![]() ![]() All of a sudden, the body is full, it’s lifelike and it makes a big difference, it really does. It’s fascinating how they take a body that is decrepit sunken in and really doesn’t have many lifelike features at all and through the course of a few hours and our product gets pumped in and out of the body and it really does make a noticeable change. Frigid Fluid currently makes 25 kinds of fluid, which embalmers use to preserve a body and restore its natural skin tone.īRIAN: Most people don’t see a deceased body on its own, especially after a couple days. A version of the Frigid is still sold today under the name 36 plus and it remains the company’s best seller. The most popular one was a general purpose arterial fluid called Frigid, and the Krums renamed the business after their top seller. WAILIN: About a decade into the company’s existence, it was making eight different kinds of embalming fluid. He ended up riding a horse and buggy in Chicago, and he’s handing off his wares and his elixirs, essentially dropping off in the Chicago area, and that’s how the story goes. He started in 1892, it was called Chicago Chemical Company. He’s the one who started Frigid Fluid Company. Sign up for a 30-day free trial at /thedistance.īRIAN: Adelbert R. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by email, chat and meetings, give Basecamp a try. It’s an app for communicating with people and organizing projects and work. Basecamp is the saner way to run your business. The Distance is a production of Basecamp. First up: The story of Frigid Fluid, and how Brian Yeazel is injecting fresh thinking into a 124-year-old family run business and giving it new life after the economic downturn. We’re kicking off a month of stories about the business of dying. WAILIN: Welcome to The Distance, a podcast about long-running businesses. Brian learned this firsthand when he joined the family business in the middle of the recession.īRIAN: A lot of people are like, “Oh, it’s a business that, you know, is consistent all the time, right? It never gets affected by um the swings in the economy.” But no, that’s not true. But in what’s known as the deathcare industry, you still can’t take anything for granted. WAILIN: You know that cliche about how nothing’s certain except for death and taxes? As the current presidential election has made apparent, even taxes are no certainty. That’s where you’re able to put the casket or coffin onto straps or webbing, how it’s done today, release a brake and have it go down automatically um so we’re the ones that invented, invented that, and that’s the one that really caught on. And we were the ones who invented the first automatic casket lowering device and that’s gravity-based. Kennedy.īRIAN: There were other lowering devices. In 1916, Frigid Fluid invented the automatic casket lowering device, which was used in the burials of presidents like Franklin D. His company, Frigid Fluid, has been manufacturing embalming fluid since his great great uncle founded the business in 1892. WAILIN: Brian Yeazel doesn’t make artisanal cold pressed juices. ![]() Not a lot of our competitors were doing that. We were one of the first ones to really start marketing our embalming fluids, coming up with some like trademarked statements and uh some real branding of the fluid. Coming from that angle, we are able to kinda be a little more daring, maybe take a little-some more risks. We’re more of a regional, but we’re trying to break in to be a national and compete with some of the larger companies. The website has a clean, modern layout, showing pictures of white-capped bottles filled with liquid in different shades of orange and pink.īRIAN YEAZEL: Coloration is really important, I think, the brightness of the bottles, the presentation of the bottles is important. WAILIN WONG: If you took a casual glance at Brian Yeazel’s company website, you might think he was selling artisanal cold pressed juices. Make sure you’re subscribed to The Distance via iTunes, Google Play Music or your favorite podcatcher so you get our new episodes as soon as they’re released! (Next week, we’ll have a mini episode about, among other things, the difference between embalming and taxidermy.) Transcript This is the first of a short series we’re doing this month about the business of dying. ![]() Brian, who took over in 2013, has discovered that even a business based on life’s only certainty - death - isn’t nearly as steady and predictable as it may seem to outsiders. Frigid Fluid, the company his great great uncle founded in 1892, is also the inventor of the automatic casket lowering device. during the Civil War, and Brian Yeazel’s family got into the embalming fluid business a few decades later. The modern practice of embalming started in the U.S. ![]()
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