Reception desk at Walker Edison international headquarters in West Jordan. (Go Utah)
Estimated learn time: 5-6 minutes
WEST JORDAN — Brad Bonham grew up in a household of entrepreneurs however he nonetheless describes falling into what has turn out to be a extremely profitable enterprise as “a bit of little bit of a fluke.”
“I used to be promoting present baskets and present merchandise into Walmart retail shops,” he mentioned.
Promoting these merchandise taught the CEO and co-owner of Walker Edison the ability of leveraging a a lot bigger retailer’s shopper base for his personal enterprise ventures.
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This expertise and information ultimately led the then college-aged Bonham to the Canton Honest in China — the nation’s oldest, largest and most consultant commerce truthful — the place he scoured for added merchandise to promote in Walmart shops.
“We discovered this piece of knocked-down furnishings and I’d simply bought the identical factor from Greatest Purchase for like, 250 bucks. When the manufacturing facility proprietor advised me the (unique) worth, I used to be like, ‘Holy cow, any person made that a lot cash promoting me this good by means of Greatest Purchase?’” Bonham recalled.
With that, Bonham ordered a container of furnishings “on a whim” together with his father being his first monetary backer, paying for the primary few containers of product and setting in movement what would in 2006 turn out to be Walker Edison, a Utah-based e-commerce manufacturing enterprise that gives top quality, ready-to-assemble house furnishings, shipped straight to shoppers’ doorways.
A show of furnishings by Walker Edison, an e-commerce firm based mostly in West Jordan, Utah. (Picture: Walker Edison by way of Twitter)
After a decade of being named to Utah Enterprise’ 50 fastest-growing firms within the state, Walker Edison this month was named by World Commerce Heart Utah and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox as Utah’s Worldwide Enterprise of the Yr.
“We’re grateful for your online business operations in Utah and acknowledge your fast-paced worldwide enterprise development. Your group and capabilities have grown, and so has your model within the international market,” Cox mentioned in a press release to Walker Edison. “Thanks to your Utah headquarters and to your company citizenship — for giving again generously to the state’s communities and causes.”
Transferring to totally different markets
Bonham is not shy about the truth that he entered the e-commerce enterprise on the ultimate time.
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“If you happen to return, possibly even within the historical past of when you must’ve began an internet house furnishings enterprise, I simply occurred, by pure luck, to decide on the right time to carry a few of these gadgets in,” Bonham mentioned. “Now {the marketplace} is fairly saturated with plenty of totally different distributors. Again then, these main retailers had been actually form of determined for extra product on their web sites.”
A screenshot of merchandise offered at WalkerEdison.com. (Picture: Screenshot)
Though he obtained into the enterprise at a very good time, it nonetheless took work for Bonham to increase his enterprise into totally different markets.
Particularly since Bonham mentioned that the native funding group by no means thought-about his enterprise of promoting furnishings on the web “tremendous horny.”
“I needed to construct this enterprise simply by means of retained earnings,” Bonham mentioned. “Any {dollars} that we made, my associate Matt Davis and I, rolled these {dollars} again into future stock purchases and we did that for greater than a decade.”
To take the enterprise to the following degree, Bonham launched what he known as “Operation Moneyball,” drawing inspiration from the 2011 sports activities drama movie, the place the Oakland A’s supervisor makes use of analytics to run his baseball group and make personnel selections.
“I had my administration group write each query that they did not know the reply to on our convention room board,” Bonham mentioned.
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Inside two hours, the board was full of questions associated to stock inventory, margins by channel associate and a wealth of different unknowns.
“We did not know quite a bit about our enterprise, it simply so occurred that we had been in a very excessive gross area and our stuff offered properly — it was fairly unsophisticated at that time,” Bonham mentioned.
These unknowns led Bonham to onboard with American Fork-based Domo, a enterprise intelligence software program firm that allowed Walker Edison to make use of an aggregation instrument to entry knowledge.
“The second we leveraged analytics in our enterprise, knowledge turned the focus of how we made selections (and) that is actually when it took off,” Bonham mentioned.
Now, Bonham mentioned Walker Edison has sourcing workplaces in southeast Asia and Brazil, warehouses in Canada, England and Germany together with a gross sales and advertising and marketing workplace in London.
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Classes realized and looking out forward
Being named as Utah’s Worldwide Enterprise of the Yr means quite a bit to Bonham, he mentioned.
“It form of validates our idea that it wasn’t only a marketing strategy for us right here in Utah or us right here in the US domestically,” Bonham mentioned. “We all know how you can do enterprise cross-country and develop and market merchandise that meet the wants and calls for of these in different places.”
To succeed in this accomplishment, Bonham mentioned that he invested closely in firm tradition, referencing the saying, “tradition eats technique for breakfast.”
“I completely subscribe to it as a result of in case you have a horrible tradition, no person needs to give you the results you want and meaning your output is fairly low,” Bonham mentioned. “If folks love working for you and it isn’t a chore after they stand up within the morning, they’re motivated to succeed and that is actually what we wish.”
