Pseudo ecobags of the world beware! Sharon Rowe is the one, the only and original Eco-Bag lady!
So cease and desist from invoking the name of eco in the name of bags! And in the name of green sales!
OK, maybe she”™s not so dramatic; although she can be, she was an actress at one time, complete with requisite Equity Card.
But she does want people to know that she does not take it lightly when people infringe upon her brand.
Rowe is president of Ossining-based Eco-Bags Products Inc., approaching its 19th year in business.
Her commitment to grow the business helped propel Rowe to winning this year”™s Entrepreneurial Success award from The Business Council of Westchester and land her in the 2008 Business Hall of Fame.
Her company was born from her single desire to clean up her neighborhood, as well as that space between refrigerator and cupboard, used universally as a place to shove things such as shopping bags.
Back in 1989, she would trek from grocery stores in her Washington Heights neighborhood with plastic bags lining the handles of the baby stroller she pushed; her newborn served as counterweight to the groceries. The plastic bags”™ propensity to easily tear and spill their contents made Rowe irritable. Loose bags caught by the wind and swirling like tumbleweeds through the streets also ratcheted up the irritability factor. And getting snagged in the branches of trees didn”™t add to the neighborhood aesthetic.
The environment would soon be awash in plastic bags. She wanted to make more things reusable.
Little did she know that she would soon strike upon an idea that would put her on the less debris-strewn road to becoming an international entrepreneur. Her idea was not original, but rather old. It was an expandable string tote bag, popular in Europe.
She contacted a German manufacturer in Germany who sent her a few thousand bags. She brought the bags to a street fair along Sixth Avenue in Manhattan that marked Earth Day in 1990. Talk about an instant hit, she sold 3,000 in about three hours.
She and her family moved to Ossining and along moved her base of operations. It was just Rowe and a part-time employee who handled the orders, via www.ecobags.com. Manufacturing was in India, European distribution was in the United Kingdom and a warehouse was in Fishkill. The company grew organically until last spring. That”™s when Rowe experienced the “Oprah effect.”
On April 22, 2007, Rowe”™s bags were among other items featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The show was a springboard for unprecedented growth.
“Our orders that weekend went from 40 to 400 and continued to climb,” Rowe said. “We were steady in growth the last 18 years and knew we”™d hit seven figures in ”™07.”
After Oprah, the phone didn”™t stop ringing. Rowe realized one line wouldn”™t cut it. So she grew her staff from one part-timer to eight, with eight phone lines. She also moved the operations out of her home in June and into rented space down the street. She is now looking for more office space, preferably within walking distance to the Hudson River if not a view of the Hudson. Rowe has a fondness for the river ”“ her dog is named Hudson ”“ and paddling her canoes upon it. If she can find the perfect office/river match she”™d be in eco heaven.
One of the pivotal changes for her business has been the growing awareness of the environment via the message preached by organizations such as the Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, Clearwater and Al Gore.
Rowe used to have to preach to the unconverted. Today, there are no outbound sales; it”™s all response, she said. Her company is constantly being inundated with inquiries not just about the products, but also alliances and partnerships.
One prop master for a movie being filmed with Meryl Streep asked for some Eco-Bags to be sent to her to be used in the movie. The bags have also been spotted on TV shows, including the hot new “Gossip Girl” series.
Major buyers have included Bed, Bath and Beyond, Estee Lauder and the Sundance Film Festival. Rowe will be supplying bags for the Go Green Expo in Manhattan later this month.
Another bump up in sales occurred in January when the Oprah Show featuring the bags was re-run. Rowe is currently in talks with “The Ellen DeGeneres show” to use the bags as a giveaway to audience members.
She is now getting ready for a number of events including being a featured speaker at Co-op America”™s Green Business Conference in Chicago next month.
Rowe has expanded her line of bags and is working on a new line for the holidays. Another line she created is known as Totes with Quotes, with such sayings such as “Make love not carbon.”
As with anything green and growing, a bit of surgical snips are in order, she said. She likened the company to the clematis growing outside her window. Some reshaping needs to be done to bring more blooms. As to her intentions, she demurs at giving any hints as does any good gardener who has secrets
