Sticking point is all sorted
GEELONG’S children label wizard Stuck On You is set to overhaul its dispatch systems as it prepares for further growth in 2019.
With orders coming from 127 countries, Stuck on You processes huge volumes every day from its Breakwater base.
This year, its Bento Boxes, which sell for $49.95, were a hot seller at Christmas and filled many tens of thousands of orders during the year.
A leader in the customisation of products for 20 years, Stuck On You owner Carrie Felton said the business had invested heavily over the years in bespoke software and digital printing capacity.
“Our business is very complex,” Ms Felton said.
“Because you are putting a name on a product, we need a lot of people involved.”
She said about 40 per cent of the Stuck On You business was export, mostly to the US and the UK, but the domestic market remained strong for a brand that has been a segment leader for almost two decades.
“We continue to see massive growth in Australia,” Ms Felton said.
With personalisation now trending on a global scale, Ms Felton hinted that new opportunities were in the pipeline.
“We are investing in a totally different dispatch system which will allow us to keep up with demand and reduce the time it takes to get a product out of the building.
“We have had to constantly reinvent ourselves in the area as we see double-digit growth year on year.”
Ms Felton said the business, which was founded in 1995, was built on a vision of making life easier for mums and dads and had led the world in personalising labels and many other products for children.
“We were the first people to make personalisation cool,” she said.
“We make sure we continuously offer our mums and dads a quality product that is on trend and super functional, and this resonates with families around the world.”
Ms Felton said the overnight explosion of the initial home-based business when it went from $16,000 in her first year to $160,000 in the second year taught her much about her approach to business.
“I learnt a valuable lesson, and that is to see the future and get your business and the people you need to help you in place,” she said.
Initially from northwest NSW, Stuck On You moved to Geelong in 2000, quickly building a team of 17 while running the business from a converted 3½-car garage in Ms Felton’s back garden.
To overcome the seasonality of a business geared towards the start of the school year, Ms Felton looked firstly to the US.
“Back to school is also joined by the ever-popular camp season in the USA so all of a sudden, we filled up April to September.
“Once we started doing well in America, we started to focus on the UK. We now export to 127 countries.”
As it grew, Stuck on You made a handful of moves, finding its way to Breakwater alongside sister company Penny Scallan Design about 5½ years ago.
Ms Felton said Stuck On You was agile and competitive.
“We can respond in an hour to a competitor having a redhot go at us, and we do, all the time,” she said.
“We are very planned in our marketing and our vision and all those things, but if we need to respond, we will respond. We are acutely aware what technology is right for our business. If we see something new, we will research it and say, ‘This is not for us’, or, ‘We need this and it we need it now’!”
She said that while there were differences in culture, colloquialisms and language around the world, parents were essentially very similar.
“Mums and dads want the best for their children and they don’t want to lose expensive items that leave the house,” she said.