Macy's first minority business training program leads to successful vendor partnerships
NEW YORK — Five minority- and women-owned businesses have successfully completed the inaugural Workshop development program to become official vendors of Macy's. The five enterprises include Bella Tunno, Big Girl Cosmetics, Cenia, Kane & Couture and Lamik Beauty, and all have begun selling products at select Macy’s locations and/or on Macys.com.
“The incredible success of our first Workshop is evidenced by this amazing group of enterprises that have now graduated to vendor status within Macy’s community of suppliers. Our goal with the Workshop has been to create a viable pipeline of businesses that will ultimately bring unique products to our stores and online storefront,” said Shawn Outler, Macy’s group VP multicultural development, fashion forecasting/operations and leased businesses. “We are extremely pleased to see this goal come to fruition so soon in the life of this long-term initiative. It speaks volumes about the impact of the coursework and the insight that was shared with these participants. They took the information they learned to heart, put it into practice and are now seeing their efforts come full circle with their first order of goods from Macy’s.”
The Workshop at Macy’s is a four and one-half day intensive training course developed by a consortium of experts from Macy’s learning and development; Macy’s multicultural merchandising and vendor development; Babson College, the nation’s leading business school for entrepreneurship; and with select Macy’s merchants and vendors. The specially-designed business development curriculum is aimed at minority- and women-owned retail businesses that are poised to succeed on a larger scale, but need real-world business practice information and perspective on large-scale vendor relationships to move to the next level and sustain growth. The goal of this annual program is to help create a pipeline of viable enterprises that will grow to become successful partners within Macy’s own vendor community. First held in the spring of 2011, the inaugural Workshop included 22 businesses that ranged from makeup/skincare companies to confectionaries, home textiles and ready-to-wear designers. The Workshop at Macy’s just recently wrapped its second program which featured 17 new businesses. The Workshop team will continue to follow current and past participants as they progress through the opportunities outlined during the program for potential graduation to Macy’s vendor status.
The new Workshop vendors include baby accessories from Bella Tunno, unique color cosmetics from Big Girl Cosmetics and Lamik Beauty, body- and fit- conscious dresses from Cenia, and fun doggy accessories from Kane & Couture.