Regional business expanding

(Photo submitted) John Thompson, owner of Credeman Solutions, was approved to receive revolving loan funds through the Iowa Great Lakes Industrial fund to kick-start the expansion. The expansion includes adding a new line of products that are Thompson's own vision.

After years of helping outsiders create, design and manufacture their products, Credeman Solutions owner John Thompson is ready to put his own product on shelves.

"The three words, CREate, DEsign and MANufacture, are where our name comes from," Thompson said.

Credeman Solutions has traditionally worked with outside parties to put ideas into motion as a "one-stop" shop of ideation to engineering, warehousing and shipping.

"We can even make current products better," Thompson said.

Currently, the business is handling five products using a 10,000 square-foot facility as well as a 6,000 square-foot facility in Spirit Lake.

Prior to founding Credeman Solutions in 2005, Thompson was a design supervisor for over eight years with Polaris Industries. He first worked in Minnesota and was then transferred to the Spirit Lake Polaris facility. After leaving Polaris in 2004, Thompson began brainstorming the idea of creating the entrepreneurial business that would later become Credeman Solutions. He knew he would base this new business in the Iowa Great Lakes area

"I've done a lot of traveling and have lived in several different places, but I really like the Lakes area and the people who live here," Thompson said. "They have a good attitude and a strong work ethic."

Now, some four years later, he's ready to take Credeman Solutions to the next level.

"I want to create my own products," Thompson said.

With ideas of his own in mind, he first began searching for some funding to help with the expansion of his business. A friend pointed him to the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation as a place to locate local funding options.

"None of us in the region even knew this business existed and are intrigued by the special niches it is targeting," Kathy Evert, president of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, said. It's a classic example of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists throughout this region, often by people like John who want to live here. It's critical to the long-term economic vitality of this region that we find ways to support entrepreneurs like John to start and grow businesses here."

Thompson was approved to receive revolving loan funds through the Iowa Great Lakes Industrial fund to kick-start the expansion. The expansion includes adding a new line of products that are Thompson's own vision. He is creating a line of bereavement products which will include cremains urns and caskets for military personnel. Prototyping has already begun.

"They will be highly decorative and beautiful urns and caskets," he said.

He will debut his products this July during the Firehouse Expo in Baltimore, Md.