Women in the Industry: Part two in a series

Staff -- Kids Today, 5/1/2006

This month we continue our series about women in the industry. The women profiled here are a true cross section of the youth trade. Some have careers spanning 30 years, others 15. Some work on the retail side of the fence, some on the manufacturing side.

From furniture and bedding to accessories and more, these women have helped shape the face of children's rooms through their hard work, dedication, inspiration and creativity. They are inventors and managers, directors and mothers.

These women have made their marks on the juvenile and youth markets by giving moms and kids a more inviting shopping environment, creating a more user-friendly market experience for buyers, bringing a safer option to artwork in children's' rooms, supporting babies and nursing mothers, blanketing kids of all ages with stylish designs and well-known characters and designing furniture with a country French flair.

We hope you'll enjoy learning more about them and gaining insight into their businesses.

Director of Merchandising, Bombay Kids

Kristina Ventura spent the first eight years of her career at Bloomingdale's before joining The Bombay Co. in 1998. In 2001 the company decided Bombay Kids was a good way to diversify and make its mark in another category, and Ventura stepped in to help.

"We had the ability to do it because we had good resources, vendor relationships and design talent in house," she said. "The market was ready for it and we could fill a different niche."

Ventura is quick to point out the success of Bombay Kids is not hers alone, but that of her seven-member team. She thinks their greatest accomplishment is bringing fresh, new designs and options to the marketplace.

"Our team and vendors brainstorm on how to provide fun and function in our products," Ventura said. "Everybody needs to sleep, study and have fun and we find ways to make that happen."

Though about 90% of her day-to-day job involves numbers and planning and working with the 60 Bombay Kids stores throughout the United States and Canada, Ventura enjoys the 10% of creativity involved as well. She works with the field organization and buyers to discover what's working and what's not and with a visual team to decide what the stores will look like and what themes they'll carry through.

In five years Ventura hopes she's still making a positive impact on the business and finding new avenues for growth.

"Every year the market gives you new challenges," she said. "SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), Katrina and anti-dumping brought a lot of challenges and it's my job to figure out how to deal with those successfully. The industry is changing. Because we're specialty we have to always be on our toes and be on the cutting edge; there's no time to sit back and relax."

President, Crown Crafts Infant Products

Nanci Freeman's career in the juvenile industry spans 30 years. She joined Red Calliope in 1976 as operations manager where she worked with her father and former company president Neal Fohrman to build and grow Red Calliope into an industry leader. Freeman's duties expanded in the mid-1980s when she became responsible for the company's sales a

In 1995, Crown Crafts Infant Products acquired Red Calliope and Freeman became president of Red Calliope in 1997 prior to her father's retirement. Freeman then moved up to president and CEO of Crown Crafts, the position she currently holds, when Red Calliope and NoJo merged in 1999.

Crown Crafts is a leading manufacturer of infant bedding and accessories with licensed brands including Disney Baby, Disney's Winnie the Pooh, Eddie Bauer Baby, Karen Neuburger, NoJo, opbaby!, Precious Moments, Waverly baby, Little Company, Wallies and the original Pillow Buddies

Freeman considers her greatest accomplishment the successful implementation of plans to expand distribution of the business.

"The company started its business with a focus in the specialty market and then expanded to mass," Freeman said. "Crown Crafts is one of a handful that maintains strong relationships with both."

As a member of the JPMA board, Freeman also was involved in establishing ASTM voluntary industry standards as part of a focus on bedding safety.

While Freeman has a strong commitment to reaching her five-year goal of making Crown Crafts grow and thrive, she also sees herself drinking pina coladas on the beach in Maui.

President, Martinek Bebe

Pat Martinek says the world wasn't ready for her line of nursery furniture when she first began designing pieces about 20 years ago, but times have changed. Today, the name Martinek Bebe is associated with high-end, hand-painted pieces with a European flair.

And that's just what she wanted. "No one was really doing high design for baby," said Martinek, whose company is based in Dallas. "I set the trend for high-design items."

Martinek Bebe's line, which includes cribs, armoires, changing tables and headboards, reflects a country French design that Martinek picked up during her time as an antiques buyer before founding her company. Martinek said she wanted to give her pieces an heirloom quality, much like the antiques she bought. She believes she accomplished that with one of her first designs, a wrought-iron cradle.

"It looks more antique. It has the quality that people are looking for," she said.

Martinek is looking to expand her product mix by adding more pieces such as night stands and twin and larger beds. She also is adding coordinating bedding as she looks to design for tween and teen girls.

"I can take her another step," Martinek said, referring to designing for older children. "That's my plan."

Director of Leasing, World Market Center

Babs Blair doesn't have what many would consider a "traditional" role in the juvenile industry, yet she's making waves nevertheless.

Years ago she worked with the High Point market and put together a juvenile-focused area in Showplace. As Blair got to know many of the companies, she realized their success at selling to furniture stores and she wanted them to be seen at more than just juvenile trade shows. After being recruited as director of leasing for World Market Center in Las Vegas, she kept her contacts. She started visiting more furniture retailers and saw the juvenile category growing in that segment.

