Antonin Toman, Czech master glassblower; Thea Mehl of Norway, Teroforma designer; and Jan Otruba of Kvetna Glassworks in the Czech Republic.
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Andrew and Anna Hellman have created their business Teroforma in Norwalk by pairing artisans and designers and giving them a pathway to an attentive audience.
“We”™re distributing product wrapped so intrinsically in context that the two can”™t be separated,” said Andrew.
Andrew met his wife while living and studying in Sweden.
“We both moved to London together and lived there for seven years,” said Andrew.
Anna worked predominantly in corporate marketing and Andrew worked in London doing merger and acquisition advisory for what was then Warburg, Dillon, Read through its evolution into UBS. After moving back to the U.S. in 2004, Andrew continued with UBS until 2006.
During that time Andrew and Anna would grow what started in 2006 as Teroforma.
“We decided that we”™d had enough and had an idea of what we wanted to do,” said Andrew. “I think the starting point is that neither one of us are designers or craftsman by trade. We are the closest to the consumer. It struck me from a business-analogous standpoint to create a company purely from the point of view of the customer.”
“We started planning everything from the customer”™s point of view,” said Anna. “It”™s so easy to have a beautiful catalogue and Web site, but if when it comes it”™s just the thing thrown in the box it loses everything.”
The Hellmans said that where quality control checking is usually a 10 percent random selection, they handle every product that is sent out. According to Andrew, Teroforma”™s returns are in the single digits.
Andrew and Anna decided to sell items that were decidedly not mass produced.
“Right away that implied a level of quality for us,” said Andrew.
The Hellmans set out on 18 months of research which took them to 14 different countries.
“We went by word of mouth to meet the people who were the best at making certain things,” said Andrew. “By their craft they were sort of the custodians of these very old means. There”™s something very genuine about looking at something that”™s hand wrought and feeling sympathy with the creator.”
The Hellmans said they choose their partners, the artisans, by their ability and expertise rather than by calculation. They said they felt confident that they could make smart choices about the business structure that would allow them to invest in a product that a smaller group of people would love rather than a product that a massive group of people would just like.
“The fact that it”™s all for the table is where the business side of it creeps in a bit,” said Andrew. “There”™s a huge hole in this market place, about a 500 percent price gap between the bottom end and the top end. For the things in the middle, because physical distribution has become the de facto way that it”™s done, people spend a lot of money getting that distribution in place and making the product support the platform, rather than the other way around.”
Andrew, as a former corporate analyst, saw the percentages clearly as an anomaly and therefore an opportunity.
“On top of that, we were looking at the way people were buying in the segment,” said Andrew.
According to the Hellmans, Internet buying has hit the 40 percent line, and is growing, reaching 60 percent at peek retail periods.
“The customers themselves are telling you how to create the business, you just have to listen,” said Andrew.
“Our talent is searching the world for the new generation of design talent and matching them up with artisan-led crafts studios that will contentiously and thoughtfully make the products that these young designers have created,” said Anna. “That means a lot of in place collaboration of the two.”
Teroforma has currently paired 24 designers and artisan manufacturers who represent 14 different countries, 13 different languages, 12 different time zones, three different generations and both genders.
“As a new generation rises you”™re seeing a rejection of traditional prestige-brand luxury in favor of something that”™s more thoughtful,” said Andrew.
Anna and Andrew have both brought their hand into the design portion of the business; Anna recreating a napkin-set the she recalls from her youth in Sweden and Andrew generating a Scandinavian classic, and one of Teroforma”™s top sellers, whiskey stones that chill drinks without diluting them.
“We”™ve always told the story very transparently of who we work with, where the points of inspiration were and again from a customer”™s point of view,” said Andrew. “I”™m not saying made in Europe, I”™m saying made by Rogaska Glassworks in Slovenia, and I”™m happy as hell to be a cheerleader for them.”
Many of Teroforma”™s artisans have been in business for hundreds of years. Rogaska has been making mouth-blown crystal since 1662.
Teroforma wares can also be found in 37 specialty design stores throughout the United States, including Mis en Scene in Greenwich. Teroforma has a satellite studio in Oslo, Norway, where creative director, Thea Mehl, is based.
The Hellmanssaid expanding the structure of Teroforma in the future beyond the table is likely.
The business can be found at www.teroforma.com.
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