Chinaberry: Reinventing the Wheel

That’s not to say the company threw in the towel on Chinaberry. “It’s still profitable,” Fuller-Rowell says. “We balanced the merchandise mix by doing detailed square-inch analysis, and cleaned up its pricing by offering fewer high-priced items. And as a result, our average order size is growing.”

In fact, Ed Ruethling, the company’s president and co-founder, says that closing down Chinaberry to focus exclusively on Isabella isn’t being considered. “As long as it contributes to our profit, I don’t see any change in that area,” he notes. “I had cut back on Chinaberry’s mailing to allow it to contribute more profit (not sales), which was used to grow Isabella and keep us debt-free in the process.”