05.11.06
Danielle K. Fleming started making soaps for fun in her kitchen. Pretty soon she was selling her hand-made beauty bars from a stand at a farmer's market. Three years later she had a wholesale business, and the products of Danielle & Company were available in boutique retail outlets around the USA and online via the company's web site. Along the way, of course, she needed labels.
"It started as a hobby," she says. "I had some free time in 2002 while finishing graduate school [she was a psychology major] and I was never satisfied with the soaps I could buy. They were all plain, boring, they dried out the skin, etc. I thought there should be a 'fun' soap, so I started making them on my kitchen stove in a double boiler, in batches of a few pounds at a time." She gave some away as gifts to friends, who encouraged her to go further. "This led to a booth at a farmer's market, and when the market closed for the season and some of my customers actually showed up at my front door saying they needed more soap, I knew we had a hit!" Thus the commercial side of Danielle and Company, headquartered in Clarks Summit, PA, started to take off.
Early on, Fleming says, she had narrowed down potential label manufacturers to two, based on research and a lot of contact with label users in the beauty and personal care lines. She wanted someone who knew how to deliver quality and she wanted a company who could match a label to a colorful and unusually shaped bar of soap. She ended up selecting MPI, she says, "because they had the experience in the beauty/personal products arena and because they were willing to work with me as the business grew. And looking to the future, as the business grows, their expertise in automatic labeling as well as label manufacturing will let us work together to find solutions to longer, larger production runs." She also mentions that MPI's plant in Connecticut is only five to six hours away and that Jess Bravard, the general manager, is helpful and easy to work with.
Currently, Fleming says, her contract manufacturer will make 500 pounds of each soap fragrance at a time, to her exact specifications. As a consideration to her customers, she lists the ingredients in the different soaps on her web site. Since there's a total of 20 different fragrances in the two standard product lines, this means running 1,000 full size 6 oz. bars and another thousand 2oz. bars for each batch. Each bar is hermetically sealed in plastic film prior to being wrapped in the colorful, mostly clear film label, which includes black and blue graphics but allows the individual soap colors to show through the UV varnished high gloss film. Fleming says the packaging underwent quite a bit of trial and error in the beginning, because some of the fragrances would seep through the film until they found one that had the right barrier properties.
The retail store in Clarks Summit opened in 2004. After enjoying success with the store, Fleming decided to exhibit at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, in New York City, at the Extract Trade Show in November of last year. Acceptance there launched the wholesale business, which already has spread to 30 stores in nine states, from Connecticut to Texas.
Fleming credits the meteoric growth to a quality product that fills a void - a healthy, different, fun soap made from all natural ingredients and shea butter (a nut oil from Africa) in a 100 percent vegetable base. Fleming personally tests every new formula and then uses a focus group of loyal customers who are not shy about voicing their likes and dislikes. She keeps track of customers who have special requests. "If we get 10 or so requests for the same thing, we'll have a testing and see how it plays with our panel." This is how some new fragrances have joined the line.
Currently, the unique arc shape of the bar, contoured to fit the body's curves, prohibits automatic affixing of the pressure sensitive labels, so the hand affixing comes at a steep price. If volume grows as hoped, Fleming will be in a position to work with MPI and the manufacturing facility to develop automatic labeling equipment to meet the increased demands.
Obviously, if you are going to market soaps that are labeled "Purity Line" and "Fabulous and Fun Line", you have gone beyond the norm. Fleming mentioned that in addition to selling individual bars, "We offer three-bar gift packages, each wrapped with a custom printed ribbon which we get from S. Walter Packaging in Philadelphia. These have a special hang tag on the ribbon, made by Orange 32 of New York City. And the ribbon and tag complement the high quality PS label from MPI."
With new scents already scheduled to come out in 2006, (Coffeehouse and Vineyard), you might think that's enough. "Not so," Fleming said, "because while the 2006 soaps and new introductions are in place, we're already now planning to launch a liquid soap line in 2007, which of course will require even more labels!"
Located a little over an hour due east from Portland, OR, USA, is The Fruit Company, grower and shipper of gourmet items such as the Royal Comice pear, which the company has been shipping since 1942. Originally a 20-acre orchard, The Fruit Company has grown to more than 600 acres on which are cultivated 18 fruit varieties.
Matt Steuwe, VP marketing and technology, says the company has had phenomenal growth. In 2005, The Fruit Company filled orders for $3.3 million in gift baskets, and projects to double that in 2006. Steuwe says, "We're extremely big on quality control - our fruit is inspected five different times before it goes out the door, so that only the finest arrives via overnight shipping."
Rounding out the gift selection of seasonal fruits is a line of some 40 different gourmet items, each of which is labeled. In addition, The Fruit Company partners with Mrs. Fields Cookies to include those gourmet treats in some of the gift baskets. "Everything is first class," Steuwe says. To prove it, he adds that "If our own fruit isn't absolutely the best available on a given day, we have a buyer who has pre-selected backup fruits that will reach our high standards."