"I asked juvenile companies if they were represented on the West Coast," Blair said. "We gave them a permanent presence as Vegas Kids."

Blair also has met even small companies who have terrific new products and is working to introduce them to the furniture industry. "It's a concept we want to nurture and expand," Blair said.

Taking the category under her wing, Blair said the industry has a very visual product mix and she's developed a logo and promotes it independently.

"It's very gratifying," she said. "I'm helping retailers and the small juvenile companies."

Owner, Creative Images

Joy Phillips got her start in the industry when her daughter was a baby.

"She stood rocking in her crib and knocked a picture from the wall. I heard the crash in the kitchen and ran to see her surrounded by glass shards, crying," Phillips said. "Years later, when my husband and I started Creative Images, we knew we had a safer, better way to display art in children's rooms."

Phillips said the hard part was finding art, which is why Creative Images now is the largest publisher of artwork for children and why www.Art4Kids.com is such a popular resource for retailers.

Offering safe, affordable art that amuses, inspires and stimulates children is Phillips greatest contribution to the industry.

"I really like bringing art into a child's world because it has such a positive impact on the family. Children are visual," Phillips said. "Surrounding them with color and designs that encourage them to explore and learn is a good thing. A picture on the wall is a big storybook to a child. My daughter would ask me to 'talk the picture, Mommy,' meaning she wanted me to tell her the story behind the image on the wall."

Creative Images designs are not only created to have a story and be interactive, they're also sturdy, safe and easy to clean, which means they can hang lower on the wall and closer to the child. There also are selections for older children and teens, allowing them to decorate their rooms with images that are parent-friendly.

Though her daughter is grown, Phillips' future is full of children. A grandmother of two with two more on the way, she wants to be able to spend more time with them all.

"In five years I suspect I will spend less time at the trade shows and furniture markets, but my husband and I want to remain involved in the creative aspect of Creative Images," she said. "The company will continue to add new products and respond to the changing needs of our retailers. We probably will have developed offshore production by then, but I see us keeping some domestic manufacturing and distribution. We've considered a West Coast distribution center, so this will probably have occurred by then. Other than this, my crystal ball gets real fuzzy!"

Founder/owner, The Boppy Co.

Susan Matthews Brown created the Boppy product line after first sewing a pillow at her kitchen table. A request from her daughter's day care has now translated to a player in the juvenile products category. The uniquely designed Boppy pillow has been named the No. 1 baby product by American Baby magazine readers the past four years in a row. Brown got a working capital loan, with the assistance of the Colorado Enterprise Fund, an SBA micro-loan intermediary, which allowed her to appear at the JPMA show in 1990. It won best of show that year.

Brown sees the Boppy pillow as her greatest accomplishment."It was named the No. 1 baby product four consecutive years, that's unprecedented," Brown said. "The award shows how valuable the Boppy pillow has become to moms and babies. Our greatest accomplishment is providing comfort and support to families and their children."

Not only did Brown's product create the feeding pillow category, it has sustained it and amassed consumer loyalty — moms-to-be still register for Boppy pillows in record numbers.

Despite her incredible success, Brown doesn't intend on stopping.

"We want to conquer the world! Every mom and dad, baby and grandparent should have a Boppy pillow," she said. "We'll continue to reach more and more moms. And, we will continue to grow our strong brand through new products that provide support and comfort to moms and babies."

President, California Kids

Delia Glass joined the juvenile industry after a dinner conversation with her mother during the recession in the 1980s. At that time, Glass had a contract drapery and bedspread business, which she'd run for nine years, and was looking for something more consistent.

"My mother said the youth market was always consistent because people always had babies," Glass said. "She had been involved with the launch of the Holly Hobbie brand, so she knew what she was talking about."

That conversation led to California Kids' debut at JPMA in 1986. One of Glass's first collections, Colors, was made with fabric based on the work of award-winning children's author Jan Pienkowski.

California Kids also was the first top-of-bed manufacturer to use black and white themes in its designs in 1987 on the eve of the infant stimulation discovery when everyone realized the importance of black and white bold graphics for infants.

Glass said her greatest accomplishment is the creation of the hugger.

"That was actually prior to Cal Kids, while I was still doing contract work," she said. "There was an item in the adult market called coverlets but they couldn't be used on bunk beds. So we created an item for the contract university market in 1979; it was fitted at two corners."

Huggers are still in the California Kids line and remain a No.1 selling item for the teen market.

Looking forward five years, Glass sees her business plan putting her in a total room format. Though she's expanded into lamps and rugs, she's eager to add other categories like accessories, furniture, bookends and bath.

"Bath is showing a real interest in juvenile over the last nine months," Glass said. "It's a big category. I sell to specialty retailers and they're looking for total room concepts, including bath."

Glass also sees herself in more of a consulting roll in the future and less hands-on management.