ShareThisBy VICKIE LEE PARKER
Friday, November 03, 2006
Roxanne Quimby is at it again.
Quimby _ who built Burt's Bees from a roadside stand into a multimillion-dollar natural cosmetics company before selling it and moving to Maine three years ago _ has started another ecologically minded company. And she has come back to North Carolina to do it, launching Happy Green Bee in Garner, N.C.
This time she has turned her attention to infants and toddlers. Her Happy Green Bee sells children's clothing _ colorful dresses, sleepers, socks, hats and leggings that Quimby designs _ made from organic cotton.
Quimby is hoping that Happy Green Bee will have the same national success as Burt's Bees.
"I'm going to see if lightning can strike twice," she said.
After selling 80 percent of Durham, N.C.-based Burt's Bees for $177 million to a Manhattan investment firm in 2003, Quimby retreated from the business world and focused on another passion: Maine's North Woods, the original home of Burt's Bees. She has pledged millions for the preservation of 185,000 acres of forestland. At one point, she even considered running for governor of Maine. Instead, she spent a year traveling the world, including Antarctica and Paris.
Now she says that she is ready for another business venture.
"I'm still young," Quimby said. "I'm in my mid-fifties. I felt I needed an active daily challenge."
Quimby settled on the children's clothing market for several reasons. Chief among them: There was not much organic clothing being made for children.
"Organic cotton is not as popular as organic food," Quimby said. "But its visibility is growing."
Selling organic clothing also satisfied Quimby's goal to help preserve the environment.
"If I can influence people to make a better choice for their health and environment, I feel that I am part of a social movement," she said.
Although the market is still small, Quimby will likely face a lot of competition as many companies try to serve this growing niche.
In the past few years, hundreds of retailers have started offering some type of organic clothing, and companies such as Nike and Patagonia now sell organics.
Lori Wyman, spokeswoman for the Organic Trade Association, said the number of members in the sustainable fiber business has quadrupled in the last two years. "We have almost 200 members in the organic fiber business," Wyman said.
In 2005, U.S. organic fiber consumer sales grew 44 percent to $160 million and accounted for 21 percent of total nonfood organic sales, Wyman said.
The reasons for the increase in demand are mixed, said Wendy Priesnitz, editor of Natural Life magazine.
"There is definitely a growing need out there," Priesnitz said. "We get so many e-mails from consumers looking for a source of organic clothing that we can't keep up with them."
Priesnitz said that many are from people trying to find clothing for people who have allergies or sensitive skin.
But the biggest reason is that the clothes now are more colorful, fashionable and have become trendy, Priesnitz said.
Advocates of organic fiber say that it offers benefits for the environment and consumers.
They say that organic agriculture protects the health of people and the land by reducing the overall exposure to toxic chemicals from synthetic pesticides that can end up in the ground, air, water and food supply. Those chemicals are also associated with health consequences, including asthma and cancer.
For fibers to be certified organic, farmers can not use pesticides or herbicides on the plants.
Currently, the manufacturing process of cotton is not certified, but that will likely change, Wyman said.
However, she said, there are a number of companies that are voluntarily adopting an organic process in their plants. That means they use less metallic dye, conserve water and don't use chemicals that are toxic to the environment, Wyman said.
There are just a few farms and companies that grow and produce organic material in the United States.
Because of that, many retailers, including Quimby, buy their fabric overseas. The farms have been certified organic by private certification organizations.
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WHAT IS ORGANIC COTTON? Organic cotton is grown without use of pesticides and fertilizers and by using methods and materials that have a less harmful effect on the environment. Third-party organizations verify that organic producers use only methods and materials allowed in organic production.
HOW MUCH ORGANIC COTTON IS GROWN IN THE UNITED STATES? Farmers in four states harvested 6,814 bales, or 3.3 million pounds, of organic cotton in 2004, according to the Organic Trade Association's 2005 survey of U.S. organic cotton producers. The survey was funded by Cotton Inc. That was an increase from the 4,628 bales harvested in 2003. Texas continues to lead the United States in organic cotton production; limited acreage also was planted in California, New Mexico, and Missouri.
