Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Retail sales prove Kip Sacs a sleeper

By MATT WICKENHEISER, Portland Press Herald Writer

Theresa Roelke charged into the holiday season with a flurry of action, hoping it would drive sales of her Kip Sacs in her first big retail push.

She ending up selling roughly half of her 3,000 sacks, enough to keep her in business. She also learned that to succeed, she'll have to keep on charging into the retail world.

"I think I can make it a viable business, it's just a matter of how hard you have to work for what you want," said Roelke, who lives in Scarborough and was the subject of a Maine Sunday Telegram story focused on the importance of the holiday-sales period to entrepreneurs. "It means I have to continue with the same intensity, the pace. It doesn't happen on its own; I'm going to have to work hard at it again, which is fine."

For several years, Roelke had made the sacks, which are a sort of light fleece sleeping bag for kids, by hand. In 2003, though, she decided to make a real push to turn her business into a full-blown enterprise.

She contracted the manufacturing of the sacks with a Hong Kong business. To go along with the sacks she self-published a book, "A Pouch for Kip," which details the story of a young kangaroo, Kip, who gets lost. She went on a marketing and sales blitz that put her sacks in stores as large as the outdoor retailer REI and as small as Northern Sky Toyz in Portland.

The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram followed her progress over several months and detailed her struggles and successes in a post-Thanksgiving article, one of several publications that told her story this year.

In the end, she learned she didn't have to sell all her inventory to be successful. Indeed, said Roelke, having some product on hand for new customers is actually a good thing.

"I think the goal is to get new customers and keep working on the product and expanding the line. It's a lot for one person, but I'm working on it," she said.

The holiday season is the Holy Grail for retail-based businesses, many of which see 50 percent to 60 percent of their annual sales wrapped up in that short winter time span. Roelke said the big lesson she learned during her first big holiday season was how stores could do better at selling her product.

"I think I'm learning what sold them," said Roelke. "The stores that laid one out, displayed (it), talked about it - those are the stores that did well. There has to be an awareness created."

Northern Sky Toyz, for instance, took that route and restocked Kip Sacs more than seven times in just a few short months, at one time selling 22 of the sacks in an hour. She found that many of the larger stores, like the REI outlets, weren't displaying the sacks in a way that helped sales.

In talking to a contact at REI's corporate headquarters, Roelke said, she related tips on how to move the sacks from the racks to consumers' shopping bags. The contact gave her permission to call the store managers at the 26 REI stores that carried the Kip Sacs and pass on her advice. That took her all of a Friday night and a Saturday morning, she said.

"Promotion - that's the key," she said.

Roelke said she's got several other products in the pipeline, including the sequel to her first book, which is almost complete. She's looking at new patterns from the sequel for new children's Kip Sacs, as well as models for adults, which customers have requested, said Roelke.

One thing that will help garner new customers, said Roelke, is a quantifiable sales performance from 2003. "This year, I really have a sales history. I can go to buyers next year and tell them what I know, and I have a lot of great information," said Roelke.

Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791- 6316 or at: mwickenheiser@pressherald.com

Reproduced with the permission of The Portland Press Herald Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.