It’s Gala Time Fashionistas and We’re Invited!
KBL Group Intl. was awarded “Operational Excellence 2016” for the Home Shopping Network.
It’s also March Madness and with that, it was excitingly announced that my company, KBL Group Intl. was awarded “Operational Excellence 2016” for the Home Shopping Network. This is a highly esteemed award considering we are only approaching our 1 year anniversary this month for being a partner vendor to HSN.
It all actually started 2 years prior to our Wendy Williams launch in March 2015.
There was so much involved prior to the launch including our pitch to Wendy Williams to sign on for the idea of her own apparel line, defining the the actual contract between all parties, outlining the vision of what her product would reflect—a mix of day wear and weekend wear, and then actually designing the collection with Wendy’s input, sampling it, and finally getting it approved by Wendy and HSN.
The first launch of her product with her first on-air appearance happened only last year in late March 2015 and she performed above and beyond the HSN financial plans as well as surpassing any other apparel launch (I actually think she is receiving another award as well for Best Brand Launch…shhhh!). We have continued to build this business and have already been entrusted twice with a TSV (Today’s Special Value) time slot with Wendy’s product.
This is not something that comes easily to newcomers to the HSN business. These slots usually go to long-timers of the HSN business—very tried and true personalities with a large following of customers. It is a always an item with a high perceived value at a phenomenal price and the quality must be top notch. We will be rolling out our 2nd one shortly this month! We continue to have a new collection released for her approximately 3 to 4 months. We also have additional plans to increase the exposure of the Wendy Williams brand.
With the success of our Wendy Williams launch, HSN has kept us in mind continuously as they have internally developed new opportunities.
They know that we are a full service company that can design, produce, ship and be a good partner when things don’t always go according to plan. And this will always happen no matter how well we try to plan. Something will always go a bit awry and we need to be able to have transparent discussions with HSN to solve these problems.
Since that first successful launch of Wendy, we have also added to our resume—product for Colleen Lopez, who is their premiere host and has the Thursday evening time slot from 9 to 11 called “The List”. It high-lights all MUST HAVE apparel items.
A collaboration with HSN to promoto Kung Fu Panda. The black and white kimono modeled on the right is a piece from Colleen Lopez’ collection.
From there, we have also launched capsule collections for Chiqui Delgado (an opportunity to build Latina market share) and Jay by Jay Godfrey (a beautiful contemporary line that maintains the concepts of his designer line, but in much easier to wear and care for fabrics, more suitable for the mainstream market, and at a fraction of the designer line prices). We have 2 additional “in the pipe-line” projects for them that are still under wraps until we clear the launch dates.
Jay Godfrey at his product launch with hosts Callie Northagen on left and Colleen Lopez on right. The ladies are wearing items from the Jay by Jay Godfrey line
Chiqui Delgado wearing a dress from her collection
We are so thrilled to have been given these opportunities and to be considered their “go to” resource. They know that we will always step up to take on whatever challenges they give us and there have been some really tight deadlines for some of their newer brand launches!
So now the really exciting news is that HSN hosts a beautiful gala affair in St. Petersberg, Florida next month to honor all of their awarded vendors and brands. It will be a star studded affair with top level HSN executives, their in house TV hosts, the celebrities who have high level performing brands, and the manufacturing teams who have helped to produce these great products.
Next- “A Night in Wonderland”—a very fun spin on Alice in Wonderland
