Mr. Wilson recalls the beginning of his garage-based business.

In the 1970’s while working for a government agency as a parks specialist, my crew and I were out picking up trash. I was approached by an elderly gentleman who had a tool he made for moving logs in his fireplace and suggested we use this tool to help us out.  After conversing with him for sometime, I told him it would not be good for that purpose because of the materials he had used.

For the next couple of weeks, I jotted down ideas using different materials that would work for a litter pick-up tool. I went to a scrap metal yard and got enough material to build two prototypes. The prototypes were shelved for almost ten years until I retired from my government job.

In May of 1986 I contacted a machine shop and had dies made and parts stamped. I then contacted B & J Incorporated in Sparks, Nevada in 1992 and had higher quality dies made. They also made and supplied the parts necessary for me to build the Grapplers.

We assembled the units in the space of a single car garage and started advertising. We ultimately were selling to City, State and Federal Parks, Schools and Highway Departments in all fifty states. We also sold to individuals and hardware stores.

Our home based business had expanded so much my wife and I were no longer able to keep up and continue. So, we were delighted when Bonnie and Jay Thiessens, owners of
B & J, Inc. in Sparks, Nevada, purchased our business in January of 2000 changing our name from W. W. Diversified to Grapplers Incorporated as we knew a quality product would continue to be manufactured.

Sincerely,

Jim Wilson