Vermont Products and the Internet 

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

Originally published in the Champlain Business Journal, Burlington VT

Vermont may be known for maple syrup, cows, and rolling hills, but this state which might seem quaint to some is as technologically up-to-date as anybody. Thanks to the incredible proliferation of the internet, Vermont’s homegrown products and charm can be had by a click of your mouse. In the many web sites dedicated to Vermont products, you’ll find everything from the popular Harrington’s hams to maple candy. But there are more eclectic items to be found, from clothing to vehicle parts to art.

Everyone knows that Land Rovers are the sports utility vehicle of choice, the one with the aura of adventure and solid mechanics. But Vermonters thinking on getting their Land Rover serviced are lucky to have a Land Rover dealer hiding away in the hills of rural Vermont. Thanks to their web site however, customers across the country and worldwide can get friendly advice and parts anytime from this homegrown company. The site has been active for three years now, and was developed by Wow Pages. "Our goal was to have all of our products available for immediate purchase on a secure server," says Peter Van Chak, marketing specialist for Rovers North.

The site generates eighty percent of their new leads, which translates into nearly thirty new parts catalogues sent out every day. With a 27% - 28% purchase rate from those catalogues, the web site is clearly doing it’s part to make Rovers North a national presence. "We get some 50,000 hits a month," adds Van Chak. "We are one of very few Land Rover dealers, but also we offer exceptional service." The customers are generally affluent middle-aged men who often work on their own vehicles. While Van Chak also markets the company using magazines such as Hemmings Motor News and the UK magazines dedicated to Land Rovers such as Land Rover Owner, and Land Rover World, the web site remains one of their largest draws. "I’m excited about a new Land Rover magazine that will be printed here in American called Rovers Across America," adds Van Chak. "It will be glossy, and a fun way for enthusiasts to keep up with what’s happening." Rover’s North also prints a Land Rover enthusiast newspaper which chronicles the joys of adventurous travel, as well as tips and tricks for owners.

Rovers North was started in 1976 by Mark Letorney as a "have tools will travel" Land Rover service company. As business grew so did Mark's need for a reliable parts source. It was in 1979 when Mark was joined by his wife Andrea and began importing and selling Land Rover Parts from suppliers in England. Regular trips to the UK were required to assure quality and to locate hard to source parts. Word spread quickly and by the end of 1979 Andrea and Mark were offering mail order Land Rover parts from their farm in Vermont to owners throughout the US. Their dedication to customer service and quality replacement parts attracted the attention of Land Rover Parts Ltd. and in 1987 became an authorized distributor for Land Rover Parts Ltd. Today the entire range of Genuine Parts for any Land Rover product is available through Rovers North.

Still located in rural Vermont on the Letorney's farm, Rovers North continues to expand its parts and accessories selection and maintains its dedication to customer service. Most of the employees at Rovers North are Land Rover owners and they understand the need for a fast and dependable source of Land Rover parts and accessories. Their product specialists help diagnose Land Rover's needs and recommend service procedures directly to customers or their mechanics. Every part and accessory they sell is guaranteed for 12 months unlimited mileage. Rovers North has been selling used Land Rovers for some times, but is now in the process of splitting off to a free-standing retail site in Williston.

Another popular Vermont web site is Timbernest Loft beds, which specializes in free standing, elevated beds that save space by creating a living area under the loft bed. Their products are precision designed and built solid, made in Vermont of eastern spruce since 1989. Located in Williston, Vermont, the main offices market directly to their customers, using their web site as well as direct delivery to Freshman students moving into the dorms of local colleges.

The web site celebrated its one year anniversary last June, and is responsible for fifty percent of the direct sales to customers. "Of our total sales, about fifteen percent is wholesale, and the rest is direct sales," says Frank Devita, owner of Timbernest. "Of that larger amount, a full one half comes from our web site!" While the loft beds are large and heavy, Devita has worked out an arrangement with UPS to have them delivered for just $45, making the loft beds an affordable alternative for just about anyone. Devita is planning on expanding the shop this fall, using the field adjacent to his house. He currently has four full time employees. "I chose the web site as a primary marketing tool because it’s the fastest medium to get our product out there," says Devita. "The market for loft beds is still developing, so the demand is not yet refined. That puts us in a good position to be first in line when someone is looking for a loft bed." Dave Gibson of Media Works in Burlington set up the site, and both customers and owner clearly like the design. "We are very happy with the web site. We told Dave what we wanted, and he did the magic," adds Devita. They have recently added a secured ordering page, as well as arranged to get additional web market research information via Burlee Networks of Burlington.

TimberNest loft beds help create more functional living space which is particularly appreciated by students at local colleges who need as much space as can be had in limited dorm space. The loft beds are available in different grades including Natural Grade (unfinished) whose surface is uniform but has imperfections similar to standard building grade 2x4’s. The ends of the members are not sanded and will have some exposed wood fibers, and is their most popular type of loft bed for college students. The second grade is Furniture Grade (unfinished)made of eastern spruce, similar to the natural grade, but milled to produce a smoother surface with rounded edges, a type of loft bed that is more popular in homes and apartments. The last type is Fire Retardant Grade which uses the same materials as Natural Grade, but is treated with a fire retardant medium that is impregnated into the material through a pressure treatment process. This results in a material that passes class A fire retardant standards for interior use, and is safe to use exposed indoors. This passes the New York State regulations for interior furniture and is popular with college students that are required to meet this standard at their institution. The beds come with easy to follow instructions, requiring only a large Phillips head screwdriver to assemble.

