Vornado Air is growing despite the recession

Almost four years after the entry of new ownership and management, Vornado Air is expanding its markets, products and customer service.

Officials of the company that's best known as a maker of quality, durable fans — Vornado calls them "air circulators" — hasn't let a deep recession stop it from pursuing its growth plans.

In that time, the Andover-based company that also makes space heaters, humidifiers and air purifiers has grown from a presence in just two countries to more than a dozen.

"About the only continent we're not touching is Africa," said Roy Smith, Vornado's international sales manager.

It's also expanded its U.S. distribution to include having its products placed on the shelves of major retailers such as Costco and Target.

And next year, it will offer some new products — including a whole new product line — that will take it beyond a company that moves, warms, humidifies and purifies air.

In 2007, a year after Omaha-based McCarthy Capital Corp. led the purchase of Vornado's assets from founder Michael Coup and a group of shareholders, Vornado CEO Bill Phillips told The Eagle that his management team had a plan to increase the company's annual sales from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars in five years.

It would do so, Phillips said, by developing new and sophisticated products that would be sold to a broader base of customers, markets and countries.

The fruit of Vornado's efforts since then have meant that the privately held company's gross sales have increased 150 percent in nearly four years, said a spokesman for Phillips, who was not available for an interview.

Officials would not disclose the company's annual sales.

The company continues to employ about the same number of people it did after it changed owners: 65.

And outside the company's headquarters and plant at 415 E. 13th St., the buildings and grounds look unchanged.

But beyond the doors leading to the company's reception area, much has changed.

A large lobby and reception area that also housed a fan museum has been reduced to a quarter of its earlier size to make way for new conference rooms and, perhaps more importantly, an expanded customer service department.

That area has seen big changes with the addition of call management technology for Vornado's customer service phone line. Representatives also are charged with responding to live chat requests from customers on its website, www.vornado.com.

"We recognize (customer service) is the big driver in repeat business and word of mouth," said Brian Cartwright, Vornado's director of brand marketing.

Cartwright said the company has extended its customer service to social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Cartwright monitors what is being said by customers about Vornado products on the websites, and if there's a problem, he tries to help.

"This is a level of engagement that customers don't expect," Cartwright said.

But enhanced and expanded customer service is only part of the reason for the company's growth.

Pushing borders

Vornado's international strategy is a key part of growing without acquisitions, said Smith, the international sales manager.

When Smith joined the company shortly after the ownership change, it was selling products only in Japan and Taiwan and just beginning to distribute in South Korea.

Now, with 13 countries and plans to expand soon into China, international sales account for 13 to 14 percent of Vornado's total sales.

"I'm going out and trying to double my business every year," Smith said.

He said the Vornado brand has a lot of cachet in Asia and Europe.

That's partly because of its heritage and history. Vornado started as a brand of fans invented by the O.A. Sutton Co. in 1945 but disappeared in 1959 when air conditioning had become the primary way to cool homes and offices. The brand was revived by Coup and Richard Ten Eyck, Vornado's original designer, in 1989.

Vornado products assembled in Andover and shipped overseas look just like the ones found on the shelves of retailers in the U.S., Smith said. There are differences between its products sold in the U.S. and those overseas, but they are subtle, such as different sheathing on the electrical cords, plugs and voltages.

But product appearance remains the same for overseas because consumers there are attracted to products made in the U.S.

"It is the primary cornerstone of my strategy," Smith said.

A third area of growth for the company is new products and product lines.

In the spring, Vornado will roll out its first tower fan. Cartwright said that while competitors have had tower fans on the shelves for a number of years, Vornado was deliberate in taking time to develop its own with a design that would circulate air in a wider, deeper range.

But the company needed to come to market with a tower fan because 60 percent of fans that are purchased today are of the tower style, he said.

"The tower alone will be a significant driver of growth for us," Cartwright said.

Perhaps Vornado's biggest play will be steam products, such as steam mops and garment steamers.

Two years ago, Vornado acquired Steamfast in Kansas City, Mo., which in 1999 had introduced products in the steam category at a lower price point.

That acquisition allowed Vornado to get into the lower price point market. It also helps Vornado tap the expertise of Steamfast to launch a line of premium steam products from Vornado that will be released in the middle of next year.

This story was originally published October 31, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Vornado Air is growing despite the recession."