Architec Housewares president reviews successful growth patterns – Examiner.com

What do you get when you cross a vase coaster with a cutting board? You get two growing companies under one roof, that’s what you get.

It all started about twelve years ago in year 2000, when the Alice Ink company’s Plastec garden and patio division set out to develop a coaster-like product for vases. They discovered that the octagonal-shaped backing concept might work best when applied to a cutting board.

That’s when The Gripper was born and changed the way consumers thought about traditional kitchen cutting boards. Before they knew it, the need for addressing kitchen housewares blossomed into Alice Ink’s Architec division.

Curious how this series of events turned into one of the biggest sellers in the cutting board industry, we interviewed Jenna Sellers, president of Architec. Their success story is ongoing and worth taking a look at how the best laid plans can twist and turn your company into creating a new (di)vision. Ms. Sellers was happy to offer detailed insights that will help all small business owners willing to learn by others’ examples.

Faleris: What were the challenges in getting the industry to notice The Gripper?

Sellers: When we first took the Gripper out to retailers, the initial response was lukewarm. Retailers said they weren’t doing a lot in the category of cutting boards but they were willing to take a shot with the new concept. At the time most retailers were carrying just one or two sku’s in the cutting board category – very similar in texture and color – but the introduction of our new concept and the variety of colors featured prompted a surge in the market. Within two years, more than 12 sku’s were featured on shelves (most of which belonged to Architec).

Faleris: What are the challenges inherent in developing and selling new products after you’ve had a big hit?

Sellers: We definitely faced the challenge of being a one hit wonder. We had changed the functionality of the cutting board with the innovative design, but moving beyond that was a little trickier as we were (and still are) working without the services of an engineer.

After much trial and error in product development and in identifying exactly what the market needed, we zeroed in on our strength in functional innovation. As we are working without an engineer, our innovation is more simplistic and not overly engineered like a lot of gadgets in our industry.

Those principles of simple design led to the creation of last year’s hugely successful Recipe Rock sensation – the small 2-inch, sculpted concave “rock” that offers an innovative way to hold recipes. The product enabled us to make a statement in the category with a very innovative functionality that had never been done before in our industry.

Faleris: Have you experienced a steady success rate with your products/divisions?

Sellers: We’ve taken our success rate at sell-in and sell-through from 20 percent to more than 80 percent. All of this has helped Architec to grow to equal the size of the Plastec company.

Since then, Architec has expanded in five different brands, with EcoSmart being the fastest growing. In addition, Architec has continued to focus on building brand recognition within the cutting board category and expanding products and the brand into other segments of the market while continuing to innovate in its original category.

Faleris: When did the company become eco-friendly or is it just one division that is eco-smart?

Sellers: The EcoSmart collection debuted in 2005 as a leading collection in the Architec product line. With the heightened awareness around recycling evident in all areas of the marketplace, we realized that there were just a smattering of offerings from the housewares aisle. More importantly, we also realized that the product offerings that were available featured mostly utilitarian and boring designs that did not inspire consumers to purchase them. We took our expertise in creating beautiful shapes and combined it with the new materials to create a unique new look for the pedestrian recycler.

Specifically, the Eco Smart brand evolved through a case of mistaken identity. I came across a blush brush handle made from a material I’d never seen, and wondered to myself what the material was. I speculated that the material was some type of clear plastic (which I assumed had been recycled) combined with a natural element, for some reason I thought it might be a byproduct like “flax husk” …. When I found out the material was not so natural I was shocked! It turned out the object of my admiration was a melamine based product with chips of wood.

Though it was a lesson learned, the idea of creating such a great-looking material, but one that was truly eco-friendly stuck with me and I began exploring the possibility of making cutting boards (already in the company pipeline) in the new material.

Our biggest challenge was the cost to make molds for the boards in the USA where the process is so expensive. For the next few months I carried around a bag of flax and a bag of recycled plastic telling the retail customer base that Architec would be making a new cutting board in the USA using recycled plastic and flax husk. Every one of them said, when you have a board, come back, except Target who took a chance on it, and added the item to its new January reset for 2009, which meant we had exactly four months to design a shape, open molds, test molds, and get the material just right before the set date in late December. It was impossible, but the project must have been blessed because, against all odds, we did it!

Plastec provided the line of credit that Architec was allowed to use as long as our team could produce a Return on Investment in a reasonable amount of time. With the Opening orders from Target, we were able to pay back the cost of the mold within two months. Two weeks into the program the Eco Smart cutting board was a top 5 seller!

Faleris: Any advice for other start-ups?

Sellers: I would say that the biggest thing to know as a start-up, is where there is a will there is a way. Know that there will be obstacles, anticipate them. The difference between a successful start-up and a failed one is someone behind it who refused to give up, remained positive when hearing no, whether it be financial obstacles, production obstacles, or sales obstacles. That’s something my mom was really good at. Even with the Gripper, there was a huge challenge in producing a product featuring the fusion of two types of plastic. She had us press on for a year and a half until we found the solution to make it work.

In our experience as a start-up, we’ve learned that it’s important to identify specific needs in the marketplace and create the products to fill those niches as an avenue for company growth. We did just that with our Gripper cutting board and the concept served us well in getting on shelf with our EcoSmart product lines. Just this past year when retailers reported that they were not doing a lot in the serving bowl category, we stepped in with yet another innovative approach to the category to seize the niche with a creation of a new collection of serving bowls and spoons for our EcoSmart line that look great, function well, and deliver it all with eco-friendly materials made in the USA.

Faleris: Where is Architec headed?

Sellers: Moving forward, we are focused on innovation, building out our distribution and working to reshore our manufacturing.

We’ve integrated the lessons learned in the development of the EcoSmart products (and the setting of certain high levels of criteria in order to pass this brand test) and applied that knowledge to our other brands. EcoSmart is the pinnacle and the other brands are works in progress. Having this awareness now is a propelling force for us to create better products in the best way possible. The EcoSmart line has quickly become Architec’s #1 selling product line and has helped Architec to go from less than 3% made in USA to now 33%. Our goal is to be more than 50% made in USA by 2014.

Faleris: What other products can we look forward to seeing in our stores in the next year?

Sellers: Architec is continuing to develop more new materials and has several new products in the pipeline all designed to make eco-friendly look chic with cutting edge development and sophisticated design: The Polyflax™ Serving Bowl and Serving Spoons, the GoodGranite™ Cutting Board, The Purelast™ Measuring Spoons and Cups and The Stackable Appetizer Maker™.

Our products are featured at retailers including Crate & Barrel, Target, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Bed Bath & Beyond, as well as independent specialty stores and online at such outlets as broadwaypanhandler.com.