By MURRAY COLEMAN
Santa Ana-based handbag designer Harveys Industries Inc. is making some changes—and not just to its signature purses made of seatbelts.
Last year the company combined manufacturing and administration operations under one roof. Both now take place out of a 26,000-square-foot building near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
Harveys also created a position overseeing daily operations, promoting former marketing director Joseph Citizen to president.
The company’ founder and owner, Dana Harvey, remains active, according to Citizen.
“He’s here every day and is focusing on heading our design group and long-term planning for developing future creative strategies,” Citizen said.
The company’s also trying to beef up its wholesale business, which was hurt during the recession as boutiques struggled to maintain sales, according to Citizen.
Citizen said Har-veys plans to add at least 15 workers before October to its current base of 68.
“We’re still very much in a growth mode,” Citizen said. “As market conditions continue to improve, we’ve been refocusing our efforts on improving our operations and sharpening our strategies.”
The company has done a lot of growing since its start in 1997, when Harvey made a purse for his wife out of seatbelt scraps from his garage.
Today, the company makes an average of 5,000 bags per month. Busier periods can boost that to 8,000 bags a month, according to Citizen.
Harveys doesn’t disclose sales, which Citizen said dropped in the past year. The Business Journal estimates yearly revenue at about $5 million.
The company’s average bag sells for around $150 at a store. Harveys runs three of its own stores—one in Santa Ana and two that it opened in Chino Hills and Los Angeles last year.
It also sells to specialty boutiques and has accounts with big companies such as Mercedes-Benz USA, Walt Disney Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Zappos.com Inc.
While wholesale business dropped by about 30% last year, increased sales at Harveys’ own stores and online offset the lion’s share of those revenue losses, according to Citizen.
“We were able to increase retail sales through the addition of two new stores and more traffic through our expanded Web site,” Citizen said.
The steep drop in the wholesale side of Harveys’ business was due to several specialty boutiques being unable to bear the brunt of the economy’s collapse.
“We lost a good deal of our specialty boutique wholesale accounts because they couldn’t stay in business during the recession,” he said. “But we didn’t lose any business with our larger corporate accounts.”
Corporate accounts represent slightly more than half of Harveys’ annual sales, according to Citizen.
“We’re working on growing our corporate accounts, but the area we really see expansion is with specialty boutiques,” he said.
Harveys now has about 500 U.S. and 270 international accounts with specialty boutiques in 22 different countries.
In order to gain a bigger share of that upper-end market, the company is expanding its designs, according to Malia O’Brien, Harveys’ marketing director.
“We have a really broad customer base starting with 25-year-old students and mothers and extending to grandmothers,” she said.
The challenge to spur future growth is tapping new designs that will appeal to a larger base of shoppers.
“We’re coming out now with more fashionable handbags to broaden our appeal,” O’Brien said. “They’re more girly, sophisticated and a bit more dressed up than our classic woven bags that we’ve relied on in the past to build brand awareness.”
Hot sellers now include bags with ruffles and gold as well as chrome accents.
“We call it the bling factor,” O’Brien said.
Besides handbags, the company makes wallets, coin purses, backpacks, belts and other accessories.
“Accessories are a smaller part of our business, but they’re growing,” O’Brien said.
By SHERRI CRUZ
Jennifer Perkins’ punk rock-inspired purses are in “The Runaways,” the recent film about the 1970s all-girl band.
Perkins, president of Costa Mesa-based Revamp Productions, received a film credit for her purses. But she confesses she hasn’t seen the movie yet.
“Isn’t that horrible?” she said.
Perkins has an excuse—she’s busy.
Since launching her line of collectible handbags inspired by classic cars, 1940s pinup posters and rockabilly in 2003, she’s started a line of clothing: Pinky PinUps.
The punk-meets-pinup outfits are Perkins’ collaboration with Nori Nurita, a Japanese designer based in Fountain Valley.
The pair first showed the collection in February at the Magic International clothing trade show, held in Las Vegas. Now they’re in the midst of packing and shipping orders for 40 different stores.
The purses, which are made in Los Angeles, sell in about 120 stores worldwide. The company em-ploys three part-time people, in-cluding a salesperson, in Los An-geles.
Revamp does about 70% of its sales through stores, 5% directly to customers and the rest online.
Revamp’s handbags and clothes are sold in boutiques such as Babygirl Boutique in Portland, Ore., Twinkle Dolls in Canada and Planet Records in Australia.
Locally, they sell in stores such as Sneaky Tiki Boutique in Long Beach.
“It’s a high-quality bag,” said Nicholas Barnes, owner of Sneaky Tiki, which has carried Revamp’s bags for five years.
But the store doesn’t sell many because they’re pricey, he said.
Revamp’s collectible, numbered purses sell for as much as $290 wholesale. The average store price is about $390.
“It’s one of those things where girls will come in here and stare at them,” said Sarah Timming, owner of Atomic Cherry Boutique in Austin, Texas. “I love them, even if they don’t turn over a lot.”
During the recession, Revamp launched a line of purses for less than $100.
Revamp’s bags aren’t in OC boutiques because the company’s sales efforts have been online and overseas—particularly in Europe and Japan. Perkins lived in Europe after her nuclear physicist father moved the family to France when she was 12. She later studied in England.
Perkins said that sales to boutiques have been hit because of the downturn. She declined to give any further details or revenue figures.
Prior to starting her purse business, Per-kins worked for Bur-bank-based Walt Disney Co. as a costumer for Disney’s entertainers.
Disney transferred her to OC to have her make costumes for Disney’s California Adventure, which was opening at the time.
But the technical aspects of the job left Perkins looking for a more creative outlet.
So she started making purses.
Perkins does about 12 purse designs a year.
Next up for Perkins: She’s mulling over a hair accessory line and is launching a line of girls clothing, Pinky PinUps Petites. Perkins, who has a son, is due to have a baby girl in July.
