Due to my earlier posting on our experience in being a supplier to Starcrest, I received a call from Frank Hartless, Marketing Manager of Starcrest. He was very gracious to me and just wanted to set the record straight (as I would be as well if information had been posted about my company.)
First the sales of the Penda Shelves were not zero, they sold 50 units in the test market period. The information I saw was a quarterly update sent over a year after the initial run, so it posted the previous quarter sales as zero.
We discussed the challenges and issues with mail order marketing - and we both agreed that the retail price set for this product during the intitial test market was really too high relative to the value expectations of the customer.
Frank was open & honest about Starcrest's unique marketing method. It was a sincere disappointment to us as a manufacturer that our customer's product did not acheive reasonable sales through Starcrest, but this was not due to any dishonesty or misreprestation on Starcrest's part.
My advice for suppliers looking at Starcrest is to work with them upfront on a wholesale price that you can live with, which translates to a retail price that presents a "high value" to the consumer. (ie don't get greedy - think realistic.)
In conclusion, my mother LOVES Starcrest - she looks forward to their packets & going through them looking for special "finds". I hope that as a manufacturer, in the future we may be able to work directly with Starcrest (cut out extra costs of the middleman) to obtain sales for our USA made products.
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