In a business where you ship as many items on a single day in December as you do in the whole month of March, timing and speed are of the essence. Steuwe throws out a hypothetical situation to illustrate: "If we can pick up a couple of extra hours to get orders assembled - the need for freshness means nothing is prepackaged - that gives us time to receive orders by 2 p.m. from the East Coast and still have them reach the recipient the very next day."
The Fruit Company has a central in-house fulfillment system so that labels can be run in batches depending on shipping method, part of the country destination, etc. The majority of the orders come in from the internet, thanks to a web site which was named one of Internet Retailer magazine's "Top 50 Best-of-the-Web" online retailing web sites in November of last year.
Two new shipping systems were implemented recently to enable the company to improve on the speed needed to get orders out the same day they're received. Pitney Bowes provides both their SPSS and SECAP programs so that The Fruit Company can batch orders and print by destination, ensuring that those orders which have to be picked up the earliest by Fed Ex will be ready on time. A new twist for 2006 will be printing by state destination, which will simplify the current effort of ensuring that shipments going to both California and Arizona receive a special label.
Steuwe says, "Every shipment includes a really nice watercolor gift card, with a personalized script label that is printed at the time we print the shipping label. There is also another smaller label that contains picking/special instructions for our internal use. The gift cards are printed by our long-time printer in Portland, who also does the preprinted labels for the 40-some small gourmet items. To personalize the gift card, we have a special template that allows us to line up the imaged script label on the gift card, which is then inserted into a plastic sleeve and adhered to the exterior of the carton. In the past, the watercolor gift cards were individually imprinted, but as our volume grew, matching the cards with the shipment and the Fed Ex label became a nightmare. This one change reduced total printing time by 70 percent."
While individual and corporate orders are a major part of the business, Steuwe says that the company's partners - such as 800-Flowers.com and 300 others - also order items for drop shipping. "They all expect custom service - using their own shipping accounts, their gift cards, etc. Reconciling and reporting this is an area we need to develop further as this business grows." Many of these partners are small; about 50 companies account for 95 percent of the business.
"Down the road, we really want to be able to personalize on demand a gift card that is close to the offset quality we now have, and have that card be part of a single all-inclusive solution," Steuwe says. "We realize," he adds, "that this is going to require major investments in printers as well as a much more expensive label than the thermal shipping label we now use. We also need real just-in-time labeling so that we can continue to increase our volume of incoming orders and still get them shipped out the next day - even at the height of the holiday rush." He further states that because this is basically a family business, the profits can be plowed back into the company so they can continue growing - the business as well as the fruits.
"It started as a hobby," she says. "I had some free time in 2002 while finishing graduate school [she was a psychology major] and I was never satisfied with the soaps I could buy. They were all plain, boring, they dried out the skin, etc. I thought there should be a 'fun' soap, so I started making them on my kitchen stove in a double boiler, in batches of a few pounds at a time." She gave some away as gifts to friends, who encouraged her to go further. "This led to a booth at a farmer's market, and when the market closed for the season and some of my customers actually showed up at my front door saying they needed more soap, I knew we had a hit!" Thus the commercial side of Danielle and Company, headquartered in Clarks Summit, PA, started to take off.
Early on, Fleming says, she had narrowed down potential label manufacturers to two, based on research and a lot of contact with label users in the beauty and personal care lines. She wanted someone who knew how to deliver quality and she wanted a company who could match a label to a colorful and unusually shaped bar of soap. She ended up selecting MPI, she says, "because they had the experience in the beauty/personal products arena and because they were willing to work with me as the business grew. And looking to the future, as the business grows, their expertise in automatic labeling as well as label manufacturing will let us work together to find solutions to longer, larger production runs." She also mentions that MPI's plant in Connecticut is only five to six hours away and that Jess Bravard, the general manager, is helpful and easy to work with.
Currently, Fleming says, her contract manufacturer will make 500 pounds of each soap fragrance at a time, to her exact specifications. As a consideration to her customers, she lists the ingredients in the different soaps on her web site. Since there's a total of 20 different fragrances in the two standard product lines, this means running 1,000 full size 6 oz. bars and another thousand 2oz. bars for each batch. Each bar is hermetically sealed in plastic film prior to being wrapped in the colorful, mostly clear film label, which includes black and blue graphics but allows the individual soap colors to show through the UV varnished high gloss film. Fleming says the packaging underwent quite a bit of trial and error in the beginning, because some of the fragrances would seep through the film until they found one that had the right barrier properties.
The retail store in Clarks Summit opened in 2004. After enjoying success with the store, Fleming decided to exhibit at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, in New York City, at the Extract Trade Show in November of last year. Acceptance there launched the wholesale business, which already has spread to 30 stores in nine states, from Connecticut to Texas.
