Chinaberry: Reinventing the Wheel

Turnaround Tactics

With sales sputtering and the future clouded by the onslaught of off-price competitors, the Spring Valley, Calif.-based Chinaberry, the corporate entity that operates both catalogs, made some changes to improve sales and profitability. Among them:

Reduced book offerings: In 2002 and 2003, the company reduced Chinaberry’s once dominant book offerings from 66 percent to 50 percent. Isabella’s book offerings, which weren’t as prevalent as Chinaberry’s, were nevertheless scaled back from 23 percent to 10 percent.