15 Gifted Women: Frances and Susan Gravely
By Meredith Schwartz -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 11/9/2009
 |
| Shonnie Bilin |
 |
| Isadora Frost |
 |
| Jenny Hammons |
 |
| Anne McGilvray |
 |
| Maxine Burton |
 |
| Susan Roghani |
 |
| Joan Ulrich |
 |
| Wendy Rosen |
 |
| Anna Griffin |
 |
| Barbara Baekgaard |
 |
| Andrea Grossman |
 |
| Andrea Sadek |
 |
| Ande Rooney |
 |
| Marian Sullivan |
Frances Gravely
Vice President, Co-founder
Vietri
Lee Gravely and daughters Frances and Susan founded Vietri after a trip to Italy’s Amalfi Coast, where they fell in love with the colorful hand-painted Italian dinnerware. Today, Vietri works with more than 40 ceramic, wood, glass, stainless steel, pewter and terra-cotta manufacturers, and the company’s offerings include flatware, linens, and decorative accessories. With about 40 employees, Vietri serves more than 2,000 specialty stores, plus designers. Vietri won the ARTS award for Best Tabletop Company three times, and was named one of the top 40 Family Friendly companies. Prior to founding Vietri, Frances, who today is vice president of the company, had an eclectic career, including marketing sportswear, selling commercial compactors and designing the first pantsuit uniforms for nursing students, as well as industrial design consulting. She is a member of the board of many cultural institutions.
(Editor's note: Frances Gravely took the time out to speak on behalf of both her sister Susan and herself.)
Gifts & Decorative Accessories: What have been your biggest challenges?
Frances Gravely: I think the hardest [thing] has been the most recent world economic downturn. It has broken our hearts to see our Italian artisans and their factories needing to lay off people, often people who are master artisans and who have been famed for years. We have felt the fear of the unknown, the uncertainty of the future, in terms of the worst that happened in 2008-2009. I will say we are seeing things moving up steadily across the country, so we’re real happy with that. In the beginning it was so much hard work, but we were young and ever-passionate and knew nothing. It was fun, it was nothing but fun, and still is.G&DA: What have been your greatest successes?
FG: Oh, so many. Some of our greatest successes were the highlights of certain collections that were immediately popular with the press and leading stores, and have even influenced tabletop and been completely on track with interior design fashion. For example, Campagna from the Amalfi coast was a mix of animal patterns right at the crest of the wave of fashion of mixing and matching. And also colorful, yet casual, dinnerware that went in the dishwasher; you could use it everyday, but also, it was artistic enough that you would want to entertain with it. Cucina Fresca really led the trend in dinnerware for earth colors. Another is seeing our employees when they bring their children to our company events, or have new cars in our parking lot, and continue after 16 years to have as much passion for our products as my sister and I do. We are very much a family-oriented company and it has been a joy to see all the children grow up. We have identical twins who are the heads of marketing and sales — their mother started here in customer service and then became head of customer service. She moved to Maine and became head of our New England territory. We have a husband and wife team, we have sisters, we have cousins… people love to work here and if they hear about openings they tell their family members first.
G&DA: Do you think as a woman you approached doing business differently?
FG: Yes, absolutely. Neither Susan nor I have ever felt any sexism, but I think we are more prone to consider all of our employees like family and all of their whelps as members of the Vietri family. Part of this is because half of the companies we buy from are family businesses or cooperatives, and we sell to stores that tend to be owned by families, and they know their customers very well, so the circles just continue. This happens in the tabletop industry: it is a unique industry where relationships are important and valued. Men value relationships as well, but there is a special maternal feeling that women have that we feel toward the product and that we turn and share with the stores’ buyers.
G&DA: How has being an executive affected your personal life and relationships and how do you deal with it?
FG: I have a great partnership with my sister Susan Gravely who is CEO of Vietri, and with terrific colleagues since 1984. We just have incredible staff, both managers and every single person who works with us. The other balance comes from passion for what we do. It is just pure pleasure and we still feel it today. The creativity of the Italian artisans colors and inspires us constantly.
G&DA: How and why did you get into business?
FG: It was a family beginning. Our mother invited Susan and me on a trip to Italy to go to the Amalfi coast, to a famous hotel called the San Pietro near Positano. It took the owner 10 years to build into the cliff. The rooms all have garden balconies with flowers blooming on the ceiling. In the hotel, they used all different colorful patterns of tableware made by the one factory on the southern tip of the Amalfi coast. We all collected dinnerware, and had never seen anything like it in the U.S.; so, on the fourth day, we went to the factory, found they weren’t importing to the U.S. in a big way, and Susan and I, with our car driver as interpreter, told him we would import to the U.S. At our very first show, Cynthia Marcus bought all our patterns for all the Neiman Marcus stores, and Neiman’s has been a customer every year since. But most of our customers are the best small specialty store in Anytown USA. And for that we will always be grateful, because consumers are loyal to their local specialty store, and specialty stores in turn are loyal to suppliers whose products sell for them. There is more security as well as stronger relationships that make our business a dream come true.
G&DA: What advice would you give to a woman starting out in business today?
FG: If she hasn’t started yet she should make sure that she is adequately funded for a long time period for adequate turn on her product. That’s the key, the most important thing for anybody starting a new business, particularly right now. You think you have a business plan, and it always takes longer and has more complicated parts in the details than you imagine. I think women particularly go 200-plus percent to even consider themselves at 100 percent, so my caution would be to recognize that and have adequate partners to share the work with you. Also to enjoy every step of the way but make room for refreshment and restoration.
G&DA: What has been the best — or most memorable — gift you ever received?
FG: My children. But in terms of our industry… I was in Florence, and for the first time our catalog came out and I hadn’t been on press. To celebrate, my husband gave me a necklace of all gold circles, that to me represents the beauty of people working together. This was about 15 years ago. That necklace goes with me everywhere. It was even stolen once and I immediately contacted the artist who made it and asked them to make an identical one, it means that much to me.
To read the interviews with each of the other 14 Gifted Women, please click on their image at right.
Talkback
Related Content
Related Content
