Profiles in Business: Susan Dollenmaier and Anichini

Vermont Business Magazine, Jul 01, 2003 by Marcel, Joyce

"I'm looking at this stuff and thinking, 'Aha! These look just like antiques, but we can buy them in multiples, which gives us a chance to wholesale," Dollenmaier said. "So I bought five or six sets, brought them back, and showed them to my partner,

who coincidentally happens to be from Italy. I'm telling her we should be buying this stuff in Europe and selling it here."

Patrizia Anichini had not been back to Italy in years, but within a few months she was Florence, staying with relatives and making connections.

"She was told that the best textile weaver in Italy was Giovanni Quagliotti, but that he was 'very difficult,'" Dollenmaier said. "She went to visit him, and he came to Vermont to see what was up. He met me, liked me, believed in me and gave us approximately $50,000 worth of sheeting on consignment. He continues to be our largest supplier. I do about $1.5 million a year with him. He's also one of my best friends in the world. His daughter now works with us. If it had not been for him, there would be no Anichini. So we started bringing in his product, long before people started thinking of luxury sheeting. We were the first to do that, without a doubt."

Dollenmaier also took some of the lace yardage that she had purchased from the Lebanese brothers and sewed it on to Belgian linen and German terry cloth. The partners then took their new products to the first New York City Gift Show; they immediately started getting orders. "And now I'm 39 and I get pregnant with twins," Dollenmaier said. "I'm not sure I really want kids. I'm just getting to the point where I feel my business is turning into something. Robin convinces me to have the kids. So I have these fabulous kids, but now I'm 40, and trying to run this business. I said to Patrizia, 'Look, I can't have these two kids and go running back and forth to New York any more. I want to take the concept of newlymanufactured goods, incorporate in the state of Vermont, and run it from there. You keep doing the antique business down in New York, and I'll keep feeding you the stuff.' That was the beginning of the business as we know it. It was October of 1986."

Banking Hell

Dollenmaier was getting orders, but she had no capital for inventory. Also, there was a bit of a problem with her accounting. "I'd been in the underground economy for five years," Dollenmaier said. "I had to find an accountant and tell him I hadn't paid taxes for five years, and he had to get me straightened out. I had to pay all these back taxes. I had to come out of the closet, so to speak. Once her accounting was legitimate, Dollenmaier started looking for capital.

"In my first year in business, 1987, I did $175,000," Dollenmaier said. "I maxed out my credit cards, borrowed from the family, and still didn't have enough money.

I didn't have the language. I didn't know balance sheet, profit and loss statement, any of that stuff. I only knew that my motto was to buy low and sell high."

But she was not completely businessilliterate. All those flea markets had taught her something about the fundamentals.