Metrokane products

About the Company

Metrokane designs housewares products that are unique and proprietary with broad consumer appeal. They never offer so-called "commodity merchandise" -- products that are virtually interchangeable with those of other companies.

Metrokane was founded in 1983 by Riki Kane who had been an advertising copywriter and a syndicated journalist, creator of the popular newspaper word game, "Wordy Gurdy." While travelling in Mexico, she purchased a manual citrus juicer, which she brought home to squeeze her morning orange juice. She was surprised to find that manual juicers had been extinct in the U.S. since the advent of electric citrus juicers in the '50's. Convinced that the manual juicer is superior to the electric kind, she re-introduced it to the American market with a classic retro design called "The Mighty OJ." Metrokane's Mighty OJ Juicer was an immediate success in department and speciality stores around the country.

Initially, Ms. Kane ran Metrokane from her apartment -- expanding the Metrokane line of juicers and fighting a long, but ultimately successful legal battle against Mighty OJ imitations (called "knock-offs" in the industry). As Metrokane expanded, she was joined in the business by her husband, Bob Larimer, who had recently sold his advertising agency to a large company.

Mr. Larimer took charge of Metrokane's marketing and product development efforts and an array of innovative products were soon introduced by Metrokane. Just as Riki Kane's interest in fresh-squeezed orange juice had led to the Metrokane line of citrus juicers, her husband's interest in fine wine led to a line of Metrokane wine accessories. Mr. Larimer holds a number of patents on Metrokane products including the Bullet Cocktail Shaker, the Faucet Corkscrew and the Velvet Pocket Corkscrew.