That mindset has permeated all through Walker Edison and Bonham mentioned that tradition is the thread that binds the corporate collectively.
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“We now sponsor dozens of charities,” Bonham mentioned. “Each single individual within the firm will get paid to take day without work each quarter and we line up particular charity occasions which can be delivered to us by our staff and it has made all of the distinction on the planet as a tradition constructing train.”
Regardless of the popularity and success, Bonham mentioned that he nonetheless sees “plenty of runway” for home enterprise within the U.S., however that the quickest rising enterprise segments are abroad.
The second we leveraged analytics in our enterprise, knowledge turned the focus of how we made selections (and) that is actually when it took off.
–Brad Bonham, Walker Edison founder and CEO
“Within the (European Union) and in Canada, we proceed to hunt out alternatives the place there’s an infrastructure that can enable a enterprise like ours to succeed,” Bonham mentioned, including that they’ve tons of of staff unfold internationally.
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“I feel the demand for our merchandise and the best way we go about advertising and marketing and growing and promoting these, it has been a confirmed enterprise mannequin now to the place we’re one of many very largest shopper product firms within the state,” Bonham mentioned.
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Logan Stefanich is a reporter with KSL.com, masking southern Utah communities, training, enterprise and army information.
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For the third time this month and fifth time this season, the Utah Hockey Club failed to score a single goal in a game. This time they fell 1-0 to the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
The band 4 Non Blondes said it best: What’s going on?
“In the first period we had good momentum, we created good offense and then we started to get in the box way too much,” said head coach André Tourigny after the game. “That cost us momentum.”
The third period was full of chances for Utah HC, but they just couldn’t capitalize.
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At one point, a give-and-go created a perfect opportunity for Maveric Lamoureux at the top of the crease, but his shot went off the underside of the crossbar and out.
On another occasion, a power play bid from Nick Schmaltz hit a body in front of the net and bounced just wide. UHC just couldn’t buy a goal.
The Bruins are glad to get a win in their first game under interim head coach Joe Sacco. Additionally, Elias Lindholm scored the game’s lone goal, breaking a 17-game personal goal drought.
It was a big step in the right direction for the Bruins.
How this works
This is a three-part article geared toward three different audiences.
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First, we’ll have “Utah hockey for dummies” for all you new hockey fans. Welcome, by the way — we’re glad you’ve taken an interest in the greatest sport in the world.
Next, we’ll have a section titled “Utah hockey for casual fans,” aimed at those who have a basic understanding of the sport.
Finally, we’ll have “Utah hockey for nerds.” That will be for those of you who, like me, think about nothing but hockey all day, every day.
Feedback is welcome, so let me know what you think in the comments of this article or the comments section on “X.”
Utah hockey for dummies
Before we get into the nitty gritty details of the game, let’s take a moment to appreciate Robert Bortuzzo and Mark Kastelic. You’d think a game with only one goal would be relatively boring, but these two ensured that was not the case.
Bortuzzo and Kastelic fought each other twice. They had been engaged in some confrontation in the previous game between the two teams on Oct. 19 and they got their opportunity to finish their business a month later.
Mark Kastelic vs Robert Bortuzzo
First NHL game to feature 2 fights by the same combatants since Givani Smith (Red Wings) & Zack MacEwen (Flyers on March 22, 2022 pic.twitter.com/iaHKDNmC1R
On the first bout, Bortuzzo left the bench for the purpose of fighting. As Conor Geekie learned in the preseason, that’s not allowed. Geekie got a one-game suspension and I’d expect the same for Bortuzzo.
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Utah hockey for casual fans
Karel Vejmelka was Utah HC’s best player Thursday, and it wasn’t even close. That’s a major positive point for Utah as Connor Ingram did not accompany the team on this road trip due to an upper-body injury.
Vejmelka will guard the net for the immediate future with Jaxson Stauber backing him up. Tourigny is not worried about giving Vejmelka the net.
“He’s played 50 games twice in his career, so it’s not like he’s a rookie goalie,” Tourigny said before the game. “He did it in the past and he’s capable of doing it again.”
It’s clear that Vejmelka thrives on high shot volume. He stopped all 15 shots he faced in the first period on Thursday, and then stopped 15 of the 16 that came in the ensuing periods.
Thursday’s performance comes after he made headlines against the Carolina Hurricanes last week when he stopped 49 of 50 shots.
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Ingram’s injury is considered day-to-day. He should be back soon, but the net may belong to Vejmelka anyway. Vejmelka has been the much better goalie over the last handful of games.
Utah hockey for nerds
On their last 25 power plays, Utah HC has scored just one goal, and with the amount of penalties they’ve been taking, they’re not putting themselves in a position to succeed.
Let’s break this down, piece by piece, starting with the power play.
