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March 10, 2009

Upscale woodworker pegs survival on marketing

Photo/Whit Richardson Mark White in his workshop on Portland's waterfront
Photo/Courtesy Mark White Inc. A blue horse created by Portland's Mark White Inc. in a Hermes window display on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
Photo/Courtesy Mark White Inc. A rendering of a window display Mark White Inc. is creating for Cole Haan stores in Chicago, Rockefeller Center and Beverly Hills
By Whit Richardson

Mark White has relied on word of mouth among a small group of retailers - from posh merchant Hermes to mini mall staple Coldwater Creek -- to grow his woodworking business during the last eight years, as revenue grew from $900,000 in 2004 to $4.7 million in his fiscal year that ends in May.

But about nine weeks ago his phone stopped ringing. Orders stopped coming for the display pieces or colorful window props his 10 or so employees - with a nod to Walt Disney, he calls them "imagineers" - create for retailers. The recession and drop in consumer spending was causing retailers like Coldwater Creek to hold off on opening new stores. "It was almost comical," White says, sitting at his desk in his woodworking shop on Portland's waterfront. "I was like, ‘someone just call me so I know my phone's not broken.'"

White decided it was time to do something he had never felt compelled to do -- market his business.

While the small stable of retailers had been enough to keep him busy for the past eight years, White realized that with the current recession he had to change his plan. "Five stores know about us," he says. "I want 50 stores to know about us."

He hired a local marketing professional, Chris Kast, to promote his business -- Mark White Inc. -- and polish his image, which he admits has never been very professional: no website, no business cards, no voice mail system that told people to select 1 for Mark White.

The website went live on Monday. His inaugural boxes of business cards arrived last week. He's spent $35,000 on marketing and advertising so far this year. He doesn't expect the orders to start flooding in right away, but he's confident his business will pick back up. "I don't expect to get work today, but I know we'll get lambasted again."

If you ask him, White says he's a cabinetmaker who does a lot of architectural millwork, but his workshop on a Portland wharf presents a different picture. His work tables are covered with an assortment of colorful, exotic looking objects, from small plastic cutouts of lunging fencers to a gigantic red "X" and "O" for a Valentine's Day display. The pieces come from a myriad of displays he has built for customers like Cole Haan and Hermes and were pulled out for a photographer to take photos for the new website.

In reality, White doesn't build many cabinets anymore. He credits part of his reputation on the fact that he'll build just about anything for a client. His crew recently produced 381 leather-covered rocks for a Hermes window display. "We do absolutely anything you can imagine," he says.

White got his start in this business at a party where he met an executive at Cole Haan. He had years of woodworking experience - 12 with the Portland's Woodward Thomsen Co., which recently closed - but had never run his own shop. This Cole Haan employee hired him to do a shelf in her bedroom closet. After that job, she asked him about doing some display racks for Cole Haan's shoes. "It reignited my passion to create," he says. "On top of that it spurred me to find my own shop."

He worked with Cole Haan for several years, but word spread as Cole Haan employees migrated to other jobs in the retail industry. His reputation grew as stores like Dolce & Gabbana and Hermes called him. Now a custom pedestal he creates might display a $30,000 Hermes purse with a two-year waiting list or a rack with a $135,000 crocodile jacket. "It's not about what you know. It's who you know," White says. He claims 1,420 contacts on his cell phone.

Business hasn't completely dried up, though he expects revenue to take a dip next year. Cole Haan, which is owned by Nike, remains one of his biggest customers. It recently gave him some work. According to White, an executive at the company decided a recession is the perfect time to ramp up its branding. It placed a $213,000 order with White to create several new signs for its 72 stores in the United States.

"If there's work, we'll get it. If there's no work I'll close the doors temporarily - worst case scenario," he says. "But the way it's going, even when there's no work we're able to pull in a little work."

 

 

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