Story and photo credit: Tom Lindfors
“When I was a kid, I invented a thing that attached to the drapery rod that would open and close the drapes automatically. It used a little electric motor with a pulley attached to the drapes to pull them closed. Then if you ran it backward, the pulley would spin them open. It ran off a battery. My mom was like, ‘What are you doing to my drapes? Okay, maybe we should take that off and just go with the pull chain.’ Needless to say, it didn’t stay on very long.”
The automatic drapery opener was Jim Bradac’s first invention, at age fifteen. It was a sign of things to come.
At St. Croix Economic Development Corporation’s February awards banquet, Bradac’s company Rodent Barriers LLC earned the 2025 Emerging Business of the Year Award. Rodent Barriers produces a flexible plastic ring fitted with a spring clip that expands the ring to fit snugly within the collar of the stanchion at the base of highway overhead lights, preventing mice and other rodents from getting in and damaging the electrical wiring. It was Bradac’s second Emerging Business Award, after earning the same honor in 2018 for his company St. Croix Valley Blow Molding Inc.
Bradac owns more than a dozen patents between his four companies: Ceme-Tube LLC, The Kitty Tube, St. Croix Valley Blow Molding and Rodent Barriers. “When a problem falls into my lap, that’s when I really come alive. How can we fix this, how can we change this and make it better?” Bradac said. “Developing new innovative products and bringing them to market is what I love to do.”
Bradac believes his talent for inventing came from his father Jake. He recounted, “Companies would come to my dad and say, ‘This is what we need. Can you make one so we can test it as a prototype?’” The elder Bradac was a self-employed machinist whose shop was in the basement of the family home.
In 1991, Jake Bradac was responsible for modifying the gas masks US troops were wearing to counter the effects of sarin gas during the First Gulf War. A tube he adapted to fit the gas mask mouthpiece enabled soldiers to drink water without breaking the masks seal.
“I was constantly down in the basement making things or building and fixing things. He was always there to show me how and help me. So, he was a really big factor in how my brain works,” Bradac said. “Everything I am came from my dad.”
Bradac is a master sheet metal worker by trade. While learning the trade, he worked at a company that specialized in working with stainless steel, a niche within the sheet metal industry.
Bradac opened his first company, Prestige Sheet Metal Inc., in 1991, designing, installing and servicing custom stainless-steel solutions for restaurants and other commercial clients. Eventually, the job became too taxing physically, forcing Bradac to move on in 2019. “I absolutely loved that job,” he said.
That decision allowed Bradac to focus on his three other businesses: Ceme-Tube LLC, started in 2007; Kitty Tube, started in 2010; and St. Croix Valley Blow Molding, which he started in 2017.
Ceme-Tubes are plastic forming tubes made of high-density polyethylene (plastic) used to make pour-in-place concrete bollards, light pole bases and piers to replace traditional cardboard forming tubes.
As demand for his Ceme-Tube product grew, Bradac decided to invest in a blow molding machine and build a facility from the ground up so he could bring all of his outsourced manufacturing in-house under one roof in Hudson. The move included rebuilding a used accumulator head blow molding machine by hand, bolt by bolt. “Building the plant was a huge undertaking with a lot of risk; however, it proved to be a great move as we’ve been able to make all of our products in-house as needed,” he said. “It was the hardest I ever had to work.”
Ceme-Tube was the reason the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) initially came knocking on Bradac’s door, and that relationship ultimately led to Rodent Barriers. The damage caused by rodents chewing the wiring in streetlights and signal poles cost the State of Minnesota millions of dollars each year. While ramping up his ceme-tube business with MnDOT, Bradac learned about the damage rodents were causing to their lighting infrastructure and asked if he could take a crack at a solution.
Inventing is inherently iterative. Rarely does the initial idea become the final solution. Trial and error is a tool familiar to inventors.
Bradac’s rodent barrier prototype did not convince the MnDOT team. “I did not impress them with my first design. I remember very specifically thinking to myself, I’ve got to start over from scratch on this,” Bradac said. “When you invent something, you think you have a great idea, but you end up changing it probably 10 times before the actual product is completed.”
Temperature was the challenge. Cold caused the Rodent Barrier to shrink, ; heat caused it to expand, making a tight fit for Bradac’s plastic barrier difficult. Bradac solved the problem by inventing a spring clip that provided proportionate pressure to keep the fit snug under all conditions. “The spring clip is one of the main patents on my rodent barrier product. That is what sold it to MnDOT,” he said.
Bradac had to engineer and build a new machine to specifically drill and place a spring within the plastic clip to manufacture the spring clip. “That all had to come together, and it did. I remember the first time the MnDOT engineer put my spring clip in the base and pushed it down. He said, ‘Oh, wow,’ because he could feel the spring clip engaging. ‘That, that’s really nice.’”
Bradac knew he had solved the problem and won over the client. “I love that stuff. Product development and problem solving is so much fun,” he said.
MnDOT approved Bradac’s initial rodent barrier design in 2023 based on its innovative design, ease of installation, and effectiveness. “Technically, MnDOT had a problem, and as I solved their problems, I realized this is a big problem not just for Minnesota but for everyone else,” Bradac said.
