HFN - The Newsweekly of Home Product Retailing
June 4 2001

HFN "A New Start for Sasaki Brand" by Alison Zisko

"It's been a battle. But good design and pricing will eventually lead us to the type of business we want to do. Consumer interest is there. We include an 800 number [in our national consumer advertising] and we constantly get calls from consumers. We know the consumer is out there for the product. It's just getting it placed more, "Valerie Berman said.

During its heyday, Sasaki generated roughly $14 million in annual sales. More recent estimates place sales around the $9 million mark, and it is Sasaki's goal to return the brand back to its previous high, not only in sales but in style.

Tage Strom, Sasaki's product development manager, defines Sasaki's overall look as one with a modern edge and high style, yet affordable. "There's something of a void in that market," said Strom.

Paula Zanger, who has designed more than a dozen dinnerware patterns for Sasaki, said Sasaki is a fashion-forward, whimsical company that's all about pattern and color.

Sasaki benchmarks itself against brands such as Mikasa and Dansk, but Zanger said she believes it is competing with Crate & Barrel in terms of style.

Berman said Sasaki is for consumers who want something new, fresh and different. Although the company is targeting young brides, it acknowledges the self-purchase consumer with a particular design aesthetic.

During the spring tabletop show, it showcased two new patterns: Solstice, designed by Amy Clavelli, in brilliant shades of red and orange, and Periphery designed by Julie Cohen, executed in a cooler palette of green and blue. Accompanying new art glass and crystal and complimentary flatware completed the look.

Sasaki, like most tabletop companies today, is putting great stock in its gift line. John Falzer, Vice President sales manager, calls giftware a "sleeping giant."

Sasaki is also continuing its design tradition, constantly seeking new designers with a modern point of view and an urbane edge. It is currently working with architect Robert A.M. Stern, who is designing a collection of dinnerware, glassware and flatware due out this fall.

So far, the retail reaction to Sasaki's revitalization efforts has been mixed. Some retailers said that while they are anxious to see the company succeed and will happily support Sasaki's existing business, they have yet to see anything truly remarkable of late.

Ross-Simons carries the Saskai patterns that turn fast and will special order those that they don't, said Mary Morris, Vice President of merchandising, but "We haven't seen anything new that's very exciting. We're not actively pursuing new patterns."

Bob Brouman, owner of specialty store Fragile in Atlanta, has carried Sasaki for 14 years, and he contends that the brand is beginning to return to its roots. The first year after the Salton/Block purchase was a difficult one for Sasaki, he said. He sow no change in its design direction, and deliveries were spotty. But deliveries have improved, and the new designs are starting to fulfill the company's original design vision. "I was impressed when I saw the new products," Brouman said. "It was the old Sasaki. We now have seen deliveries pick up." If things continue that way, Brouman said, Sasaki can be a contender in the tabletop department.

Retailers are not as interesting as they once were and are taking far fewer risks with new product, said Zanger. "I think that is the challenge for Sasaki: to get the major department stores to recognize that there is a consumer base that is young at heart. Sasaki ids definitely trying to answer that. That is what timeless design is."