Profiles in Business: Susan Dollenmaier and Anichini

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

Splitting up

In 1995, Patrizia Anichini and Dollenmaier began to think about ending their partnership. In 1999, Dollenmaier bought the company in a split that was as painful as a bad divorce.

"I had my kids, Patrizia had a child a few years later, and we end up going in different ways," Dollenmaier said. "Once she had her child she wasn't interested in doing the kind of work that needed to be done to grow the business. For example, we had our own showrooms in New York then. The first was at 58th and Fifth Avenue, a very expensive address. We start advertising with designers to come work, with us. And Patrizia, majorly talented in terms of her knowledge of textiles and her love of color and design and the rest of it, just didn't like business and didn't do it. So she would have things for sale and not know their price. Or the price was in lire.

Meanwhile, back in Vermont, Dollenmaier was charging along, hiring, renovating the farmhouse into office space, importing textiles, selling, and working with banks on additional capitalization.

In the end, Dollenmaier believes the split was handled gracefully.

"I feel we handled it with a lot of class," Dollenmaier said. "On the final day, when we got together in a lawyer's office in Burlington at a table, and the stock and money were changing hands, we were able to go out to lunch afterward. We had a glass of champagne and said, 'On to the next'."

Patrizia Anichini eventually moved to Italy, where she now lives and works as a consultant.

The price of freedom was cash up front plus a three-year contract for more payments, plus a final cash settlement. Dollenmaier will not reveal the figures, but she got the financing by borrowing against her home and from Quagliotti.

"I spent the next three years paying him back," she said.

Troubled Times

For the first two years that Dollenmaier owned the business alone, business seemed to skyrocket.

"A clear positive energy came from separating myself physically and emotionally

ally from the relationship with Patrizia and being able to focus all my attention on the business," Dollenmaier said. "The business really solidified at that time."

Then came September 11, the instability in the Middle East, the Japanese economic crash, the American stock market crash, the falling dollar and the rest of it.

Undeterred, Dollenmaier is working as hard and creatively as she can to bring up the company's earnings. She has started a commercial division, for one thing, aimed at selling luxury sheeting and textiles to the international hotel and hospitality industry. Anichini provides both "operational linens," or textiles that are used every day, like sheets, napkins, tablecloths and bath towels, as well as "top of the bed," or design textiles like bedspreads and curtains.

"I think it is going to be the biggest producer long-term, because we are selling to five-star hotels, resorts and spas," Dollenmaier said. "We are creating textiles for those locations and branding the name at the same time. With us, they can do onestop shopping. We just got the contract for the Four Seasons, all the throws in all the hotels. That's maybe 55 hotels. We're waiting on a $700,000 order for sheeting from another luxury hotel. The business is incredible, and we're just on the verge of tipping the scales. I want to make my projections for the year in that division, which are between $2.5 and $3 million. Once we do that, I think there'll be a snowball effect."