Utah HC seems to have no problem setting up in the zone on the power play. They move the puck well and they even get lots of high-quality shots. Why isn’t the puck going in?
Tourigny believes it’s a question of urgency.
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“The guys have to realize (that) if we want to score goals, we have to get in the dirty areas,” he said. “We need to get there with passion. Not just get there — get there with burning desire to score goals.”
As far as the penalties go, they need to be more disciplined. Sure, there are necessary penalties and yes, accidents happen, but taking eight minor penalties in one game is a recipe for disaster.
“I don’t know,” Schmaltz said after the game when asked about accountability for how many penalties the guys were taking. “I feel like we’re beating a dead horse a little bit on that topic.”
The Bruins only had one power play goal, but keep in mind that spending almost an entire period shorthanded significantly limits the amount of scoring chances you get.
Schmaltz also pointed out that when the other team gets so many looks on the power play, their top players are extremely involved in the game while your top players sit on the bench.
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What’s next?
Utah HC gets a day to regroup before visiting Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
As good as Crosby is, he hasn’t been enough to drag the Penguins into the fight. They’ve struggled in a number of areas on the ice, prompting all sorts of trade rumors — even some involving Crosby, who has been a Penguin since 2005.
Utah HC’s job going into Pittsburgh is to get back on track. They need to find ways to score (especially on the power play) and they need to be disciplined away from the puck. If they do this and continue to get solid goaltending, they could receive a much-needed confidence boost.
The game starts at 5 p.m. MDT and will be streamed on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.
While it hasn’t been the most pleasant start for the Utah Jazz during their 2024-25 campaign, amounting to a 3-11 record through their first 14 games, there are still a few glaring signs of optimism to takeaway that shine through in the mix through the beginning of this season, largely thanks to the reps and development opportunities given to the young talent on the roster so far.
Of those young players having a solid role in the rotation to start this season, one of the most appealing in the small sample size has been first-round rookie Isaiah Collier, who’s made an eye-catching first impression since arriving in Salt Lake City.
During ESPN’s most recent batch of power rankings, the Jazz didn’t see much increase from last week, jumping from only 29th to 28th. Still, writer Tim MacMahon gave fans some reason to be excited about this roster moving forward– that being Utah’s rookie point guard.
“Rookie guard Isaiah Collier is only 1-of-12 from 3-point range, but he’s providing evidence that he can make a positive impact,” MacMahon said. “Collier, whose debut was delayed two weeks due to a hamstring injury, has a plus-10 rating in 108 minutes over his first six games. His tenacious, tough defense has made a favorable impression. Entering Tuesday, the Jazz were allowing only 104.5 points per 100 possessions with the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Collier on the court, the lowest defensive rating among Utah players.”
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In ESPN’s rankings, the Jazz placed ahead of two teams in the Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards, and are right on the heels of the New Orleans Pelicans at 27th, who, like Utah, have also struggled in the Western Conference this year with a 4-11 regular season record.
Collier was limited to start this season as he suffered a hamstring injury during training camp, but since his return, he’s begun to show some impressive traits on both sides of the ball during his first seven games on the floor. In 18 minutes a night, the USC product is averaging 4.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.3 steals.
As mentioned by MacMahon, the offensive side of the ball still has some distance to make up in order to be an effective and consistent two-way threat. At just a. 8.3% clip from long range, he’s not much of a threat beyond the arc just yet, but with a long season ahead, there’s a ton of room to recover those shooting splits.
In the meantime, Collier has emerged as a solid contributor as an offensive facilitator and perimeter defender in the backcourt– two areas which this roster can definitely benefit from.
Senior Day at the University of Utah is always a poignant occasion, but this year’s ceremony carries even greater emotional weight as the program honors not only its current senior class but also the memories of Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe. Both would have been seniors this year, and their absence looms large as Utah prepares to host Iowa State in the final home game of the season at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Over 25 seniors, including key contributors like Junior Tafuna, Micah Bernard, and Money Parks, will be recognized for their contributions on and off the field. For many, their time at Utah has been marked by both triumph and adversity. As head coach Kyle Whittingham noted, these seniors were instrumental in the Utes’ back-to-back Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022, despite the challenges the team has faced in recent years. He praised their resilience, character, and dedication, both on the field and in the classroom, as all are either graduates or on track to graduate.
Utah reveals tribute uniforms with ‘Malama Lahaina’ helmets for Iowa State
A special part of the ceremony will honor Jordan and Lowe, two players whose lives were tragically cut short in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Their families will be present as the team remembers their immense impact on the program. Utah has consistently kept their memories alive through traditions like retiring their No. 22 jersey, creating a memorial scholarship, and the “Moment of Loudness,” a powerful tribute held before the fourth quarter at every home game.
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For all Utes seniors, the bittersweet nature of Saturday will be amplified by the remembrance of their late teammates. The legacy of Jordan and Lowe will continue to inspire the program, reminding everyone of the deeper connections that transcend the game.
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