Motel Deluxe

Nine years ago, Michael Schultz and Douglas Duncan left their respective jobs in the housewares and furniture industries to start their own company. They called their Brooklyn, N.Y.-based venture Motel Deluxe, after a motel in Schultz's hometown of Salmon, ID. "We knew it was a name nobody would ever forget," Schultz says.

The company initially offered home furnishings, plus a small collection of handmade greeting cards that were decorated with flowers sewn beneath a layer of silk organza. The high-end retailer Barneys New York was the first to order these cards, which helped convince the partners that they had made the right career move. Demand for the cards soon topped that for home furnishings, and the line was pared down to only stationery-related items.

Today, Motel Deluxe is known as one of the more trend-oriented stationery resources in the U.S. In fact, it is among just a handful of stationery companies selected to exhibit in the juried "Accent on Design" section of the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) held each January and August in New York City. "Motel Deluxe's combination of innovative, exciting stationery lines and unique, imported gift products indeed merited its acceptance into 'Accent on Design,'" states Leslie Nathan-Street, the NYIGF's show director and sr. vice president of George Little Management Co., the show's producer.

Motel Deluxe's collection of handmade, all-occasion greeting cards currently spans about 300 SKUs, with suggested retail prices of $6 to $9. Three–dimensional design elements give the cards a stylish bent; such elements include dried or pressed flowers, grosgrain ribbons, and vintage materials such as hand-dyed velvet and metallic trim. Glass marbles with images and words embedded underneath decorate one series of cards. Fabriano paper – imported from Italy and featuring a distinctive handmade look - is used to produce many SKUs in the line. Schultz says the floral motifs appeal primarily to 40- to 65-year-old consumers; while cards with a vintage appearance attract consumers in their mid-20s to late-30s.

All Motel Deluxe products have an "edge"; for instance, the company's colorful, message-printed matchbooks feature suggestions for successful home entertaining ("Everyone glows by candlelight") or relay humorous birthday messages ("Always use one candle for every year, even if it's a fire hazard"). Another strong seller is printed pencils – sold in tubes of eight – that feature corresponding messages and decorative motifs in themes such as "love," "cooking/kitchen" and"holiday." "Edgy, unusual writing implements are getting a lot of attention these days," Schultz observes. The company plans to expand the collection with colored pencils, chalks and crayons packaged in simple craft boxes.

"No matter what, the look is very clean and simple rather than 'froufrou–y,'" Schultz asserts. "It's what people want now." He says that Motel Deluxe's
revenues have doubled since adding other trendy lines to its merchandise mix over the last three years. One such line is the Paris, France–based Les Papiers Jean Rouget, which is known for its "mix–and–match" combinations of stationery in bold colors (e.g., hot pink notecards paired with bright orange envelopes) as well as for its inventive use of borders (e.g., dots made to appear as if sewn onto the paper). Motel Deluxe imports 400 SKUs from Les Papiers Jean Rouget; among the most popular designs in the collection are square, oblong and extra long (41/8" x 81/4") cards. New are "Duo" notecards and enclosure cards that utilize "duplex paper" – featuring one color on one side and another on the other. Among the popular color combinations offered are lilac/lavender and green/yellow. Retail prices for the Les Papiers Jean Rouget line range from $15 for a box of 25 enclosure cards to $50 for a box of 50 sheets of writing paper.

Schultz and Duncan derive much of their design inspiration from the European market. They attend several European trade shows each year, including Maison Objets in Paris every February and September, and Paperworld in Frankfurt, Germany. They will also attend Spring Fair in Birmingham, U.K., this year."One thing we learned in our previous businesses was that it all starts with textiles," Schultz says. "Bedding colors that are popular in Europe will show up about nine months later in the stationery and paper realm, and then move across the Atlantic. By going to the European shows, we stay ahead of the curve."

Its emphasis on "stylishness" has helped Motel Deluxe cultivate a base of almost 2,000 retail accounts across the U.S. Independent stationery stores that cater to fashion-forward customers and individuals with eclectic tastes comprise the bulk of accounts, but Motel Deluxe product can also be found at such high–end chains as Saks Fifth Avenue, Origins, Papyrus and Kate's Paperie, as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, CA, and the American Craft Museum in New York City. The company also sells to retailers in Switzerland, England and Germany.

To maintain control, Schultz and Duncan prefer to handle sales themselves, although they do use a few independent reps for the sale of cards. Trade shows are a significant sales outlet; in addition to the New York International Gift Fair, the company exhibits twice a year at The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishing Market – where its booth occupies a space in the "High Design" section, as well as at the National Stationery Show each May in New York City.

On the agenda for Motel Deluxe is adding imported wallpaper, silkscreen–on–canvas handbags and other products that complement its stationery lines. Schultz and Duncan also intend to open a store of their own in New York City. Like Motel Deluxe's product, it will have an entirely trendy focus.