Demand for the company's new smoothie maker - a blender-like appliance that makes the popular frozen drink - was so strong that it was transforming his small homegrown Utah business into one of the nation's largest appliance manufacturers.

"We knew how to run a $15 million company," said Beesley, who owns Back to Basics with brother Brad and longtime friend Tom Daniels. "But we also knew that it would be difficult - if not impossible - for us to run a company four times that size."

Today, privately held Back to Basics is still a fast-growing and successful company with revenues approaching $100 million. And its prospects are a lot better, thanks to some tough decisions made by the Beesley brothers and Daniels three years ago.

The key decision the three men made was to bring in some outside help. Although all three owners wanted to remain active in product design, marketing and on the company's board, they appointed two new company leaders with experience running larger enterprises.

It sounds like a simple step, but many small-business owners don't recognize until it is too late that rapid growth, if unmanaged, can put them out of business, said Gonzalo Palza, chairman of the Service Corps of Retired Executives in Salt Lake City.

"You have to commend them for what they did - and when they did it," he said.

Daniels, who was serving as the company's CEO, stepped down and hired Randy Hales, a seasoned executive who led First Scientific, a Salt Lake City pharmaceutical company. Jack Theler, who had worked in top-level financial positions at companies such as General Electric and Rubbermaid, was named to the new position of chief financial officer. Back to Basics' board of directors was expanded from three to seven people.

Unlike outside talent called in to resuscitate an ailing company, Hales said he had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of taking over a profitable small business at a crossroads.

"All the important things were just fine," Hales said. "We didn't have to worry about sales at all - product was flying off the shelves. And it was making money."

Hales did, however, find a number of problems that would have made it difficult for Back to Basics to grapple with such fast growth. He had to pare down high inventories and consolidate no less than 10 warehouses along the Wasatch Front into one location. He also ordered a new computer system to replace a paper-based accounting and ordering system. And he hired more outside talent.

Hales says he did what the three owners were simply too busy for years to do: Take a hard look at all of the company's operations and start planning for the future.

For years, the three had been focused on their products - and their growth. Back to Basics was founded in 1971 by the Beesleys and their father, Bill Jr., who retired in 1983. It remains a family affair: Brad Beesley has three sons in the business; Bill has two sons and a daughter.

The Beesley brothers went into business with their father, who was in the business of distributing home canning and preservation equipment.

Their first product was a storage unit that rotates canned goods, invented by their father. Then came other inventions - a hand-operated food strainer and an apple peeler. The three men eventually narrowed their efforts to improving on the design of common household products and appliances. Manufacturing was done in Taiwan to keep retail prices reasonable.

Over the years, the company added more products such as canning equipment, meat grinders, grain mills and a food dehydrator sold in small retailers nationwide.

Back to Basics' big break came in 1985, when Daniels, a home builder turned inventor, joined the company. Daniels had invented a snow cone maker - a product that the Beesleys were looking to develop. The first model was hand operated, but by 1991 the company had an electric version on the market.

It was that electric snow cone maker that landed Back to Basics, which sells products that retail in the $20 to $100 price range, in big-box retail stores such as Target.

By 2000, Daniels had invented the popular smoothie maker that caused the company's growth to explode and helped give the company an entree into all the other major retailers, such as Wal-Mart. The smoothie maker is essentially a blender - but one designed to appeal more to people who make smoothies, with a spout, a long stir stick, better mixing blades and more power.

With orders for the smoothie maker pouring in, the three owners met to have a long talk about their company's future. They decided they didn't need outside investors, venture capital or heavy debt to take their company to the next level. They simply needed to invest in some major talent.

"You have to give them [the Beesley brothers and Daniels] credit for stopping and saying, 'We need help.' " Hales said.

Since reorganizing the company's operations, Back to Basics has grown from 25 employees in 2002 to 84. The company, which has offices in Bentonville, Ark., to serve Wal-Mart and Minneapolis to serve Target and Best Buy, also in 2004 landed a prestigious contract to produce a Disney-branded line of merchandise, including an electric popcorn popper, smoothie maker, snow cone maker and ice cream maker.

Although it manufactures overseas to control costs, as do most other appliance makers, it has an office in China to oversee its manufacturing operations and monitor quality.

Hales said focusing on innovative design is the only way the company can successfully challenge traditional appliance powerhouses such as Hamilton Beach and Oster.

To that end, the company has expanded its design team, which dreams up new products and also relentlessly tinkers with traditionally designed kitchen appliances to make them more consumer friendly.

But Back to Basics also has to produce a high-quality product, Hales said. In recent years the company has worked to drive down its product failure rate well below industry average. One way it accomplished this was to handle customer service inquiries directly.

"By handling customer service ourselves - and not outsourcing it somewhere else like India like some of our competition - we know immediately what problems our products have and we can fix them fast," Hales said.

After solving its nagging operational issues in 2003 and putting renewed emphasis on design and quality, the company in 2004 embarked on an effort to diversify beyond its signature product, the smoothie maker.

Two years ago, the smoothie maker accounted for 80 percent of its revenue; today it accounts for about 50 percent, Hales said.

In just in the past year, Back to Basics has introduced a number of products - its first blender, a hot drink maker and most recently, the Egg & Muffin Toaster, a device that toasts bread, cooks eggs and warms sausage or some other type of pre-cooked meat at the same time.

Hales believes the Egg & Muffin Toaster could be Back to Basics' next big product - one that could propel even more growth the way the smoothie maker did just a few years ago.

Many in the industry agree. Joe Granato, owner of kitchen supply retailer Spoons 'N Spice with locations in Salt Lake City and Sandy, said the Egg & Muffin Toaster is a "pretty amazing" product.

"It's been a tremendous hit," he said. "But then, I can't think of any of their products that don't sell really well."

Granato sells many of the company's products and says one secret of the company's success is how it treats the small kitchen stores that distribute its products.

"I get the impression I'm just as important as Wal-Mart to them," he said.

Sharon Franke, director of food appliances for Good Housekeeping Institute and magazine, said even though Back to Basics has a good reputation, she was a bit skeptical about the Egg & Muffin Toaster.

"We're often skeptical of products that do more than one thing because they often don't do any one thing well," she said." In this case, it is an excellent toaster and it did an excellent job cooking eggs. And it was able to time the egg and toast so that they are ready at the same time."

The institute and magazine went as far as recommending the product to readers looking for consumer-friendly Christmas gifts.

Franke said her organization also has recommended Back to Basics' Disney Ice Cream maker and has featured in its magazine the company's personal blender.

"We haven't ever had any negative experiences with any of their products," she said. "They are a very forward-thinking company. They have the consumer in mind, offer a good value and put a lot of thought and effort into their products."