In the middle of the 2022 Trip Season, we had an outpouring of help from our followers and purchasers supporting our enterprise whereas we had been merely on the heels of dozens of newest product launches that I created from my upgraded laboratory and sweetness bakery. We moreover merely moved out of our warehousing and achievement operations so we’d focus additional of our time and energy on our product progress and 100% PURE mannequin progress.
In late November, we completely realized that we had a meltdown in our achievement operations. We had partnered with a achievement provider, Rocket Shipper they normally utilized experience from Extensiv. We turned on the change on November 1st. By the purpose we realized it from the patron complaints, we came across that orders had been caught of their methods and merchandise had been shipped with out dunnage (the help throughout the merchandise to forestall them from hurt all through transit), and the supply methodology they used was seemingly carried out randomly. We had purchased inventory we didn’t have and misplaced inventory. Our purchasers had been sending us additional emails than we’d deal with and our social media was aflame with offended messages. To prime it off, we had been blamed for sending an extreme quantity of packaging and accomplished merchandise to their facility.
How did we let this happen and the way in which did we get to this state?
In 2004, we purchased our first 100% PURE product. We launched www.100percentpure.com and every day would receive a dozen or so orders that me and my co-founders, Richard Kostick and James Wang would personally pack. We operated out of our farmhouse in Napa the place we handcrafted our merchandise. We used sustainable provides from day one, utilizing cornstarch peanuts and making certain we packed them in a strategy that the product will arrive safely to the patron and create the optimum experience.
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We moved to a home inside the hills of Oakland, California in 2005 and nonetheless handcrafted the merchandise from home and shipped them from our dwelling. About mid-way by way of the 12 months, we moved to Emeryville, CA, and rented our first warehouse. A tiny 1200 sq. foot warehouse correct subsequent to Peets Espresso and Dunseumor Madelines. We nonetheless hand-packed out our packages with the help of an assistant. We delight ourselves on the care of our purchasers.
Our largest drawback whereas on this location was after we had been fulfilling a truckload-size order of physique scrubs for our largest purchaser and ran out of oil mid-production. We had been producing physique scrubs nonstop for 24 hours straight with a dozen workers contained in the small home with a function to not let our purchasers down. Someone requested, the place are the extra pure grapeseed and apricot oils? We had been out. Richard and I weren’t going to give up, significantly as regards to not letting our purchasers down. We loaded our jeep crammed with empty containers and drove as a lot as Woodland, CA the place the farm we buy our oil was positioned. It was virtually midnight after we arrived, we left the farmers messages on their telephones nonetheless they wouldn’t resolve up. We arrived at their farmhouse and banged on the door, hoping that any person would hear us and help us get additional oil. Lo and behold, the farmer and his partner answered, of their pajamas, awoke from our banging. We outlined our state of affairs and the farmer obtained dressed and launched us to his inventory the place we helped ourselves to replenish on grapeseed and apricot oils. We returned spherical 1 am inside the morning and made additional physique scrubs until the photo voltaic rose and the truck pulled up. This was our first full truckload, and we didn’t have a forklift or pallet jack. James and Richard constructed the pallets contained in the truck and pushed them in place with their toes whereas lying on their backs. We delivered on time to our purchasers and delighted followers with our 100% PURE physique scrubs.
That warehouse solely lasted about 3 months and we outgrew it. We then moved as soon as extra in 2005 to Alameda, CA to a warehouse double in measurement, 3500 sq. toes, correct on the water with views of the San Francisco Bay. It was an exceptional location and actually inspiring. We obtained so packed in that warehouse that after we needed to produce additional merchandise, we would have liked to place our pallets of packaging into our parking spots to launch room on the manufacturing floor. If it was raining, we would have liked to close manufacturing for the day.
In 2007, we knew we’d have preferred a much bigger home and moved once more to Oakland, CA. This time to an industrial-sized warehouse. We signed a ten-year lease, solely to interrupt it in three years after we found our longer-term home. We found many sub-tenants to take the home, nonetheless, the proprietor wouldn’t approve it. The proprietor mockingly turned out to be the neighbor to Richard’s dad and mother they normally sued after we moved out. It was troublesome to be sued for breaking a lease by a landlord that occurred to be Richard’s dad and mother’ neighbor. The similar neighbor that Richard would water their vegetation and feed their cats whereas they traveled for journey. We persevered and in the end labored out a deal and moved on.
100% PURE now operates out Purity Park, an 8-acre, solar-powered facility inside the coronary coronary heart of Silicon Valley – San Jose, California. We put our efforts into enhancing our magnificence bakery. The home the place I work on our R&D and hand-crafted manufacturing. After all, 100% PURE is about providing the purest merchandise and healthiest cruelty-free merchandise for all of us. We helped create the pure and clear courses in magnificence and accelerated their innovation. Correct now’s our largest drawback as we outsourced a carry out that we did in-house from day one. Our achievement. We had a meltdown on this switch. We’ve now all of our workers dedicated to enhancing their operations and to our purchaser experience. Now now we have now some strategic decisions to make. Can we proceed to aim to work with Rocket Shippers to boost them? Can we start our achievement as soon as extra? Can we switch to a additional expert achievement confederate? Will they care as so much about our purchasers as we do?
I do take accountability as I decided to confederate with them, nonetheless is it intelligent to proceed to work with a confederate that pushes blame once more on you when their obligations mustn’t being met? To this point, now we have now not obtained any apology from our achievement confederate, solely blame for sending them an extreme quantity of inventory, however I’m so very sorry to all my followers and purchasers now we have now let down attributable to this case. We’re going to persevere and improve from proper right here. That’s the lesson from all of our challenges, you need to persevere and maintain enhancing. Preserve tuned.
