EnTrends [ahn-trends]

Taking a Look at How Modern Entrepreneurs Work & Live!

Sweedler accepted the way things were and went out and did just that. He landed a job with Polo Ralph Lauren's home division as a sales assistant and worked there for five years. Sweedler credits much of his success today to the experience he had with Polo.

Eventually, Sweedler felt the urge to venture out on his own, as do all innate entrepreneurs. He approached his father once again. The senior Sweedler represented a domestic knitwear company and had introduced the polo shirt to such companies as Land's End and Tommy Hilfiger. Working together, the Sweedlers began building a department store private label business manufacturing polo shirts for a variety of different retailers.

After six months working with his father, Sweedler felt that the market for domestic manufacturing was aging. His customers complained of late order arrivals, lower quality and higher pricing than overseas competition. Sweedler knew that he had to do something or risk going out of business. "We tried to convince the owner of the factory, who had a couple thousand employees, that things had to change. He was committed to American manufacturing, which was gallant, but he didn't see the forest from the trees."

Sweedler tried to convince the factory owner to implement an 807 restructuring that would allow manufacturing to go offshore while retaining cutting and packaging jobs in South Carolina. The owner still refused, hoping so save all the jobs. After failing to persuade others to change the company's operational structure, Sweedler decided to venture out on his own for the first time.

In 1994, he formed his own apparel company called Windsong. Sweedler says, "It was a huge change financing the business, buying pieced goods and having expenses. Suddenly, we had to deal with massive cash flow issues." While it was difficult for Sweedler to get the new business off the ground, he prevailed. In fact, he wound up restructuring two of his primary clients, Tommy Hilfiger and Dillard's department stores, as 807 businesses.

Unfortunately, the factory owner that Sweedler worked with originally, realized that he could not compete with overseas manufacturers and he was forced to shut his doors. Almost three thousand employees lost their jobs.

In 1995, Sweedler decided that private labels were too low in margin. He started looking for an established brand to license. It came under the name of Alexander Julian. Under Sweedler's guidance, the company earned almost $60 million in revenue in 1996. However, Sweedler felt the only way to continue expansion was to acquire a brand name, rather than licensing one. He bought his first brand, Pivot Rules, in 1998. The brand had done very well in stores such as Bloomindales, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Unfortunately, it just did not work out. Sweedler says that was one of his first mistakes. The key to profitable growth was not simply buying any label. It was to find the right ones.

In 2000, Sweedler re-trenched and started to look for brands to license again. He formed Allegiance Apparel, focusing on loungewear, underwear and sleepwear. New license agreements were signed with Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beane and other companies over the next two years. The new division grew to $40 million in revenue.

In the meantime, Sweedler kept up his search for underdeveloped or mismanaged brands to acquire outright. Joe Boxer happened to be one of those brands. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy. In March of 2001, Sweedler acquired the brand. He knew that the company had massive potential for sourcing and savings. Sweedler says, "Logistically, the sourcing department at Joe Boxer was paying 25 to 30 percent too much for goods. They just weren't set up in a streamlined entrepreneurial way that we were. Our overhead was much lower and we knew that there would be an immediate savings."

Having acquired the brand, Sweedler immediately began looking for growth opportunities for it. He approached Kmart and signed them to an exclusive multi-year sales contract, much as the retailer had done with the Martha Stewart line. "Mossimo and Martha Stewart were pioneers in this field of creating these brand partnerships and we saw this as an opportunity. While we didn't have intentions of doing it initially, when we met with Kmart executives, we were looking to do a derivative brand, something simply by Joe Boxer. The people at Kmart made the end deal possible," says Sweedler.

On August 14th, 2001, Windsong/Allegiance Apparel Group announced the long-term exclusive agreement that would bring JOE BOXER merchandise to Kmart's 2,100 retail outlets across the country. Joe Boxer would offer 120 different product classifications from home products to underwear. Kmart Chairman and CEO Chuck Conaway, Joe Boxer CEO Bill Sweedler, and Joe Boxer founder, Nick Graham, made the announcement at the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

That summer, on August 1st, the official public product launch of Joe Boxer within Kmart stores took place with a media blitz at Kmart's store on Aston Place in New York City. The event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a live fashion show on the store's escalators. Nick Graham was on-hand to represent Joe boxer and several eccentric characters, such as the "K Girls," represented Kmart.

Following the event, Kmart released a series of new commercials produced by the New York advertising heavyweight TWBA/Chiat/Day. The hugely successful commercials featured a dancing model named Vaughn.

Sweedler says, "It is unfortunate, financially, what Kmart has gone through. We know that our brand, plus the other initiatives that they have going right now should make them a lot stronger." Sweedler is now facilitating similar initiatives with manufacturers such as the Hathaway Company to bring retailers into the loop creatively, forming true partnerships among the owner of the brand, the manufacturer, and the retailer, to form an allegiance. "That, in my opinion is the wave of the future in our industry," says Sweedler. "We have to have a captive audience who will work with us, not against us, to present our brand in the best means possible."

Sweedler is also working with a well-known celebrity in the urban market business and looking into several other brand acquisitions and potential licenses as well. Sweedler's father is the Chairman of his company and the junior Sweedler is the acting CEO & President. "Neither of us thought that the company would grow to the extent it has. It's been phenomenal. The most important thing to any business is the people and talent that you have. Without our team, none of this would have been possible."

A typical workday for Sweedler involves working internally at his company's Connecticut base, or traveling to meet with top customers and vendors. Married with three children, Sweedler says that, unfortunately, he does not get to spend enough time with his children. He literally works every day. On the weekends he stops in the office to do something, or he uses his Blackberry to send e-mails and also makes phone calls. "It's a constant battle, in which I want my kids to win. I have got to figure out a way to do it, but right now it's a losing battle. You just have to find dedicated time to spend with your family."

While his time may be limited, Sweedler's success has earned him luxuries. His dream was to have a house on the water near his hometown of West Port, Connecticut. A couple of years ago, the dream became reality as Sweedler and his wife purchased a home in one of the areas where he grew up. The couple knocked an aging home down and built a new one on the property. "I pinch myself everyday when I come home and I have my house with a dock in the back, on the water," says Sweedler.

To put things in perspective, Sweedler says, "Once you have the ability do it, and you buy something, it doesn't make life any better. At the end of the day, you can have all the toys in the world but what matters most is having family and good friends. The most exciting thing about a business is knowing that you have created reason for being and that people and their families have prospered because of the business idea you have realized."

When giving advice to other entrepreneurs starting out, Sweedler says, "Do not give up. Keep your nose to the grindstone. The harder you work, the luckier you get. Don't listen to the pessimist within you. Be an optimist. Even when you fail, you have to bounce right back and do it again. That can make a huge difference in the success or failure of any business."