By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Former UH volleyball players Naveh Milo, juggling dried
pineapples, and Sivan Leoni bought pineapple-print shirts
off the rack to promote their business. "We bought the
cheapest one, because we have no money," Leoni says.
Inventor madness
What do you do with a dried
By Betty Shimabukuro
pineapple? Former UH athlete
Naveh Milo knows, as his
ingenuity finally scores big
Star-BulletinIT must have been tough to be Mrs. Milo, mother of Naveh and owner of many broken objects. At age 13, Naveh Milo began inventing. Made a perpetual-motion dreidel -- the spinning Hannukah toy. It had a motor and a tiny wheel that made the little top spin in perpetuity -- or until the battery ran out.
"Won all the dreidel competitions," Milo recalls.
His continued development as both inventor and athlete meant many of his mother's possessions were either experimented on or crashed into. "I broke a lot of things."
Also at risk: his own body parts. "After I grew up, my mom told me that every night she was thanking God I was still alive."
Generally, kids grow out of this. Milo took up volleyball, won a spot on the Israeli national team and crossed the world to be come a star with the University of Hawaii Rainbows. His mother got a reprieve.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Milo shows the result of a new gadget he's
working on that cuts fruits and vegetables into shapes
such as airplanes.
But when his UH career ended last spring, he went home, determined, still, to invent. His aim was a machine that could dry a whole, uncut pineapple."I made many, many experiments in my mom's kitchen ... using her oven, 24 hours a day," Milo says.
"The kitchen smelled like a cooked pineapple all day, every day." For a month.
The first pineapple turned black.
"I also ruined her juice squeezer. I still owe her one."
To understand the reasoning here, think Martha Stewart. Dried fruits are a big decorator industry, and Israel, where fruits grow year-round, is a major supplier worldwide.
But the fruits must be sliced first, or slashed deeply, then dried for seven or eight days in ovens. They lose color, which must be restored chemically.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Fruit in the basket was dried using Milo's process.
The garland of cut fruit is among other items Milo and
Leoni will import from Israel for sale in Hawaii.
Milo's invention dries a whole pineapple in a day, preserving its shape, color and scent for many months. The machine also does citrus fruits, pomegranates, mangoes, apples, papayas -- just about anything but bananas. Bananas are hopeless.The exact workings of the drying machine are a secret, but suffice it to say that in the decorator-fruit world it is revolutionary.
Milo called the owner of Hovev Agriculture, Israel's largest producer of dried fruits, and told him what he'd created.
"The guy got mad on the phone. He said it's impossible. So we made an appointment and I sat some fruit in front of him and he said, 'How much do you want?' "
Milo is back in Hawaii between seasons of professional volleyball and has joined forces with Sivan Leoni --who shares his Israeli heritage and his UH volleyball past. They planto dry and sell pineapples here, and to import other dried fruits from Hovev in Israel. Their company, Milo & Leoni Enterprises, is owned by Leoni, with Milo as a consultant.
The two teamed up last year to sell a card game that taught volleyball techniques. It sold 2,000 before the rush died out, Leoni says.
The drying machine has more potential, to Milo's relief.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Naveh Milo, left, demonstrates a project in the works,
a canape-maker. He's considering delaying his return
to pro volleyball in Israel to get his Hawaii business
off the ground. Sivan Leoni, who earned degrees in
photography and marketing at UH, now plays beach
volleyball. He is married and plans to stay in Hawaii.
"I'm always making inventions and I never sell anything," he says. "My parents became a little skeptical, a little concerned that I'm playing little boy's games and I'm 27 already."Then came the meeting with Meydad Hovev, president of Hovev Agriculture, who recalls: "He brought fruits, completely dried and nice, and when we saw it we said, 'That's it. We want it.' He said, 'You sign a contract with me and I'll tell you the process.' Right away we sign a contract."
Milo sold his invention for a 5 percent share of sales. He expects that to total $50,000 a year.
"My parents are all happy now; it's all fine now." He grins, like it's still a surprise. "Fourteen years of inventing, I finally made it."
He sold the machine in November; within months, Hovev had a new factory running, producing 5,000 dried fruits daily. Hovev says he expects to reach the factory's capacity of 20,000 fruits a day soon. A factory in Indonesia is planned solely to dry pineapples.
The company's biggest sales, Hovev says, are to the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and the United States; its major American client is the Pier 1 Imports chain.
Hovev holds the patent on the machine, and Milo has agreed to continue working on refinements -- already he's come up with a process for hollowing out the fruit (this is how his broke his mother's juicer), which speeds the drying process while providing factory workers with fresh pulp for juice.
Milo named the fruit dryer Nurit, for his mother. "I owe it to her after all the appliances I broke."
Leoni was Milo's roommate for two years at UH, and played with him on the Israeli national team before that. He knows Milo's persistence, and all of his inventions, mostly toys and kitchen gadgets.
They remain teammates. Milo invents. Together they refine. Leoni drives the marketing end. Sitting in on a conversation is like watching one pass, the other set and the first make a hit over the net, just like in the old days.
Leoni: "He has the patience to sit down for 14 hours straight for a month and a half. We come back from practice, all tired, and he sits down 'til 4 in the morning ..."
Milo: "... trying to build this stupid caterpillar toy."
"It's supposed to climb walls ..."
" ... it didn't work."
"The next day he starts something new."
So anyway, what does a person do with a dried pineapple?
Centerpieces. Huge wreaths. Ann Wills, president of Craft Supply of Honolulu, believes in the novelty of the Milo-Leoni product.
She is their first customer, placing an order for a variety of the dried fruits, to reach store shelves in October. The store now carries plastic and resin fruits, but nothing like these natural fruits. A pineapple will sell for about $10.
Wills said the store's designers will put the pieces to work in sample arrangements with dried flowers, seed pods and the like. She envisions centerpieces for luaus, and much more.
"It's fun to have something different," she says.
Meanwhile, Milo and Leoni keep working. They've revived the old dreidel idea and tried to make it into a spinning hula girl. It's top-heavy and unstable right now, but Milo believes it's a workable concept.
Other possibles, now in the prototype stage: A canape-maker that cuts food into shapes such as airplanes and fish (makes good pupus and fried potatoes). Also, a new dice game and a hydraulic device that parallel-parks your car.
About their current project they are optimistic, based on early sales reports from Hovev.
"The pineapple is going to a be a worldwide hit, they are sure of it," Milo says. Set.
"With this we want to go all the way -- Martha Stewart," Leoni adds. "The world hasn't seen it yet." Hit. Kill. Point.
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