Inspired by Daufuskie’s landscape, Spartina is growing in Bluffton
Kay Stanley’s life has always revolved around art.
Growing up in Kansas, Stanley had a creative mother who was supportive but worried that her daughter would become a starving artist. At her mother’s insistence, Stanley enrolled at University of Kansas not as an art student but in the journalism department; journalism, she thought, was the closest practical thing she could get to design.
It didn’t take long for people in the art department to wonder why she wasn’t in their school. Stanley took art electives and worked with a professor to build a portfolio, and when she graduated, she was offered a job as an art director. Turns out, her mom had nothing to worry about.
“I think they liked that I had a journalism background,” Stanley said.
Stanley has made a living as an artist ever since. She owns Spartina 449, a women’s accessories and apparel brand based in Bluffton. The company, which has about 140 employees – including 40 in Bluffton – is planning an expansion and constructing a new 14,100-square-foot headquarters it says will bring 15 new jobs to the area, with an average pay of $40.71 per hour.
Spartina is receiving support from the town of Bluffton to fund its expansion through an economic development incentive agreement. Hiring more people will allow Spartina 449 to continue its collaborative design process, Stanley said.
“A garment will have plenty of fingerprints on it at the company – not just mine, but the other artists who do prints, colors and textures,” she said.
How it all began
Stanley spent years working at ad agencies in Kansas City when she suddenly got the bug to create a physical product.
She started developing scrapbook paper, dimensional stickers and scrapbooks out of her bedroom in the mid-1990s. She called her business K & Company, and after going to a trade show early in the process it took off. She was eventually able to leave her job at the ad agency and devote herself to K & Company full-time.
“[Scrapbooking] became this huge hobby industry that went from not existing to I think, by the time we sold it, the industry was an over $2 billion industry.”
K & Company sold its products through major retail chains like Michaels and Hobby Lobby, plus at individual merchants and through home shopping networks, Stanley said. By 2007, sales were looking a little soft, and Stanley said she saw the writing on the wall. She and her business partner Curt Seymour – who was her husband at the time – sold the company to a private equity firm in 2007.
“The new owners immediately took over. We didn’t even know if it would go through because of the financial crisis. But after it sold, we couldn’t go back into the building, it was very bittersweet,” she said.
Stanley and Seymour were already building a second home on Daufuskie Island, and when they got here, Stanley said she was inspired by the Lowcountry’s lush landscape. She decided to make a product again, not knowing if it would lead to financial success.
“I was completely enthralled by the beauty of the nature here – the trees, the marshes, the water,” she said. “This is where I should have been born, not Kansas.”
That’s how Spartina 449 was born. The company started in 2009, launching at a trade show months after the Great Recession. The vibes at the show were doom and gloom-heavy, but Spartina stood out because most other retailers had nothing new at the show, Stanley said. Handbags eventually grew into handbags and jewelry, and about six years ago, Spartina 449 started making apparel.
How the business operates
Spartina 449’s operations are currently scattered across three offices in Bluffton. Accounting and customer service are in one building, sales and marketing are down the street and product development is nearby. The company also has a Bluffton warehouse for storage and assembly of things that can’t be put together by a third-party warehouse in Hardeeville that handles packaging and shipping.
“They can handle the growth easier than we can, and it allows us to get more space if we need it,” Stanley said.
When Spartina 449 started, 100% of the product was manufactured in China, Stanley said. The company maintains an office in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Today, however, most manufacturing is done in Sri Lanka and Peru; about 20% is made in China. Spartina 449 starts designing products a full year on average before they actually hit the shelves, Stanley said.
“Our theme and our lifestyle artwork and designs are all done here in Bluffton, but it’s just that the manufacturers aren’t here,” she said. “It’s very hard to make things in the U.S. I wish we could, it would be a lot easier.”
Goods are shipped into the Port of Savannah and transported to Hardeeville for packing and shipping.
Spartina relies on an omnichannel approach to retailing, which means its revenue comes from multiple channels – brick-and-mortar retail, e-commerce and wholesale. E-commerce accounts for the biggest chunk of sales, Stanley said, but that can drive brick-and-mortar; Florida is the company’s largest e-commerce market, so Spartina opened a handful of new stores there in the last year.
The company has 15 of its own stores, including locations in Old Town Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Charleston, Greenville, Kiawah Island and Savannah.
“We like to have good foot traffic, that’s why we picked certain areas that often attract tourists but have a local community that can support the local business too and will appreciate our brand,” she said. “Every day people come into our store and they’ve never heard of us. It’s great exposure. Maybe on vacation they see us, and then they become an e-commerce customer.”
The target customer tends to be a high-income woman who likes the beachy look. A leather jacket listed on Spartina 449’s website costs $455, and a short-sleeved Peruvian cotton dress ranges from $138-$148, depending on color.
The new Bluffton corporate headquarters will allow Spartina 449 to operate under one roof, Stanley said. Hilton Head architect W. Thomas Parker Jr., known for his island-style work, is leading the design. Stanley said she hopes to break ground on the project by October.
She said she and her company are firmly committed to the local community.
“What I’m really proud of, and what I feel is my best talent, is hiring really talented individuals who are designers, really talented at patterns and colors,” Stanley said. “If I feel they have that talent, those are the people I want on the team.”