Towers of high-end goodies fill GiftTree’s 55,000-square-foot warehouse. By January, Craig Bowen expects them to be gone.
“Everything will be used at Christmas,” Bowen, the company’s president, said.
GiftTree fills 17,000 gift orders in an average month. Three years ago production was half that. This holiday season they expect monthly production to quintuple.
Bowen started the business with his wife, Esther Diez, in 1997. They planned to develop a web-based business and sell it in the dot-com boom, but that wasn’t necessary. While other dot-coms lost money as they lost investors, GiftTree relied on its profits. At minimum, the business breaks even monthly, and has seen an annual profit at least since 2001.
This year revenue is $20 million, 30 percent to 40 percent more than 2006. Bowen and Diez, who is vice president of production and operations, invest the profits back into the company.
The couple started the business in a Key West, Fla., apartment. Two years later, they came to Bowen’s home turf in the Northwest. Operating from a friend’s home until 1999, the business then moved to Vancouver’s Academy building. There, GiftTree occupied 4,000 square feet by 2002, when operations moved to its current warehouse and office space on Fourth Plain Boulevard.At first GiftTree was primarily a web clearinghouse for more than 100 vendors. But this didn’t allow the company to control customer service or the quality and shipping of the products sold.
In 2002 GiftTree began building gift baskets, assembling 2,000 that winter. Soon, GiftTree began designing its own packaging, making 40,000 wrappers in 2006. This year the company is making 75 percent more with at least 100 in-house designs.
GiftTree also works with an agent to design baskets and boxes with Asian manufacturers. U.S. suppliers couldn’t keep up with the demand, Bowen said.
“We could not have produced this in the U.S. and sold it for less than $70,” Bowen said of a $50 package. “It’s just a reality that if you want to compete, you need to find an area that gives you what you need.”
GiftTree’s food products come from U.S. manufacturers. Vancouver partners include Stein and Columbia, both wine distributors, as well as McStevens’ instant drinks.
Two years ago, the company employed 35. Today there are 60 staff year-round with an extra 80 during holidays.
Bowen credits the company’s growth to “a good human resource” as well as web marketing, and positive relationships in the industry. And while large corporate customers are his target, Bowen aims to win them by being known among individual consumers.
“We want to build a famous brand,” he said. “We think that’s the best way to make money.”
GiftTree
Craig Bowen and Esther Diez, owners
www.gifttree.com
