National Wholesale Co. was well-prepared long before its founder’s passing

By Paul Miller

A Snug Fit for Success in Tight Times

At press time — while a huge portion of the country was coping with slumping sales and rising costs — National Wholesale, which benefits from being a year-round business, was posting positive sales. Here are some ways the post-Eddie Smith company is handling the recession.

Reduce dependency on co-op databases. “We found we were getting the same names from each of the co-ops,” Director of Marketing Julie Morrow says. “So if we negotiated better with the partners we had, we could get more bang for the buck that way.” The company also has tightened its list exchange balances to ensure it gets the number of names it’s entitled to.

Replenish an aging clientele. Like its competitors, including many of the AmeriMark titles (Anthony Richards, Healthy Living, Windsor Collection, among others), J.C. Penney, Blair and Old Pueblo Traders, National Wholesale’s quest for new, younger customers is always a challenge.

“We haven’t figured out some secret way to do it,” Executive Vice President Mike Tate says. “But Mr. Smith lived to keep his customers with service, quality and taking care of anything they wanted or needed — good, old-fashioned service. A lot of companies have fallen by the wayside because as business would get tough, they didn’t take care of those customers.”

Emphasize product development and quality control. “In the past, we just bought off vendors’ product lines,” Vice President of Merchandising Wendy Basting explains. “But now we’re doing more development from beginning to end. Our buyers are trying to find out more about what makes our customers happy, trying to bring out more types of products to make them comfortable.”

Considering its customers average age (60), “fit is critical because you know this body is very different from a young woman’s body,” Basting says. “Sometimes we’ll put elastic in places it hasn’t been in before. We scrutinize this very closely.”

Finally, the company has worked closely with its printer, RR Donnelley, to find a less expensive paper grade “that still works for us,” Morrow points out. “We also dropped a shade in brightness and are trying to mail smarter, picking the right mailings for the right people.” —PM

Professionally, Lynda Swann will never be another Eddie Smith. Then again, she won’t have to be.

The support system her father fostered and nurtured during his 50-plus years running the women’s hosiery and apparel catalog National Wholesale Co. runs so seamlessly that Swann handles her role as president with relative ease.

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Cover Story: After Eddie