Fleming credits the meteoric growth to a quality product that fills a void - a healthy, different, fun soap made from all natural ingredients and shea butter (a nut oil from Africa) in a 100 percent vegetable base. Fleming personally tests every new formula and then uses a focus group of loyal customers who are not shy about voicing their likes and dislikes. She keeps track of customers who have special requests. "If we get 10 or so requests for the same thing, we'll have a testing and see how it plays with our panel." This is how some new fragrances have joined the line.
Currently, the unique arc shape of the bar, contoured to fit the body's curves, prohibits automatic affixing of the pressure sensitive labels, so the hand affixing comes at a steep price. If volume grows as hoped, Fleming will be in a position to work with MPI and the manufacturing facility to develop automatic labeling equipment to meet the increased demands.
Obviously, if you are going to market soaps that are labeled "Purity Line" and "Fabulous and Fun Line", you have gone beyond the norm. Fleming mentioned that in addition to selling individual bars, "We offer three-bar gift packages, each wrapped with a custom printed ribbon which we get from S. Walter Packaging in Philadelphia. These have a special hang tag on the ribbon, made by Orange 32 of New York City. And the ribbon and tag complement the high quality PS label from MPI."
With new scents already scheduled to come out in 2006, (Coffeehouse and Vineyard), you might think that's enough. "Not so," Fleming said, "because while the 2006 soaps and new introductions are in place, we're already now planning to launch a liquid soap line in 2007, which of course will require even more labels!"
The Fruit Company
Located a little over an hour due east from Portland, OR, USA, is The Fruit Company, grower and shipper of gourmet items such as the Royal Comice pear, which the company has been shipping since 1942. Originally a 20-acre orchard, The Fruit Company has grown to more than 600 acres on which are cultivated 18 fruit varieties.
Matt Steuwe, VP marketing and technology, says the company has had phenomenal growth. In 2005, The Fruit Company filled orders for $3.3 million in gift baskets, and projects to double that in 2006. Steuwe says, "We're extremely big on quality control - our fruit is inspected five different times before it goes out the door, so that only the finest arrives via overnight shipping."
Rounding out the gift selection of seasonal fruits is a line of some 40 different gourmet items, each of which is labeled. In addition, The Fruit Company partners with Mrs. Fields Cookies to include those gourmet treats in some of the gift baskets. "Everything is first class," Steuwe says. To prove it, he adds that "If our own fruit isn't absolutely the best available on a given day, we have a buyer who has pre-selected backup fruits that will reach our high standards."
In a business where you ship as many items on a single day in December as you do in the whole month of March, timing and speed are of the essence. Steuwe throws out a hypothetical situation to illustrate: "If we can pick up a couple of extra hours to get orders assembled - the need for freshness means nothing is prepackaged - that gives us time to receive orders by 2 p.m. from the East Coast and still have them reach the recipient the very next day."
The Fruit Company has a central in-house fulfillment system so that labels can be run in batches depending on shipping method, part of the country destination, etc. The majority of the orders come in from the internet, thanks to a web site which was named one of Internet Retailer magazine's "Top 50 Best-of-the-Web" online retailing web sites in November of last year.
Two new shipping systems were implemented recently to enable the company to improve on the speed needed to get orders out the same day they're received. Pitney Bowes provides both their SPSS and SECAP programs so that The Fruit Company can batch orders and print by destination, ensuring that those orders which have to be picked up the earliest by Fed Ex will be ready on time. A new twist for 2006 will be printing by state destination, which will simplify the current effort of ensuring that shipments going to both California and Arizona receive a special label.
Steuwe says, "Every shipment includes a really nice watercolor gift card, with a personalized script label that is printed at the time we print the shipping label. There is also another smaller label that contains picking/special instructions for our internal use. The gift cards are printed by our long-time printer in Portland, who also does the preprinted labels for the 40-some small gourmet items. To personalize the gift card, we have a special template that allows us to line up the imaged script label on the gift card, which is then inserted into a plastic sleeve and adhered to the exterior of the carton. In the past, the watercolor gift cards were individually imprinted, but as our volume grew, matching the cards with the shipment and the Fed Ex label became a nightmare. This one change reduced total printing time by 70 percent."
While individual and corporate orders are a major part of the business, Steuwe says that the company's partners - such as 800-Flowers.com and 300 others - also order items for drop shipping. "They all expect custom service - using their own shipping accounts, their gift cards, etc. Reconciling and reporting this is an area we need to develop further as this business grows." Many of these partners are small; about 50 companies account for 95 percent of the business.
"Down the road, we really want to be able to personalize on demand a gift card that is close to the offset quality we now have, and have that card be part of a single all-inclusive solution," Steuwe says. "We realize," he adds, "that this is going to require major investments in printers as well as a much more expensive label than the thermal shipping label we now use. We also need real just-in-time labeling so that we can continue to increase our volume of incoming orders and still get them shipped out the next day - even at the height of the holiday rush." He further states that because this is basically a family business, the profits can be plowed back into the company so they can continue growing - the business as well as the fruits.