Pine Cones in the Attic
DON DAVIS says his company Aunt Vera’s Attic-like many great things-happened by accident.
“I made a decoration for my own mailbox 16 years ago and the neighbors liked it,” said Davis, who co-owns the company with his wife, Vera. “The rest, as they say, is history.”
Aunt Vera’s Attic, based in Chesterfield, MO (in “Uncle Don’s basement-we’re a micro enterprise”), sells handcrafted pine-cone-and-ribbon holiday mailbox decorations. The Davises do their own marketing out of their home, and assemble the decorations (with the assistance of family members and seasonal help) using pine cones gathered in Mississippi.
The mailbox decorations are promoted using direct mail sent to a 17,000-name house file, as well as ads in craft magazines such as Country Almanac and online at www.coomers.com/gallery.htm. Aunt Vera’s Attic eventually plans to develop its own Web site. Davis says the company also sets up a retail space for the holidays and sells decorations wholesale to retailers.
Since 95% of the decorations are sold from Sept. 1 through mid-December, Aunt Vera’s Attic is experimenting with other products to fill the rest of the year, such as watercolor prints, greeting cards and dog breed neckties. These items currently comprise 20% of the business.-BN
