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Lucas Forrest, information technology manager; Emily Church, owner; and Melissa Strother, customer service manager
Lucas Forrest, information technology manager; Emily Church, owner; and Melissa Strother, customer service manager

2014 Dynamic Dozen No. 5: Everything Kitchens LLC

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Everything Kitchens LLC founder Emily Church was on familiar ground when she opened her business in 2002.

As the oldest of nine children and growing up with parents who ran their own small online business, Church had the foundation she needed to develop an online shopping center for all things needed in the kitchen.

While 96 percent of its business comes from the online store, the remiander is generated at the 3,000-square-foot retail space in the Brentwood Center, 2750 S. Glenstone Ave., which opened in 2011.

Everything Kitchens sells about 10,000 different kitchen products from small appliances, such as blenders and coffee makers, to regular kitchen supplies, such as glassware and cutlery.

Since its start with just $500 in 2002, the business has grown – drastically.

“We have been growing, on average for the past five years, 20 percent a year, which is huge,” says owner and CEO Church.

Between 2011 and 2013, Everything Kitchens has been fueled by 52 percent revenue growth, pulling in just more than $16.5 million in revenue last year.

“If we continue to grow at that rate, we would be well over $100 million within 15 years,” she says, a welcome figure for a company that took in 90,000 orders last year.

To support current company growth, Church says the business had to boost its e-commerce platform and marketing efforts, and add several new positions in the company to take advantage of missed opportunities.

“They were things not hurting the company, just opportunities we needed to take advantage of, like functionality and targeted emails,” Church says. “We kept growing, growing, growing and we needed positions to handle all of it.”

Hiring three people and promoting one from within, Everything Kitchens now employs an inventory control manager, a marketing position, a head for Web maintenance and a programmer. With these new positions, the company currently operates with 27 employees.

Retaining these employees is something Church says is key to growth as well.

“A well-trained employee helps the company grow,” she says.

With the additional programmer, Church says the company is able to keep the website, its main source of revenue, functioning at a higher level. The two programmers on staff work on upgrades for the e-commerce platform daily, which is a custom platform through Magento Enterprise.

On the marketing front, Everything Kitchens Marketing Director Laura Allen says the company is trying to keep things fun for its shoppers.

“Our branding efforts are focused around consistently delivering this upbeat message to our target audience,” Allen says. “By establishing a fun corporate image, we are able to engage our customers and get them excited about all of the wonderful things they can do in their own kitchens.”

And this gives Everything Kitchens a competitive edge. “By expanding our product line and giving our customers the freedom to create their own culinary masterpieces, and have fun doing it, Everything Kitchens has been successful in maintaining a competitive edge in the kitchenwares industry and has experienced a steadily rising growth over the past 12 years,” Allen says.[[In-content Ad]]

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