Today, Bradac manufactures over 23 different models for Minnesota alone. Rodent Barriers are now approved and being manufactured for Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, providing millions in savings for each state. “I’m confident we will eventually be making rodent barriers for all 50 states,” Bradac said.
Rodent Barriers opened the door at MnDOT, but it was just the beginning for Bradac. His relationship with MnDOT grew to be about more than the product; it became about trust and his ability to go above and beyond solving the problem.
Alex Govrik, an Electrical Systems Specialist with MnDOT, wrote this about Bradac in a reference letter to the Michigan Department of Transportation:
When we have a problem that we are trying to solve and ask fabricators for their help, almost all of the time they tend to have a “take it or leave it” approach to their products, not willing to be flexible with new ideas to solve a specific issue or need. As you know, that is frustrating. Jim is not like that at all. He listens, then works through to deliver a product until it is perfect, and you are fully satisfied with the result. For MnDOT, it has been so helpful, and we are incredibly thankful to have that connection with him. He has been an invaluable resource to MnDOT Signals and Lighting.
Bradac shies away from the spotlight, though he appreciates the confidence MnDOT has shown in his inventions. “That’s how I like to do it. They know that whatever I make for them works. They can depend on me,” he said. “It’s not about the money for me. It’s about coming up with the best design that I can, then following through and making it and getting it into the customer’s hands, while making that whole process enjoyable.”
Since introducing the rodent barrier, Bradac has invented the “luminaire wire grip and rodent barrier” and a copper wire anti-theft device, both in response to problems specific to roadside infrastructure.
The initial rodent barrier prevented rodents from entering highway and signal poles from the base. The luminaire wire grip prevents rodents from nesting in the light fixture itself while also keeping the wiring within the arm of the fixture from slipping back down the pole during repairs or replacement. Bradac’s latest invention, the copper wire anti-theft device, protects copper wiring in roadside infrastructure from theft using tamper-proof stainless steel and aluminum hardware to lock thieves out.
As Bradac looks toward the future, he sees several challenges. Plastic and petroleum go hand in hand, and the war with Iran has the potential to disrupt his business substantially. “The war has impacted the raw materials that I use in my businesses. Resin doubled in price because of the war. I got lucky because I bought a really good supply of the plastic I use for rodent barriers last winter before the price went up,” Bradac said.
Bradac has had to employ a dynamic pricing strategy to slow down his sales to make his supply last. “To buy a truckload of resin is a lot of money right now. Instead of doing that, I raised the price of my products to try to slow the sales down a bit,” he said. “I put the brakes on a little bit so I’m not blasting through products to where I have to buy resin. I’d be selling products at a loss at that point.”
The biggest challenge for Bradac has been finding a way to let go of the past so he can succeed in the future. He is currently selling three of his businesses, Ceme-Tube, Kitty Tube, and St. Croix Valley Blow Molding, to focus on Rodent Barriers along with his Copper Anti-Theft invention.
“Ceme-Tube has been my baby. I had such high hopes for the company because, technically speaking, Ceme-Tube is destined to be a massive nationwide product line. It’s the only product of its kind in the world,” Bradac said. “But it hasn’t reached its full potential because the growth is bigger than I can handle. I invented it and brought it to the market, but I can’t go any further with it because it requires capital and infrastructure I can’t provide. I love designing, inventing, and product development, and I’m good at it. However, with a product like Ceme Tube, I know my limitations as a businessman.”
Bradac is open to several options: selling the companies outright, finding investors to take over and manage the company, or some type of licensing agreement.
Ideally, my dream is to concentrate on Rodent Barriers and my copper wire anti-theft device businesses. Rodent Barriers is already a growing business, and I think my anti-theft device is going to take off. I am the only company in the USA making rodent intrusion barriers and copper wire anti-theft devices which are now patent pending. Every state I’ve contacted is interested in using our products, and that’s a good problem to have.”
Bradac is an inventor at heart. It’s in his blood. Ideas keep him up at night. Once it starts, and he starts noodling away on an idea, it is hard to let go until he finds the answer and sees the solution. It’s like that song you cannot get out of your head. He lives for those light bulb moments.
Bradac says, “That is precisely how it works. I have a problem, and I go to bed, and I think about it and think about it. That’s exactly when I do my (best) engineering. I wake up in the middle of the night and go ‘Oh my gosh I know how I’m going to do this,’ I just hit on a new product idea the other day, and I said, ‘Boy, if I had money and time, I’d invent that.’”
Just the Facts
Rodent Barriers LLC
Jim Bradac (Owner / Inventor)
Formed: 2023
Address: 579 Schommer Drive
Hudson, WI 54016
(715) 377-2133
Website:https://rodentbarriers.com
Employees: 5
Sq. ft.: 20,000, one bay dedicated to Rodent Barriers
0009 Jim Bradac’s sons, Benjamin and Peter, help their father manufacture the various configurations of rodent barriers. (L-R) Jim Bradac, Benjamin Bradac, Peter Bradac Photo: Tom Lindfors
0013 Rodent Barriers produces a flexible plastic ring fitted with a spring clip that expands the ring to fit snugly within the collar of the stanchion at the base of highway overhead lights, preventing mice and other rodents from getting in and damaging the electrical wiring. Photo: Tom Lindfors