Q&A: Recycline Tells Consumers to 'Preserve' Their Households

Founded in 1996 by former financial analyst and consultant Eric Hudson, Recycline is an eco-friendly company based in Waltham, Mass., that markets everyday household and personal items under the Preserve Products brand name. According to the company, all its products are made from 100 percent recycled plastic and paper materials to help preserve energy and natural resources. Further, the products are all made in the U.S., to help save energy that would be consumed via overseas transportation. Items in the colorful Preserve portfolio include toothbrushes, razors, flavored toothpicks, tableware (plates, cutlery, tumblers) and kitchenware (mixing bowls, colanders, cutting boards, food storage containers). Pricing is meant to be affordable: $2.79 for a toothbrush, $8.99-12.99 for colanders, $2.79-5.99 for food storage containers, $4.50 for a 10-pack of small plates. Preserve Products are sold at more than 7,000 retailers in the U.S. and Canada, including Target, Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Whole Foods, as well as online. Recycline encourages recycling its products via its “Gimme 5” recycling bins program at retailers and with postage-paid mailers for certain small products. The past few years have produced considerable growth for Preserve Products. Recently, marketing director C.A. Webb provided Brandweek senior editor Chuck Stogel an insider’s look at what’s been going on and what’s forthcoming.Brandweek: What are the strong points helping to grow Preserve Products?C.A. Webb: While we’re a 13-year-old company, you can imagine that we’ve seen significantly faster growth in the last two years given the increasing awareness of environmental issues and desire for healthy products. We started out growing our brand in the natural channel (Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, independent natural food stores) and have deep roots there. We are now the leader in each of our categories in the natural channel. We are also the best selling toothbrush on Amazon.com. Driving much of our growth these days is our newer relationships with retailers like Target and Kroger. The biggest strong point helping to grow Preserve is the growing number of conscious consumers that are demanding more from product companies. Many consumers today are asking questions that only the most hard-core environmentalists were asking 10 years go: What is this product made from (and can I trust what the package tells me)? What kind of impact will this product have on my health and on the Earth? How far did it travel to reach me? How will I recycle, reuse or otherwise dispose of it when I’m finished with it?BW: How did Preserve Products do in 2008?CAW: 2008 was one of our best yet. We launched the Preserve Kitchen line, which has since won several design awards. We were featured in almost every major lifestyle and business magazine and had a feature in the New York Times. We launched a new relationship with Brita (owned by Clorox). We grew our share of the natural channel and received national rollout at Target. We refreshed our brand and updated all of our packaging. And we did some fun promotions to reach new Preservers (our name for our consumers), including a promotion where we handed out a custom-packaged Preserve Toothbrush to all Jet Blue passengers and employees on Earth Day.BW: What do you expect in 2009?CAW: Research is showing that consumers are as committed to buying eco-friendly products as they were before the downturn, and we’re fortunate that our sales reflect that attitude. That said, we’re conserving capital and focusing on supporting our current product portfolio rather than launching new products this year. Our goals for 2009 are still lofty, however. In January, we launched our first retail-based post-consumer No. 5 plastic recycling program, Preserve Gimme 5. The program is supported by our friends at Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, and currently operates in about 90 Whole Foods stores and is continuing to grow to additional stores. Supporting Gimme 5 is a big focus for us this year as is helping our retail partners through these tough times by creating meaningful products and messages that engage consumers.BW: Where do you expect continued growth?CAW: We anticipate we’ll achieve double-digit growth in 2009. Every day, new placement opportunities are opening up. As the kitchen line is the newest there is the greatest room for growth; however, our oldest product, the Preserve Toothbrush, continues to experience very healthy growth as well. One of our biggest challenges is raising brand awareness and helping Preservers find us on shelf, so we’ll continue to use creative means to accomplish that.BW: How are the struggles that some retailers are having affecting your company?CAW: We’re finding that retailers are maintaining tighter inventories so they may wait longer to reorder products, which sometimes results in stock-outs. We’re also seeing some retailers push out their payables a bit further than usual. We’re doing whatever we can to work hand-in-hand with our retail partners to help them get through this tough time.BW: What products are forthcoming?CAW: Our pipeline is full of new products in current categories (personal care, tabletop, and kitchen) and new categories. We’re eager to bring a number of these to market but don’t anticipate new product launches until 2010. We do have an exciting innovation in our toothbrush packaging that will hit shelves this fall, however. It’s the result of a lot of creative thinking about how to offer Preservers greater value, increase the recycling of our toothbrushes, and further lighten our impact on the earth--and, of course, grab more eyes and gain more sales. BW: Please describe your target, or core, consumer.CAW: Preservers are consumers looking for more. Our core Preserver is a woman in her 30s or 40s who is educated and is reading labels and paying attention. In any given week, she makes a run to Target and Whole Foods, and probably a conventional supermarket as well. Most of all, she wants a product that reflects her personal style, embodies her values, performs as well as her old standby brands and that she can afford to buy again and again. While our research shows the majority of Preservers purchasing our products are women, many of them are buying them for the men in their lives, too.BW: Eco-friendly products have been growing, but some observers think they will suffer in these tough economic times as consumers choose value-pricing rather than green friendly. What’s your feeling about this issue?CAW: We believe that competitively priced, eco-friendly products can continue to thrive in this environment. Brands with great stories to tell that capture consumers’ imaginations and don’t ask them to compromise--whether on efficacy, style, environmental impact or price--will win. As a company of people who are driven by a deep environmental and social mission, we are actually pretty excited about the ways consumption patterns are shifting. As a society, we’ve all been overconsuming and considering too little our collective impact. We believe brands like Preserve that can continue to meet real consumer needs while delivering smarter products with less environmental impact are the future.BW: Do you advertise Preserve Products?CAW: We do not advertise. We have grown primarily through word-of-mouth and publicity.BW: How do you promote Preserve Products?CAW: We promote Preserve through unique partnerships with other product companies. For example, we have been partners with Stonyfield Farm for seven years. We have collected thousands of pounds of No. 5 plastic from them and their consumers and have recycled it into new Preserve products. In return, they have shared our story with millions of Stonyfield consumers, including putting Preserve on millions of their yogurt cup lids. Other major partnerships include Organic Valley and Brita. And we’re always planning new co-promotions and joint marketing efforts with brands we admire. Retailers highlight [Preserve] because it’s fresh and people repeat it to people they know because it’s captivating. And we’re grateful for that.

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Q&A: Recycline Tells Consumers to 'Preserve' Their Households

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