Opinion
Quimby: I was more responsible than Burt Shavitz to manage wealth
“I feel that I was the more responsible party for managing wealth. I could do the right thing with it. And I don't know whether Bert would have really used it very productively. He came from a family that had some wealth, and he chose not to use it. He didn't d…”
Opinion
Quimby Believes She Was More Responsible With Burt's Bees Wealth Than Shavitz
“I feel that I was the more responsible party for managing wealth. I could do the right thing with it. And I don't know whether Bert would have really used it very productively.”
Opinion
Burt Shavitz was prickly and kept at a distance by colleagues
“He was a prickly kind of guy, you know, he wasn't all warm and fuzzy. So, people, including myself, gave him kind of a wide berth.”
Disclosure
Quimby used Burt Shavitz's face to reject cosmetics industry sexism
“That was a very conscious decision to use Bert's face because I was, I guess, a little resentful of the way women were used to market products. And I saw some of the big cosmetics lines really exploiting the image of women. So it was important for me not to fo…”
Disclosure
A personal transgression by Burt Shavitz destroyed Quimby's inspiration
“Well, it was sort of a personal transgression that was very hurtful to me, and it kind of popped the bubble in a way. I took a lot of inspiration from Bert and his lifestyle and his authenticity and his independence, and I found him to be quite admirable. So a…”
Opinion
Quimby attributes Burt's Bees' pivotal milestones to luck and timing
“I mean, you certainly have to work hard, but when I look back at some of the critical events that were part of the destiny of this adventure, I certainly couldn't have pulled those off. That had to be luck or Divine intervention, and there's been so many of th…”
Disclosure
Quimby Put Shavitz on Packaging to Reject Beauty Industry Exploitation
“And that was a very conscious decision to use Bert's face because I was, I guess, a little resentful of the way women were used to market Products. And I saw some of the big cosmetics lines really exploiting the image of women and defining them through the adv…”
Disclosure
A Personal Transgression by Burt Shavitz Fractured His Partnership With Quimby
“Well, it was sort of a personal transgression that was very hurtful to me, and it kind of popped the bubble in a way. I took a lot of inspiration from Bert and his lifestyle and his authenticity and his independence, and I found him to be quite admirable. So a…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burt's Bees Bypassed Traditional Beauty Ad Spend Via Grassroots Marketing
“I've heard even that 25 cents of every dollar goes into advertising, so we didn't have that expense, because, you know, guerrilla marketing and grassroots marketing is not very expensive.”
Disclosure
Quimby set $1M sales target after hitting initial $20K goal
“My original goal was 20,000 dollars in sales, and then when that goal was achieved, then I set another goal of a million dollars in sales by the time my kids graduated from high school.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burt's Bees hired a high school math student as bookkeeper
“We called the school, and we told them we needed someone good in math. And so they said, oh, we have just the fellow, he's on the math team. So he came over. After school, you know, he would pay the bills, and he would do the payroll, and he would make the dep…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burt Shavitz managed maintenance and bills while Quimby handled production
“We divided up the work. He would collect all the overdue bills, you know, overdue accounts receivables, and he was a fixer. When things broke down or needed maintenance, he was always willing to do that. And I was very hands-on with the product development and…”
Insight
Burt's Bees dropped candles because skincare scaled far more efficiently
“I think because it wasn't scalable, and the skincare products, which were basically blending and filling, it was a very simple manufacturing process that could easily be scaled, and we were making handmade candles, so to go to an automated system just required…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burt's Bees used a cafeteria mashed-potato mixer for early production
“We were making one of our products in a big mixer that Duke had in its cafeteria for mashed potatoes. And we had a bath salt that we were making in a cement mixer.”
Insight
Consumer pull strategy drove massive retail growth at Burt's Bees
“So that kind of a pulling strategy from the consumer really helped a lot with growth.”
Disclosure
Quimby handed Burt's Bees to executives to avoid big box retail
“Going to big box and drugstore chains didn't seem very exciting or creative to me, but it was clearly the next step. So I felt like it was time to turn it over to the professionals.”
Disclosure
Burt's Bees scaled without spending money on conventional advertising
“I've heard even that 25 cents of every dollar goes into advertising, so we didn't have that expense because we weren't advertising.”
Disclosure
Burt's Bees invested excess operational cash into buying land
“And we had put all the money we needed to into growing the business. It still had excess cash. And I felt like we needed to find a very solid investment. And so land seemed to be rock solid to me.”
Disclosure
Burt's Bees Hit $20,000 Sales Goal Before Targeting $1 Million
“Well, I don't remember exactly how our sales went in the eighties, but we were growing every year. My original goal was 20,000 dollars in sales, and then when that goal was achieved, then I set another goal of a million dollars in sales by the time my kids gra…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burt's Bees Hired a High School Math Student as Early Bookkeeper
“We called the school, and we told them we needed someone good in math, and so they said, oh, we have just the fellow, he's on the math team. So he came over after school, you know, he would pay the bills, and he would do the payroll, and he would make the depo…”
Opinion
Quimby Says Co-Founder Burt Shavitz Was Prickly and Not Warm
“He was a prickly kind of guy, you know, he wasn't all warm and fuzzy.”
Disclosure
Burt's Bees Lip Balm Shared a Formula With Furniture Polish
“We were making other products that were basically the same formula. We were making a furniture polish, which was wax and oil, and the boot food basically was wax and oil, and lip balm is basically wax and oil, and we put a couple of amenities in it, like vitam…”
Disclosure
Burt's Bees Dropped Candles Because Skincare Manufacturing Was More Scalable
“The skin care products, which were basically blending and filling, it was a very simple manufacturing process that could easily be scaled. And we were making handmade candles, so to go to an automated system just required a lot more time, machinery, and space,…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moving Burt's Bees to North Carolina Drastically Cut Manufacturing Costs
“Revlon was about 15 miles away. The Body Shop was about 30 or 40 miles away, and there were a lot of pharmaceutical companies that used a lot of the same glass jars and caps and that sort of thing. So our expenses went way down. We were able to hire people who…”
