Pleaser
René Rofé
Seven ‘til Midnight
The most recent addition to the Kevco portfolio is Pleasure Wigs, a range of 60+ wigs which allow the firm to dress its customers from head to toe: “We were offered the range a year ago but we couldn’t have coped with it then,” says Wooldridge. “This year we decided we could handle it. They go very well with our costumes and if you look at most costume catalogues the models are also wearing wigs and shoes, and we can now supply the costume, the shoes and the wigs - a one-stop-shop.”
So that suggests that there are no plans to add another brand to the already bulging stockroom, which stretches across two literally crammed-to-the- rafters unit factories? “We have just returned from the International Lingerie Show and we could have come back with half a dozen more brands if we’d wanted to,” says Wooldridge. “We’ve got a good reputation in America and a lot of people would like us to be their distributor but if we were to take on another brand it would have to be something that doesn’t clash with what we’re already doing.
“Even through the current hard times we are still growing and we feel there is a lot more to come. We know what figures GotLingerie achieved and we want to go even higher.” Warehousing could be an issue should Kevco decide to take on another brand though. At the time of my visit the firm estimated it had 12,000 pairs of shoes and around 40,000 pieces of lingerie in stock. “Our accountant always tells us we can’t pay the taxman in stock,” says Wooldridge.
The firm is not looking to further grow its business by diversifying into areas such as sex toys though. “We feel there are enough wholesalers in the toy market,” says Wooldridge. “They are good strong companies and we take the same view that we had with GotLingerie - that we wouldn’t want to go up against well established suppliers.”
Consolidation would appear to be the key aim for the foreseeable future and part of that includes investment in a new IT infrastructure that will allow the firm to work more efficiently. Kevco is in the process of developing a new wholesale website that will allow customers to trade with it even outside of office hours. It will show live stock levels and the dropshipping programme will be fully automated. “Our growth has brought challenges,” says Rennison. “These are mainly warehousing, sales and
IT. We have brought in Lynne to deal with sales and we may find the new website will allow us to shrink the stock and provide the same service, solving the other issues. If it doesn’t then we may have to look at stripping out our existing warehouse units or moving to somewhere bigger.” And if Christopher Scharff called and offered them Dreamgirl now? “We’d say thanks but no thanks,” says Wooldridge. “Never say never,” Rennison corrects him, suggesting that view is not unanimous. “It’s a bit like an old girlfriend,” says Wooldridge.
“You may have married her at one time but you married someone else instead, and you wouldn’t want to divorce your wife just to get back with the other
girl.” “You could have her as a bit on the side,” suggests Rennison with a cheeky smile. “We have put so much work into what we are doing that it wouldn’t be right,” says Wooldridge. “I couldn’t see us doing Dreamgirl and Seven ‘til Midnight as they are too similar. And if we were approached to do Dreamgirl now you would have to assume that it wasn’t doing well and needed a lot of work. If New Temptations had only had it for a year then we may have considered it but we’ve developed our business without it now.”
They certainly have. For more information visit
www.kevcowholesale.co.uk or call Lynne Seeds on 07714 307787 to open an account.
Dave Rennison & Amanda: “The staff we have got are fabulous” 47
Erotic Trade Only June 2011
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