Company history

Wilbur Leo Blank is the inventor of the Qwik Orange Peel.  As a 19 year old young man from Illinois,  he moved to California and worked for Douglas Aircraft. He fell in love with oranges and ate an orange everyday but hated getting the peel under his fingernails. He designed his orange peeler to make it easier to eat his oranges.  He wanted to share his quirky tool with every person in the country that felt the same way about peeling oranges. But other events came first in his life. He served in WWII, and then returned home to marry Addie Jane Newman and they raised 7 kids.  After their kids grew up, he still felt the desire to follow his dream.  In the late 70's, he started looking into what he would have to invest and who would be able to manufacture it. It was important to Wilbur that his peeler be made in the USA and found a local company to work with.

       He registered his company name, Wil-Le Products Inc. and with some time, effort and money, his Qwik Orange Peel was on the market.  Then it was his biggest challenge of all; how do you reach everyone in the country to tell them about your product? Afterall, he was a Blacksmith/Welder from a small town and had no knowlege of how to market his invention to the masses. He and his family tried many avenues for marketing, but it was slow to go.Then he read that Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes ate an orange every day, so he sent him one. A few years later, Andy Rooney had a segment about things that people send him, and he said, "This is great, It's changed my life" "you'll amaze your friends with it" as he quickly and easily peeled an orange on the air. 

That was the beginning of a wonderful experience for Wilbur and his wife Jane and their family.
CBS and 60 Minutes were inundated with calls about the orange peeler, so Andy Rooney decided to do a follow-up story. He took his crew and went to Toulon, Illinois to interview Wilbur and his wife, Jane in their home. Toulon Postmaster got in on the excitement when Andy Rooney also interviewed her to hear about the hundreds of letters that poured in for  "The Inventor of the Orange Peeler."

It was very exciting for them.  The Associated Press picked up the story and featured it in newspapers all over the country.  For weeks, orders continued to come in from all over  and they needed friends and family to help keep up with the packaging and the mailing from the dining room table.

His dream seemed promising and he was "PEELING GOOD" as one article described him.

His daughter, Linda, wrote to Oprah to tell his story of patience and persistance of  his "American Dream" and a year later he was invited to be on OPRAH's show about Inventors and their inventions.  He tried several times to generate interest in Florida but he was just one man and a dream. He did have lots of fun winning the Florida Department of Citrus "Peel Off" contest each time he went.

With the notoriety of his TV appearances, Newspaper articles and radio interviews he had the time of his life for a few years and was thrilled to experience his "15 minutes of fame" and that in itself was a dream come true. There was one distribution company that bought the peeler for a while but eventually decided to take his idea, change it slightly, and produce it in a foreign country under their name.  We were glad he never knew that happened. Wilbur passed away in 1997 and since then his children have decided to "keep his dream alive" mainly through internet sales and on EBAY.

We hope everyone in the country that hates peeling oranges, will still have a chance to enjoy a "QWIK Orange Peel".