Explosion of colors, textures, styles greets visitors to MacKenzie-Childs

CNY Business Journal (1994-95), May 01, 1995 by Hadley, Mark

AURORA, Cayuga County--A minimalist walking into the bright yellow Georgian farmhouse that now serves as showroom and offices for MacKenzie-Childs, Ltd, might be driven into a screaming, incoherent fit.

Everywhere the eye falls, it is met with an explosion of colors, textures, tassels, fringe, and fanciful scenes. And the ears capture sounds unlike those of any other commercial environment--soft music, mingled with the live son of nightingales and finches. It is nothing if not a gourmand's feast for the senses.

The scene here conjures up images of Alice in Wonderland, of whimsy and playfullness.

Indeed, whimsy is part of what MacKenzie-Childs is about with its line of pottery painted in fanciful florals and patchworks, some with the added decoration of oral decals, and the company's ornate, hand-blown glassware, and furniture including armoires lavishly decorated inside and out, and Bombay chests, striped and colored and resting on the backs of ceramic rabbits or tortsises that serve as legs.

Victoria MacKenzie-Childs and her husband, Richard, who started the company in 1983, strive to bring out the child in their customers, their business associates, and their employees.

"I think that the reason people often come up with an Alice in Wonderland connection is that the purpose of MacKenzie-Childs is to take people out of the every day and out of mediocrity so that they can find their own unique contributions," says Victoria.

The couple and their company pursue that goal, not only in the merchandising of their varied products, but also in the employees who work for the company, according to Kathleen Rushton, who been working for the company seven months ago.

Rushton came with a degree in fine arts from Syracuse University and experience in fashion retailing and office administration, but her first job at MacKenzie-Childs was as a pottery painter. Now, she is part of the design staff.

"Victoria and Richard work with the employees and allow them to move and grow within the company," reports Rushton, who recently helped with the opening of the company's newly expanded store on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Mary Lou Graf, who came to the company four years ago to help setup better office procedures as the company's growth accelerated started with the intention of only working a couple of years until her retirement. Now, however, she is giving no thought to retirement after a career that included 28 years at the Statler Hotel on Cornell's campus.

She admits to working harder and certainly longer than she anticipated "But where else can you come to work and have to be careful about the chickens and the ducks, and where else can you can share an office with a mynah bird?"

Victoria strives to make the value of the individual a central part of all of the company's operations--not just at the company headquarters on a 19th-century dairy farm overlooking Cayuga Lake, but also in its store on Madison Avenue and in its dealings with other businesses.

"Even with the large businesses we deal with and the people we work with in those businesses, there has not been one person where we have not found away to fit. And through the the success of our work together, trust is built," she says. That doesn't mean, however, that everyone is always happy and the status quo stands for all time once a relationship is built.

"There are times when we (MacKenzie-Childs and its business associates) need to really think about where we are going together. When those times come, there is more trust and we can really talk through the decision" she explains.

Apparently, that kind of relationship bears fruit for both MacKenzie-Childs and for the companies that sell its products. MacKenzie-Childs has been growing at 20 to 60 percent a year throughout its history. Its retailers have been riding the same kind of wave, according to Victoria.

"Every business that has chosen do business with us has grown as much as we have. So if we grow 50 or 60 percent, they grow that much too. It is a very good relationship for both of us. They take our guidance and direction very well, and we listen to them so that it can be a real partnership," she stresses.

At the heart of all MacKenzie-Childs' relationships is "the Golden Rule." "We are very interested in the idea that there is one ethic that fits for society everywhere and it centers on treating others as you want to be treated. In fact, 'the Golden Rule' has been written in virtually every society, every language and every period of history. Societies have been built on it, so it seems like a pretty solid foundation for a company," Victoria says.

Rising on that foundation, the company has shown an enviable record of growth--reaching 60 employees within seven years of its founding and then to 150 employees by the end of 1993. Now, Victoria and Richard can take credit for creating nearly 300 jobs and pumping millions of dollars into the Finger Lakes region economy,

The company was even strong enough to withstand one of the greatest challenges a young company could experience--the destruction of its production facility. The 19th-century barn that housed all of the company's production and shipping operations burned to the ground in March 1993, fueling fears of many employees that the company was doomed.