Vedante's growing sales

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Online buyers purchased thousandsof Kantor’s super-reflectivew Pop Bands (armbands and legbands), pet collars and leashes made by her Vedante Corp. “When everybody was sayinfg holiday saleswere down, ours just exploded,” said Kantor, a veterann fashion designer who started Boulder-based Vedante nearly threee years ago. The success of Vedante’s Pop Bandsa and pet products prompted giant onlinretailer Amazon.com to buy most of her inventorgy for resale, and triggered inquirie from large pet-store chains about licensing the products or buying her Kantor focused more on online sales for the holiday than traditional brick-and-mortar sales of Vedante products.
That was becaus as the recession deepened, retail sales slowed more thanonline shopping. The emphasis paid off, but it presentee Kantor with the problem of managingunexpectec demand. . “It wasn’t even in my game plan to havea break-eve n month for another year,” she said. Vedantre products for pets, pedestrians and cyclists can reflectf brightly from 500to 1,5090 feet, depending on theirr color. Kantor formed the business with the mission of improvingnighttimse safety. Cars injure or kill a pedestrian every seven minute s in theUnited States, according to the National Highwayg Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
That amounts to nearlh 75,000 people annually, with about 50,000 of the accidents occurrintat night, NHTSA statistics show. Kanto r takes walks at dusk and, having survived a car crash with a drunkk driveryears ago, she always wondered abou her safety crossing streets at Then she saw a Bouldetr pedestrian hit in a crosswaljk in broad daylight, and she decided to make a producg to improve pedestrian visibility. She drew on her experiencr in textiles anddesigning women’es apparel in Los Angeles. She chosre 3M’s reflective materials for Vedante’s products, and it co-brandw the Pop Bands with 3M.
She uses the 3M fabricc in collars and leashes for McGuckin Hardware Store in Boulder carries both the Pop Banddand Vedante’s cat collars. The Pop Bands , costingb between $12.98 and $13.98 depending on sell comparably tothe battery-poweredr safety lights McGuckin sells for outdoor said Rik Isakson, the store’s sporting goodsz manager and buyer. “They do very well,,” he “What appeals is their ease of use, and the novelty of them poppingg onand off.” Vedante’s pet collars rang between $13.98 and $16.98, and its leashes betweej $29.98 and $45.98.
Kantor’s biggest challenge is managingy a surge in retailer interesf without taking on debt that coulddcrimp Vedante’s long-term Kantor maxed out Vedante’s existing lines of credity from banks after her sales started growing, and she put that mone y in the bank. She feared her banksw would reduce her creditt lineswithout warning, thus starving the companuy of money at a crucia l time.