Victorian Heart Co., Inc. Owner

11/21/2023

06/17/2022

04/15/2019

Along with going to all the major markets in the United States, Victorian Heart now had to start going to China to visit the factories from which we were buying quilts. Ken Kline and Nancy Kline took the first trip to China in March of 1998. This was quite an experience for both of us. We spent a whole week in Shanghai. We did some major looking at quilts that we thought would sell in the United States. It was about this time that we were beginning to see the need to not just buy what China offered but to make changes in products by picking our own choices of fabrics, quilt patterns, and sizes that suited our customers. The factories were very clean and updated. The workers were all very happy to meet us and we were glad to see where the quilts were made. This was just the beginning of many more trips to China that we made as Victorian Heart grew and our demands for more and more quilts was growing fast.
These pictures are inside one of the showrooms we visited. One picture is of the in of one of the factories and then one picture of the streets in Shanghai.
We soon found that we needed to go to China about twice each year to keep up with our demands.

03/29/2019

VHC had some very fun days growing. Going to tradeshow marketing was allo new to us. We started off with just going to a few but ended up going to quite a number of markets. We went to Kansas City, Dallas, New York, Madison, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. We had some big wooden boxes made to ship all the things needed for a show. The boxes were painted pink and ended up having about six of these boxes. There would always be a small step ladder put in at the last so when the boxes were opened we could unload what could be reached and then we used the step ladder to climb inside the box to get to the rest of the items. As we were unloading other vendors got a kick out of seeing us in these boxes. We had a lot of fun going to these markets and it increased our sales. These are a few pictures of some of the shows we went to. By the way, these pictures were while I was still a brunette.

03/18/2019

First Catalog of VHC Brands published in 1996

03/18/2019

We moved into the Hollister Industrial Park and for the first time had to buy a fork lift and warehouse racks. As we grew we had to constantly hire new employees. We published our first catalog in 1996. Most of the pictures were taken in my home. The catalog was a success and we got many new customers as a result. We were learning new things daily. The offices in the building we were renting were not enough for all the sales people and business employees we now had so we built a very large room to hold all the sales people. We also added a little break room, but without plumbing. We decided to start going to markets to get more customers. Our first market was the Kansas City Gift Market. It was quite an adventure for us. We then went on to the Dallas Market and the Atlanta Market. It was about this time that we decided to try going into retail. We opened a store in Osage Beach, MO in a large mall. The store did quite well so we opened a second store in Grapevine, TX. Both stores did ok for awhile but without our personal constant supervision they began to not be prosperous. Our wholesale business was growing quickly and we needed to spend our entire efforts on this side of the business so we ended up closing both stores. We were getting all of our quilts from China and made several trips there to see the factories. We went to a show in New York City and found a company from India. So we started importing from India as well as China. Trips to India and to China were getting more frequent.
More coming at a later date.

11/28/2018

Victorian Heart outgrew the small location on West Oklahoma in Branson, MO. We made the decision to rent part of a big warehouse owned by some friends who owned a business located on the highway south of town. We rented several offices and warehouse space. We were growing pretty good so we started hireing a few more employees. Our accountant needed help, we needed someone to help in sales and also needed more help in the warehouse. So, we hired several people and continued to grow. We stayed in that warehouse for over a year and had to start making plans on where to go from here. We needed more office space so we built a little building inside the warehouse to help solve that problem but that wasn't near enough. We were constantly looking for a place to rent. And we did finally find a better spot. It was in the Industrial Park in Hollister, MO. We were very excited about this finding and started making plans for the move.

09/28/2018

Our little quilt business was growing pretty fast now and with several new customers added we decided it was time to move out of my house. We looked several weeks and finally found an old house on West Oklahoma in downtown Branson that had been converted to offices. We rented it and had shelving installed in every room. Ken was busy all day ordering new product and selling and I was busy shipping and working with UPS.
Our oldest son Mike was still in Ruston, Louisiana and felt left out so he decided he wanted to work in the family business too. Second son and family had moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, Daughter Kim and family had a store now in downtown Branson and Ken was full time at Victorian Heart.
We had to buy a fax machine and a printer for our office and then we hired a full time house accountant to keep up with all the business.
When trucks came to deliver we all got out in the street and unloaded. Sometimes it was raining or snowing but we got the job done.
We were making trips to New York City to visit with the companies we were doing business with and started going to a few markets to find new product.
It wasn't long before we had outgrown our little place of business on West Oklahoma and had to start looking for a new location.
Next move coming up!