Introduction:
Roxanne Quimby was sitting in her president’s office of Burt’s Bee’s newly relocated
manufacturing facility in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company has moved from central
Maine to Raleigh, North Carolina there were different factors affecting the move. Quimby
was in a dilemma if she had made the right decision or she had to move back to Maine.
Our job is to analyze the situation and give some suggestions as to what Miss Quimby
could have done.
Quimby’s Background:
Roxanne Quimby had one sister who worked for AMEX, another sister who worked for
Charles Schwab, and her father worked for Merrill Lynch. Her father who was a Harvard
business school graduate and a failed entrepreneur gave her an early entrepreneurial
education. By the time she graduated Quimby worked on her father’s numerous
entrepreneurial projects and sold her own hand-made crafts.
In the year 1975 Quimby married her boyfriend and moved to Guilford, Maine. They
bought 30 acres of land at $100 an acre. In 1977 Quimby had twins, and life style became
a burden. Her marriage broke when the kids were 4.After that she and her children lived in
a small tent and she made almost $150 a week by working at local flea markets-by buying
low and selling high. She also held jobs waitressing. In 1984 Quimby began to question
her lifestyle and realized that she had to make a change.
Burt Shavitz’s Background:
Like Roxanne Quimby, Burt Shavitz had also dropped out of life in the early 70s. A New
York native and ex-photographer for Life and New York magazines, Shavitz lived in an 8
by 8 house (previously a turkey coop) on a 20-acre farm in Dexter, Maine, which he
purchased in 1973. Shavitz, a beekeeper with 30 hives, sold honey off the back of his truck
during hunting season. He earned maybe $3,000 a year, which was exactly enough to pay
property taxes and buy gas for his pickup truck.
The Start of Burt’s Bee’s:
Quimby and Shavitz met in 1984. Burt Thought Roxanne about bee-keeping and Roxanne
discovered Burt’s large stockpile of bee wax. Quimby suggested making candles with the
beeswax. She took her hand-dipped and sculpted candles to a crafts fair at a local high
school and brought home $200. She remembers, “I had never held that much money in my
hand.” Burts Bees was born.
Quimby and Shavitz pooled $400 from their savings to launch a honey and beeswax
