Nashville Business Journal- Stoppers Better with Age
I have been told that the best small businesses start as a hobby. In a country in which, everyone is attempting to come up with a “strike it rich” scheme, it is important to remember that when it is done right, it makes, not only a great success story, but motivation for any small business owner who is at a pivotal point in his/her career. Some will profit in this market, others will have to survive it. With a growth rate expected at 50% this year, it is safe to say this company has maintained their identity and their focus while being loyal to their employees and customers. It could also be that right now, in this economy, there is A LOT of wine drinking goin on.
Strategies
Nashville Business Journal – by Turner Hutchens Nashville Business Journal
Company: Knobstoppers
Owner: Robbie and Angie Cook
Business: Vintage wine stoppers
2008 revenue (as of November): $700,000
Employees: 8
Location: 2006 Sweetbriar Ave., Nashville 37212
Online: www.knobstoppers.com
Robbie and Angie Cook have found their niche, and there seems to be no stopping their wine stoppers.
The Nashville mom-and-pop Knobstoppers, sellers of wine stoppers made from vintage doorknobs, has grown from two people to about eight employees in the past four years.
The idea for the business began when the couple was picking out a knob for an antique door they had installed in their home. They were trying to decide between several antique knobs while sharing a bottle of wine.
Joking, Robbie stuck a door handle in their wine bottle as a stopper, and the idea grew from there.
“We keep expanding on that idea, looking for different things we can we can use,” she says.
The company’s offerings now include a variety of antique stoppers, such as golf and pool balls.
Since they began, the company has done $1.5 million is business, and the growth rate last year was 40 percent. This year, it’s expected to be more than 50 percent.
Ninety percent of the company’s sales come from wholesalers, gift and gourmet retailers and wineries — many of them small businesses.
The couple says they’ve had offers from large distributors that would like to carry their products, but have turned them down because they would detract from their loyal clients’ business.
“That kind of exposure for us would be a great one-time hit, but it’s just not worth it to us,” Robbie says.
The stoppers retail for $28 to $35, though some stores price them as high as $45 for specialty stoppers. The company has been selling about 1,000 stoppers per week, and this summer they began expanding their offering to include antique flatware.
Brooks Griffin, vice president of merchandising with Napastyle in Napa, Calif., says that in the past four years Knobstoppers’ products have become a mainstay of their specialty business.
“The first thing is that they are wildly creative,” he says.
Griffin says his company’s customers expect to find something they can’t get anywhere else, and the unique products that Knobstoppers offers is a perfect fit.
The Knobstoppers products — both stoppers and flatware — are available at their winery, six stores and in the 15 million catalogues the company sends out annually. Napastyle focuses its business not only on the unique, but on sustainable products such as re-used or recycled.
“It’s part of our corporate DNA,” he says. Knobstoppers “fits right into not only what our customers expect, but the kind of company we want to be.”
Because the knobs aren’t made but found, there has to be a steady supply of antique doorknobs and other items used to make the stoppers. The Cooks have a network of antique dealers and others who keep an eye out.
All the products and components are made in the United States, mostly in Tennessee, Angie says.
“We don’t do the attacking and the flea marketing any more ourselves,” she says.
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