Chinaberry: Reinventing the Wheel

The company’s sales gains have hardly been overwhelming, having increased from $9.5 million in 2003 to about $11.7 million in 2006. But other key factors have proven more important. For one, the company is debt-free, according to Ed Ruethling. And although Chinaberry catalog’s housefile growth has been flat, Isabella’s has grown steadily. For each of the past three years, Isabella’s housefile growth has landed it in Catalog Success’ 200 list, a ranking of the fastest-growing catalogs (see www.catalogsuccess.com/docs/pdfs/cs0306_top200.pdf). For instance, it ranked 133rd in last year’s Catalog Success 200, based on housefile growth of nearly 20 percent, from 39,225 12-month buyers to 47,045.