Summary:
Little Poppy Co. is a monthly baby-bow subscription that was founded in 2015 by fashionable moms, Lindie Royall and Becca Grider. Their bow subscription, the first of its kind, was a hit among moms with baby girls, which led to rapid growth. However, their production capacity was quickly maxed-out as demand increased and their product quality suffered.
After partnering with Blacksmith International in 2016, Little Poppy was able to:
- Scale production after being matched with an experienced hairbow-making factory overseas
- Blow away their competition by creating their own exclusive fabrics after Blacksmith put them in direct contact with trusted overseas fabric mills
- Expand their product line
During the last five years, Little Poppy has transformed from a startup to a multi-million dollar brand with growth of 589% since 2017.
Problem:
When Becca and Lindie started Little Poppy, they were sewing and packaging product themselves. As their business expanded, home production soon became insufficient. Even after hiring several local seamstresses, their subscribers quickly outpaced production capacity and product quality began to suffer. They realized they needed to find a cost-effective factory that could handle large orders with agility while maintaining a high level of quality – but they did not know where to start.
Solution:
Finding a Scalable Factory:
Through Blacksmith’s extensive network of trusted overseas factory partnerships, Little Poppy was matched with an experienced hairbow-making factory in Asia. This factory was capable of handling high-volume orders and allowed Little Poppy to keep up with their steadily increasing demand. Working closely with Blacksmith’s quality-control specialists on the ground in Asia, Little Poppy was also able to improve the quality of their bows and ensure that quality remained consistent.
Improving their Product:
Originally, Becca and Lindie were making their bows out of stock fabrics that they meticulously sourced themselves. By utilizing Blacksmith’s relationships with fabric mills, Little Poppy was able to design its own fabrics exclusive to the brand. This gave them a big advantage over their growing list of copy-cat competitors. Once Blacksmith stepped in to handle fabric sourcing, Becca and Lindie were also able to re-focus their time and attention on product design and growing the business.
Expanding their Product Line:
After a period of steady growth, Blacksmith helped Little Poppy begin to expand their product line while remaining consistent to their established brand. Starting in 2017, Little Poppy introduced toddler dresses with matching bows, followed by an expanding collection of bow sizes and accessory add-ons: mini and oversized sets in addition to the original sets, monthly limited-edition add-on bows, headbands, scrunchies, snap clips, clear elastics, bandana scarves, and even matching special occasion bowties. The expanding product line has been met with enthusiasm by Little Poppy’s subscribers and supports the main subscription line with little additional effort.
Final Results:
In late 2016, Little Poppy ordered 11,500 packs of bows, containing three bows each. By 2019, Little Poppy was ordering an average of 55,000 packs of bows each month. In the last 3 years alone, Little Poppy has grown by 589% and is currently number 805 in INC’s top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America.
Little Poppy’s partnership with Blacksmith International allowed them to find trusted sources overseas that were capable of scaling with them. With their supply chain managed by Blacksmith, Little Poppy could re-focus their attention on expanding their sales channels and their product line.
Blacksmith has also helped Little Poppy weather the trade war between the U.S. and China as well as the global pandemic, ensuring that they always got their products on time, at the best price and highest quality.
Read about how Little Poppy grew their business on Instagram in THIS INTERVIEW with co-founder, Lindie Royall.
Want results like this? Contact Blacksmith International for a free consultation from one of our product and sourcing experts today.
