For Specialized Marketing Services Inc. one is bigger than three.
The company has moved into one newly remodeled 82,000-square-foot building on Segerstrom Avenue in Santa Ana after outgrowing about 60,000 square feet of space spread among three buildings in Irvine and Santa Ana, founder and Chief Executive Gloria Robbins said.
SMS generates more than $10 million in yearly sales making marketing materials such as fliers, brochures, sales kits, tradeshow goods and other advertising tools for clients such as LG Electronics MobileComm USA Inc. in San Diego, Santa Ana-based Stremicks Heritage Foods LLC and Samsung America Inc. in New Jersey.
“We had to consolidate everything. We house millions of pieces of promotional materials for our clients,” Robbins said.
SMS counts 45 full-time workers in OC. That number can swell to more than 100 employees depending on the projects it takes on, Robbins said.
Projects can range from digitally printing and cutting millions of direct mail coupons for a theme park to assembling prize gift packs for a cellular phone maker, Robbins said.
Robbins started SMS out of her home in 1988.
The marketing executive left a position as director of sales and marketing at Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. to become her own boss after noticing there was a lack of marketing firms that handle the front and back work that goes into an advertising campaign.
“Companies would often have to go to several different agencies to get one project done. I wanted to streamline the process for them and do it all,” Robbins said.
Robbins’ reputation and connections in the business world helped her nab clients such as Universal Studios Hollywood, Imax Corp. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG early on.
She spent $3,500 on printing equipment and opened up shop in a spare bedroom in her house.
“We had three key employees: my 72-year-old mother and two teen sons,” Robbins said. “I couldn’t fail. I had my two kids and mom to support.”
Comfy Clothes
Calispia Inc. knows how to make a woman feel comfortable.
The Tustin-based company generates $2 million in yearly sales making cotton loose-fitting pajamas, pants, shorts, shirts, cardigans, hoodies and robes that are meant to be worn when lounging, running errands or working out.
Calispia’s clothes are made locally and overseas by contracted factories and packaged and warehoused at the company’s 5,000-square-foot headquarters, where the company employs six people.
The clothes are then shipped directly to more than 500 hotels, resorts and boutiques such as Newport Beach’s Balboa Bay Club; Bellagio Las Vegas; Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Ariz.; Ritz Carlton of Kapalua, Hawaii; and Trump Spa at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.
Calispia’s gear sells from $55 to $200. The company’s target demographic is women in their mid-30s to 60s, according to founder Lee Ann Stevens.
Stevens started Calispia in 1999 with her brother Stuart Weiss after spending more than 12 years designing and marketing clothes for the golf and resort industries. She said that few clothing companies were making clothes for women for these industries.
Stevens, who was living in Kansas City, Mo., at the time, opted to start her company in OC because she wanted to be closer to fabric suppliers and factories in Los Angeles as well as spas and resorts in California and Arizona, she said.
“Clothing companies are probably the hardest businesses to start second to the restaurant industry,” Stevens said. “They’re down there on the food chain for investment bankers and angel investors so a lot of it is about financing everything on your own.”
Luckily for Stevens, she had money saved up and used it to help get her business off the ground.
Calispia has had chances to sell at department stores but wants to stay in resorts, Stevens said.
But these days, selling products through these resorts and spas has been difficult, she said.
High gas prices and a slow economy with more customers strapped for cash have hurt the tourism industry, including the luxury hotels, golf clubs, spas and resorts.
“We’ve definitely noticed a slowdown,” Stevens said. “But we focus on the high-end market and the consumers who have money to go to high-end resorts are still going.”
Lighter Brighter Skin
Dermatologist and biochemist Tuan Nguyen started Oriki Cosmeceuticals Inc. to brighten women’s days, or at least their skin.
The Westminster-based company makes cleansers, wrinkle creams, serums and other facial products for women who want to lighten their skin.
The privately held company doesn’t disclose its yearly sales. It counts about five employees in OC and a handful of independent sales reps.
Oriki has been around since 1984 and targets women with olive complexions, particularly Asians.
While practicing dermatology in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Nguyen saw that a good chunk of his Asian patients wanted products that would lighten their freckles and give their complexions a brighter look.
Nguyen continued to practice dermatology to help fund the early stages of Oriki, he said.
“Starting Oriki was really a labor of love,” he said.
Today the company’s products are popular among local Vietnamese, Asians in Hawaii and Japanese and Chinese consumers overseas, Nguyen said.
Oriki can be found at dermatologist offices; spas and salons in California, Florida and Texas; the Skin Clinic in Westminster and Hong Kong-based DFS Group LP’s DFS Galleria stores in Hawaii.
Oriki’s products are meant to be used by women in their 20s through 60s.
Cleansers, eye creams, toners, lotions and other products sell from $28 to $100.
