[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 19 (Monday, February 6, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S346-S347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING KING ARTHUR FLOUR
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I would like to bring to the Senate's
attention the recent accomplishments of King Arthur Flour of Norwich,
VT.
Established in 1790, King Arthur Flour has stood the test of time as
the oldest flour company in the United States. Over the years King
Arthur Flour has continued to raise the bar as an outstanding Vermont
company. Most recently the company redesigned its website to allow for
easier mobile phone and tablet use, placing it in the Hot 100 feature
of Internet Retailer magazine. This continued focus on technology is
propelling King Arthur Flour into the future as a cutting-edge company
to watch.
As the company has continued to grow and succeed, it has managed to
stay true to its Vermont roots. King Arthur Flour has flourished as an
employee stock ownership company (ESOP), a model of business
stewardship that highlights a strong commitment to the company's
workforce and the local community. I also appreciate that King Arthur
Flour has been a long-time participant in the annual Taste of Vermont
event in Washington, where we bring the finest Vermont products to the
Nation's capital.
I wish King Arthur Flour the best of luck as it continues to grow
both its web presence with new technology and its physical presence
with a major expansion project set to open this summer. I ask unanimous
consent that a December 22, 2011, Burlington Free Press article
highlighting the company's achievements be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Burlington Free Press, Dec. 22, 2011]
A (Web) Recipe for Success
(By Stephen Mills)
Norwich.--King Arthur Flour is America's oldest flour
company, established 1790, a year into George Washington's
presidency.
So how does a company that makes flour and bread--an
ancient art--win national awards and acclaim for its business
practices in the 21st century?
Quite simply, the company has become the toast of the town
among the technocrati of e-commerce.
With the economy flagging, many companies turned to
enhanced e-retailing to capture more sales, offering free
shipping and additional savings for shopping online. King
Arthur Flour is no different, relying heavily on its website,
kingarthurflour.com, to sell its products and services that
can also be found at its ``Norwich, Vermont bakery, school
and store''--a sponsorship refrain often heard on Vermont
Public Radio, which also calls it ``home'' for its company-
sponsored studio there.
But to maximize online sales, King Arthur Flour redesigned
its website to allow its offerings to be displayed on any-
size screen, including phone, tablet or desktop. And it did
so without having to write exotic or expensive software
programs for each device.
Company online services director Halley Silver explains:
``Our previous site used a template that was 780 pixels wide.
We have moved to a template that adapts its layout from 320
pixels wide to 992 pixels wide. This is called a responsive
website design. It's not a mobile application, but rather a
mobile-friendly website.
``We have built a new website that works well across mobile
devices and tablet computers, as well as desktops and
laptops,'' Silver added. ``We have seen strong growth in
mobile and tablet traffic to our site, and also realize that
having a usable site while shoppers use their phones in the
supermarket and tablets in the kitchen is critical to our
success online.''
The result has been explosive mobile sales growth for the
company by shoppers using hand-held smartphones and tablets,
up 14 percent in September compared with just 2 percent for
the comparable month last year. The sales spike was 5 percent
from tablets such as iPads, and 9 percent from mobile phones.
The company's success compares favorably with online sales
figures just out for all retailers showing a 15 percent
increase over Thanksgiving, the nation's busiest shopping
period, compared with last year, and even better than those
for mobile devices, which increased 7.4 percent, according to
data from IBM Benchmark.
Company CEO Steve Voigt said: ``I have long been a big
supporter of online efforts and it is very encouraging to see
all the success which our customers and we enjoy by our
efforts to-date. . . . Baking seems custom-made for the
online community; a little online chat, then a little offline
baking.''
Net royalty
Voigt is demur about the company's financial success,
noting figures for the private company are ``confidential.''
But according to the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, King
Arthur Flour reported online sales of $15.15 million in 2010.
Voigt did say the company has $96 million in annual revenues
for the most recent fiscal year.
Internet Retailer magazine, a leading tracker of e-
commerce, picked the company for its Hot 100 feature in the
December issue. The Hot 100 are not ranked but represent the
nation's the most interesting innovations in online retailing
this year.
Under the article heading, ``Mobile Drives Design,'' the
publication notes: ``Founded in 1790, baking ingredient and
bakeware retailer King Arthur Flour is both the oldest brand
in this year's Internet Retailer Hot 100 and one of the most
forward-looking.''
The article added, ``King Arthur's `mobile first' approach
to Web design exemplifies an elegant solution to Web
merchants'' growing challenge of designing for multiple
access devices.''
Internet Retailer also has asked Silver to be a featured
speaker at its annual Internet Retailer Web Design and
Usability Conference 2012 in Orlando, Fla., in February. It
refers to her as King Arthur's ``secret ingredient'' who
``mixes common sense with tech know-how.''
As Silver said she will explain in the session she'll call,
``The Mobile-First Approach to Web Multi-Platform Design,''
one key element in the redesigned site is the use of a Web
design language called CSS3 (cascading style sheets) that
presents images and product information differently depending
on the visitor's device and browser.
``For a small company, King Arthur Flour is a very
innovative retailer,'' magazine editor Don Davis said in a
phone interview. Of Silver, he said, ``She is someone who is
as innovative as anyone at Amazon for the cool stuff they're
doing.
