Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 67 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine I N N OVAT I O N / R & D offer product in return for sails. In the earliest days of our company, customers were often happy to have someone take their old sails off their hands and to not see them head to the landfill. As our business has grown and our demand for sails along with it, we decided to create and promote a program whereby customers could receive a product in return for giv- ing us their sails. Often times, the item they receive in trade from us is made from the actual sail they "donated." If a customer is not interested in a product in trade for their sails, their trade can go towards our scholarship program through Sail Maine where we have sponsored over 80 kids through sailing school in the past dozen years. In addition to the cost of the products we trade for sails, the other major expense we have is our four employees whose job it is to seek out and acquire these sails. ese staff members are based in Maine, New Hampshire, Florida and Seattle, but they col- lect sails across the entire country. Finally, the cost of transporting sails to our headquarters in Maine continues to grow commensurate with the increased volume and makes up the other major component of our material costs. To me, the more interesting point is when I explain to people that it would be cheaper for us to buy new material that has never been made into a sail or seen the water. e costs of acquiring used sails and readying them to make into product is actually higher than recycling used sails. Because sustainability is so critical to our mis- sion, purpose and brand, we will stick with acquir- ing used sails that make up an important part of the character of our products. MB: As the Sea Bags concept attracts more imitators, what's the best way to deal with the competition? BS: I like to think we are a pioneer in up-cycling. While other folks do some of what we do, I've yet to see anyone who can do it all. Our collection of used sails, our amazing skilled employees who dedi- cate themselves to our mission, and our processes are hard to replicate in totality. We are innovative in how we do things from how we trade our sails for products, to our ability to auction the rarest of sails and our ability to customize products. It's all about authenticity and being true to our brand. MB: With 25 stores on the East Coast, what's next? DO: We're now in many of the prime waterfront locales in Maine that you might expect us to be in, but we have only scratched the surface of locations outside of Maine. We've proven that we can be successful in small seaport towns as well as busier sailing ports and more urban locations. Given our experience in opening in new markets, we expect to continue to focus our retail expansion in the east before we consider heading to the west coast. Having said that, we are also known as being opportunistic, and if the right opportunity came to us, we have proven that we can move quickly. In addition to our retail reach, we also continue to grow both our online and wholesale channels. Our website reaches customers throughout the 50 states and internation- ally, so we can serve those folks who don't live near or travel to our store locations. As our single largest "store," our website has the broadest assortment of products and generates more visitors and sales than any of our stores. ese two channels complement one another quite well and allow customers to shop with us however they choose. While much of our growth over the past five years has come from selling direct to customers, our whole- sale channel has always allowed us to expand our reach well beyond our own physical or virtual footprint. e 800 plus wholesalers who carry our products (from large national retailers to small local specialty stores), help expand our brand footprint and expose our prod- ucts to more customers. When people tell us they see us everywhere, it's really the combined effect of seeing people carrying our products, selling them in our retail stores or others' as well as seeing our online advertising or social media communications. We're now in many of the prime waterfront locales in Maine that you might expect us to be in, but we have only scratched the surface of locations outside of Maine. — Don Oakes Sea Bags

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