk on your body. We're launching the product for Spring 2019." Q The answers in this Q&A have been edited from a podcast conversion. To listen to the entire conversation, visit the podcast page on SportsInsightExtra.com. August 2018 • Outdoor Insight • 25 outdoorinsightmag.com Listen to our podcast with Jonathan Cedar, CEO and CO-Founder of BioLite, online at SportsInsightExtra.com