``One of the things that's so impressive is that she's
extremely knowledgeable about the intricacies of e-commerce
and Web technology, an area that's constantly changing, while
at the same time has a grasp of her company's business
goals,'' Davis said. ``It's not that often you find
someone fluent in the language of bits and bytes who also
understands the overarching importance of the bottom
line.''
How does Silver feel about all the attention she's
receiving?
``I still am somewhat amazed that a company selling flour
and ingredients online can be seen as an inspiration and used
as an example to other online retailers,'' she said.
Building visibility
Other online innovations Silver has brought to the company
include:
two website redesigns.
a 55 percent increase in completed checkout sales after
adding items to the cart by streamlining the process and
offering further discounts for additional items.
tools that help website designers face the difficult
challenge of displaying multiple fonts while sticking with a
site's branded look.
the launch of the Bakers' Banter Blog.
This year, 32 videos were also posted to the website to
help customers better-appreciate the ``farm-to-plate''
relationship with mostly Midwestern farmers who supply much
of the grain for King Arthur's flours.
Born in Cleveland and raised in New York City, London and
San Francisco and eventually Vermont, Silver was a math major
at Wesleyan University. She moved through a number of posts
centered on Web technology, including the former Internet
shopping
[[Page S347]]
search portal Excite@Home, and Internet security firm
VeriSign. She also built and launched Hoofpicks.com, a free,
Web-based, equestrian-event management service.
She joined King Arthur Flour in 2007 because of her passion
for baking. ``Cooking and baking have been a hobby of mine
since a very early age,'' she said. ``To be able to combine
that passion with building for the Web has been a wonderful
experience.''
What else is in the offing for the company online?
``We hope to expand our presence in the mobile and tablet
space, and continue to improve all of our offerings online,''
she said.
One new development is a Google ad about the company,
filmed in October that began airing Nov. 27. A longer version
of the ad is available only on YouTube at: http://
www.youtube.com/watch&?v=nzjcA2a
WILo&feature=channel_video_title.
Collectively, Silver and the 255 workers at the employee-
owned business have won a host of awards that include: the
2011 Vermont Governor's Award for Outstanding Workplace
Safety in the Large Business category; the 2011 Magnus Opus
Awards for its bi-monthly newsletter, The Baking Sheet; the
2007 Business Innovator of the Year Award from the Hanover
Area Chamber of Commerce; the 2006 Outstanding Vermont
Business Award; the 2006 Best Place to Work Award; and the
2006 Better Business Bureau Local Torch Award for Excellence.
The company is also one of the nation's few to attain B-
Corporation status because of its beneficial balance between
``people, planet and profit.''
Some of the many ways it does so is through donating to
local food shelves within a 100-mile radius; the Life Skills
Bread Baking Program for 155,000-plus students nationwide,
teaching them to bake bread themselves and for the hungry; a
corporate volunteer program that provides paid time-off for
employees as volunteers in the community (in 2010, 123
employees volunteered 1,075 hours); annual employee
participation in Green Up Vermont Day; Winterbake, when
employees bake bread for donation to local food pantries
annually on the Martin Luther King, Jr. day of service; a
food-diversion program that donates old baking products to
local farmers for animal feed or composting; the use of eco-
friendly certified cleaners in all company facilities and
available to employees for home use at $1 per bottle; and
participation in the Bike/Walk to Work Day program.
Living history
The company has come a long way from its origins. King
Arthur Flour began in 1790 as the Sands Taylor & Wood Co., a
retailer of specialty flours and cookbooks and baked goods,
based in Boston.
Founded by Henry Wood, primarily an importer and
distributor of English-milled flour, the business grew
quickly. A partner, Benjamin Franklin Sands, took over the
company in 1870, and in 1886, the firm introduced a premium
brand of flour.
At that time, a partner attended a performance of the
musical ``King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table''
that inspired the name of the new product, King Arthur Flour
(and its current logo). The brand was introduced at the
Boston Food Fair on Sept. 10, 1896, to great fanfare.
Subsequently, during ownership changes, retail flour sales
declined, and the company expanded into commercial baking
equipment in the 1960s, and other retail products, including
a line of coffee and prepared pie fillings. In 1978, the
company sold its other interests and returned to a core flour
business, and moved to Norwich in 1984.
Today, new things are cooking at the company.
The Norwich site is undergoing massive changes, with the
expansion of the bakery (to 3,400 square feet), baking
education center (3,400 square feet), store (4,700 square
feet), and cafe (2,200 square feet with seating for 75). The
offsite administration offices and recipe-testing center will
also be housed under the same roof, and continue to be
affectionately known as Camelot. Also offsite nearby is the
manufacturing center, known as Avalon. Begun in June, the
work will be completed in July. Artist renderings of the new
digs, work progress and historic detail about the company can
be found at www.kingarthurflour.com/ourstore/
renovations.html.
The company could certainly use the space, officials said.
Business was booming one day a few weeks ago, with shoppers
packed into the store all day long, looking for seasonal
comestibles, while the cafe did a brisk trade in fresh
pastries and coffee. ``This is our peak season, with
Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas,'' public relations
coordinator Terri Rosenstock said.
Across the courtyard, bakers were busy making bread, pizza
and croissants, and the baking school was fully booked for a
pastry class.
``We have a lot of people with pie-crust and yeast anxiety
right now,'' quipped the instructor.
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