Moving From Jewelry to Hardware, Designer Relies on Polished Skills
Adrienne Morea, 48, ran a jewelry company with her sister for more than a decade. Then one weekend, when the New Jersey native was remodeling her kitchen, she decided to replace her worn-out cabinet knobs and wound up creating 20 stylish pieces. A new business was born. She finessed the transition from the designer boutiques of the fashion jewelry world to the male-dominated hardware industry by relying on her experience and business instincts.
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The jewelry business is like the fashion industry: You have to reinvent the wheel every four months as seasons and styles change. I had a successful small company that supported my sister and me, but we were tired of the pace and wanted to find something with more potential.
That’s when I realized that cabinet pulls and knobs were like large-scale pieces of jewelry. I could design something that wouldn’t just be functional, it would be a finishing touch for a room, like when you get dressed and put earrings on to complete your outfit. The difference was I could design pieces that would have relevance to our product line for more than one season, and I could expand on it each year.
I had the experience of owning my own business, so even though I was going into a completely different industry, I was able to apply a lot of the principles and lessons I’d learned. I even used some of the same vendors to start out, and although it was a different market, my end user was basically the same: women.
The No. 1 thing for a businesswoman is knowing how to gather resources really quickly. What I needed to know right away was which companies were creating the state of the art in cabinet knobs and hardware and how I could compete with them.
So I went to stores, researched what was selling, looked at quality levels and figured out who the industry leaders were. From that research, I decided I wanted my products to be solid brass like the top-of-the-line products but competitive in price.
To meet that goal, I created mixed artistry designs with solid brass composition. Because my designs are done with sand-casting, they retain an artisan look, and we can sell them for a little less. I started out using some of the same production I had used for my jewelry line. When our orders got too big, we moved the production to India.
Now I have specialty manufacturing done all over the world, but I have four vendors I use consistently because we sell to large companies that insist on checking for correct labor standards. My vendors are as important to me as my clients, because I know I have to facilitate their businesses as much as they facilitate mine.
The next important thing was knowing where I wanted to sell my products. They can be carried in many different retail environments, so I started exhibiting at trade shows for various industries--from remodeling and construction to gift, decorating and art shows. I hired regional sales reps at different levels.
In the jewelry business, I had sold to a lot of boutique accounts, as well as department stores. Boutique accounts are valuable in this industry, but my zenith at the beginning was getting large orders from trend-setting designer places such as Pottery Barn. In the first four years of my company, I did a lot of business with them because I wanted to make my mark as a style setter. They have such beautiful standards and taste; they represented who I was as a designer.
During that time, knobs and pulls went from things that open drawers to fashion statements. My next marketing move was to get into the big-box stores, such as Home Depot, Great Indoors and Expo Design Center. Because I had become known as a trendsetter, it wasn’t difficult.
Instead of having to change designs every season, like they do in Pottery Barn, these larger home stores carry a large inventory of styles that we update once a year. There’s a lot more longevity and volume there. Now our company commands so much shelf space, we’re at the level of competing with publicly held companies.
When competitors started putting out knockoffs of my line, I knocked myself off. I created a secondary line of the same designs but with less detail and weight, and I sell it for less, but the consumer buys it in packs of a dozen.
By fighting back with my own cheaper product line, I quickly established myself as somebody who wouldn’t take a back seat and give up, and I strengthened my market position by creating multiple price levels.
Going into a completely different industry helped me move forward as a designer. I knew I had a lot to learn, but I looked at it as a new challenge that I could meet by applying the same techniques that had made me successful in the past.
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At a Glance
Company: Atlas Homewares
Owner: Adrienne Morea
Nature of business: Decorative hardware
Location: 326 Mira Loma Ave., Glendale 91204
Founded: 1992
E-mail: info@atlashomewares.com
Web site: www.atlashomewares.com
Employees: 25
Annual revenue: $2.4 million
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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016 or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.