Vermonters surfing the web for a new painting for their walls might find the Corliss Blakely Gallery, based in St. Albans and offering paintings worldwide thanks to their internet presence. A seventh generation Vermonter, artist Corliss Blakely was born in St. Albans, Vermont where she presently lives. The homes, farms and antiques of her ancestors in northern Vermont often are portrayed in her paintings. The web site has been up one and a half years, and receives some one hundred hits each day from art lovers worldwide. "The web site has turned out be an excellent sales tool," says Barry Hickock, Business Partner for the Corliss Blakely Gallery as well as owner of Hickock & Associates Real Estate. He adds that the site is a good way to communicate with clients and reach new markets. When the site was first up, it was much larger, but the long download times caused them to use thumbnails of all the paintings instead of full sized pictures. Of course the thumbnails can be clicked on to look at detailed versions of any piece. "We wanted to have a site that would economize space and download time for people using older computers," adds Hickock. "It’s an important part of our marketing program, a useful piece, but not the only thing we use to reach out to art lovers."

Blakely received her formal art training in Boston, studying at both Vesper George Art School and The Museum School of Fine Art. She credits the development of her drawing skills to the academic experience. Despite her formal education, she says that the intricately detailed paintings she is best known for evolve more from her natural experience and inner emotion than formal training. Blakely paints in her studio throughout the year, creating new works for her gallery. Her oil paintings run from $800 as high as $10,000, and the watercolors range from $200 - $1,000. Prints are available for a very reasonable $50. "The gallery is doing very well right now," adds Hickock, "but Corliss would be an artist even if she never sold a thing!"

Clothing shoppers have long appreciated the seventy April Cornell boutiques dotting North America, but even a shopper browsing the April Cornell store in downtown Burlington might not find the exact color or size that they want. Thanks to the web site, now up for nearly a year, the particular customer can order the exact thing they want. The site was designed to compliment the stores and carries 97% of the product line, the missing 3% being accessories and hair pieces that vary from store to store. The site averages some 2000 – 2500 hits per day, and while it only accounts for some 5% of total sales, is growing daily. "The site is a perfect compliment to our stores," says Hilary Sulcov, web site manager, "because it offers every single item in every single color and size." Fulfillment of web site orders is completed from the corporate office in Williston.

The site was developed by Bock Interactive of Burlington, who worked for three months to get this complex and very visual site to match the warmth and charm of the stores themselves. Like other local sites, they planned for a much larger site at first, but soon cut back so that downloading time would be minimized. Future development plans include an interactive option where a customer might put an outfit together on line to see how it looks before purchase. The site includes over 1500 items, and is updated weekly thanks to a constant phasing in of new inventory, so just about any customer is bound to find something to love.

What began with two flower-children peddling the wares they’d gleaned from their travels in the Far East has grown into a vertically integrated company that designs, manufactures, wholesales and retails its own distinctive line of linens, apparel, housewares and gifts. Truly an international company, Cornell Trading now has offices in Hong Kong, Delhi, London, Montreal and the United States, in addition to networks in Indonesia and China. Each season April Cornell and her design team spend six weeks in India, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia designing, developing and sampling their products. April’s appreciation of the beauty, skill and tradition of hand silkscreening and her ability to translate this centuries old art into a line of products for Western buyers is key to the company’s success. Known for their distinctive prints and colorways, the Cornells have developed a loyal, dedicated and diverse clientele. In 1981 the Cornells opened their first store in the United States on Columbus Avenue in New York City.

A desire to produce prints and items they had designed themselves was the beginning of the wholesale business for Chris and April Cornell. The retail stores alone would not support the quantities required for custom production, so the Cornells began traveling the show circuit with the first of their three sons, then just a babe, in tow. Selling to clients in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, the wholesale business has taken off and continues to grow steadily. From the beginning it was the beauty and the ancient craftsmanship that drew the Cornells to the East, falling in love with the people and the countries where they traveled. India had the most powerful draw and is now the source for much of Cornell’s merchandise.

Harringtons is probably one of Vermont’s best known food product companies, and who has for over 100 years been offering the finest smoked meats and foods available. While you might not be able to smell the smoky maple syrup flavor on their web site, the photos will surely entice your taste buds. Their most popular items include corncob smoked meats, and exquisite gourmet cheeses, desserts, seafood and more. They still smoke their hams and other meats the old-fashioned way, slowly over fragrant embers of corncobs and maplewood. The result is a unique flavor, moist and succulent, with a rich and wonderful smoky flavor. They start with the finest cuts of prime grain-fed pork, carefully selected and butcher-trimmed, one-by-one, by their own expert meatcutters. Treated with their unique cure (with maple syrup as a key ingredient), each ham is hung to smoke slowly under the careful supervision of their Smokemaster (and no ham leaves without his say-so!). And these same traditional methods are applied to smoking turkeys, pheasant, chickens and ducks. Customers often tell them that their smoked meats are the best tasting in the world.

Thanks to a plethora of Vermont web sites, buyers worldwide can now enjoy the special products of our beautiful state with just a few clicks on the web.

Copyright 2000