Henrico store Tweed looks to build on strong identity

Whenever Ava Deal needs an engagement gift, she knows exactly what to buy: Mariposa cocktail napkin holders from Tweed.

Deal started shopping at the store when it opened in The Shoppes at Westgate in 2004.

"I go there for almost every gift I need. The selection is a combination of whimsical and traditional. It's unique," she said. "It's an upbeat, fun experience."

Paul and Carol Viall, along with daughters Kate Stottlemyer and Elizabeth Lazay, decided to open the store in the shopping center across from Short Pump Town Center because of the area's rapid growth.

"We looked all over Richmond," Stottlemyer said. "We focused our research in Carytown, the Libbie and Grove area and Short Pump. We felt like Short Pump was where the growth was and also the need. There were stores similar to ours in those other areas."

The concept for the store originated in 2003 when Carol Viall opened Tweed in Sparta, N.J. That store, like its Short Pump counterpart, carries a wide selection of home accents and gifts.

Before Tweed, Carol Viall owned an independent bookstore in New Jersey, and her husband owned Lime Crest, a mining company with marble quarries that also sold lawn and garden products and construction materials.

Based on Tweed's success in New Jersey, the Vialls asked their daughters to join them in the business. Stottlemyer, who now manages the Henrico County store, developed an operating plan. Lazay created an advertising plan for the new location.

The family chose the Richmond area because Stottlemyer, a graduate of Randolph-Macon College, lived in the area. "Richmond was much like other cities we liked such as Nashville [Tenn.] and Charlotte [N.C.] that have their own personalities," Paul Viall said.

Stottlemyer always wanted to be involved in the family business.

"I didn't want to move back to New Jersey, so when the opportunity came to open a store here, it was perfect," she said.

Paul Viall admits that when Stottlemyer first told him about The Shoppes at Westgate as a possible location for the shop, he was skeptical.

"Short Pump Town Center was open, but this was a vacant lot," he said. "Kate was convinced that this was the right place and we became convinced. It was risky when we did it."

The fall 2004 opening of the final stretch of state Route 288, connecting Chesterfield County to western Henrico, brought new customers to the area.

"This was the only area in Richmond where you have Route 288, I-64 and I-295," Stottlemyer said. "We are accessible to all parts of the city. We also pull from other parts of the state."

Independent manufacturer's representative Mary Stewart Mitchell sells to Tweed -- and she's a customer.

What she likes best about the store is its emphasis on customer service. "They make you feel so at home. They are nice and accommodating."

Tweed borrows from the homelike retail template the family created at its New Jersey shop. Furniture, for example, is used instead of shelving to display products.

"Over the last five years we have established our own identity," Stottlemyer said. "We have more gifts and less furniture than we had in New Jersey."

The model proved successful in Henrico. Sales have grown more than 20 percent in the shop's first four years.

"We are still optimistic that we will have a sales increase this year," Paul Viall said about the 2009 results.

The Vialls sold the New Jersey store -- it remains open but is licensed to operate under the Tweed name -- in 2008 after moving the company's headquarters to Henrico to focus on building Tweed into a national brand.

A 2006 case study by a team of graduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University's showed that the Tweed brand, which includes its gift bag and logo, was well-recognized by Richmonders.

"The people at VCU recommended we build the brand strategy on both our name and our bag," Paul Viall said.

The family hopes to finalize Tweed's trademark rights in November and, at the same time, begin a new e-commerce Web site. They plan to expand the store's brand recognition through the licensing of the store name to other operators and also marketing products using the Tweed brand.

"In order to keep our personal feel, at this point, we are focusing on our store in Short Pump and our e-commerce Web site," Stottlemyer said.