Droll Yankees Inc.
Owner: Betsy Puckett, president and CEO
Type of business: Maker and seller of bird feeders
Location: 27 Mill Road, Foster;
manufacturing plant,
109 Connecticut Mills Ave.,
Danielson, Conn.
Year Founded: 1969
Employees: 25
Annual revenue: WND
Droll Yankees Inc. wants to do more than make bird feeders. It wants to save the world.
The company’s motto is: “Just feed the birds and make a world of difference.” When you feed the birds, the Droll Yankees catalog and Web site explain, more baby birds survive. Those birds grow up to eat more insects, reducing the need for insecticides, and thus making the environment healthier for all.
The company’s founder, the late Peter Kilham, didn’t start out with such big ambitions. He was an artist, entrepreneur and designer who offered his services to fellow inventors, bringing their ideas to life by creating prototypes.
Betsy Puckett, now owner and president of Droll Yankees, said Kilham invented the tube-style feeder while working on a project for a Rhode Island School of Design professor.
The project incorporated plastic tubing, Puckett said, and “as his wife tells it, [Kilham] was looking out the window at the birds, and he went down in his workshop, and a little time later came up with a plastic tube with some cardboard fittings in it.”
“He made ports from cardboard,” Puckett continued, “and inserted some metal dowels. The birds went right to it. He made the first hundred [feeders] by hand.”
Kilham found that his tubular design kept seed dry and allowed different feeds to be set out for different bird species. He went on to patent his product and put it into production, selling it by mail order. Eventually, Kilham brought on one distributor, who worked with a firm in New Jersey that dealt directly with gift stores.
“In 1978, he [hired] a salesman to go cross-country to bring on more lawn and garden distributors,” recalled Puckett, who joined the company in 1977. “But Peter did not really want the company to grow. He liked it when it was small and ‘Mom and Pop.’ He liked the artistic and creative part; he did not really like the business aspect.”
Such was Kilham’s disdain for marketing, she said, that “it took me two years” to talk him into packing the feeders in colored boxes, rather than brown corrugated boxes.
Then, within two months of his death, in 1992, the patent for the tubular feeder expired.
Other companies began creating knockoffs – creating a new urgency to promote the brand.
“We realized we could lose everything he had built,” recalled Puckett. “We began becoming more aggressive. We created a large-format catalog and started going to trade shows. We started advertising.”
Droll Yankees feeders are not cheap; most are priced in the $20 to $40 range, and some range upward of $100. So last year, the company introduced a lower-priced line of plastic feeders, called “Bird Lovers,” with suggested prices that start below $10.
“There’s a niche in the market that requires a price-point product, and Droll Yankees realized that was a hole in their offerings,” said Jennifer Masiello, the company’s marketing manager. “Our intention is that they will buy it and get introduced to bird feeding.”
(For devoted bird feeders, the company’s offerings include the “Ultimate Pole System,” for hanging multiple feeders; a 20-port “Finch Flocker” retailing for $37.99; and a series of squirrel-proof feeders, including the motor-driven “Yankee Flipper,” listing for $124.99, that’s billed as the “hottest-selling” feeder in the industry.)
In January, Droll Yankees launched its “Just Feed Birds and Make a World of Difference” campaign (www.justfeedthebirds.com). The company also supports environmental groups that work to protect wild birds and their habitats. And, through its “School Dollars” program, it donates a portion of profits to fund nature-education programs.
The company still follows Kilham’s philosophy of high quality and functionality, Puckett said, and each item comes with a lifetime warranty.
It has a loyal customer base, and a loyal group of vendors and distributors.
And, in keeping with its values, Droll Yankees never sells its products through discount retailers. In the catalog, Puckett explains that discount retailers “have so much power over our economy, our trade deficit, our standard of living and your livelihood,” and even buying from manufacturers who sell to such retailers makes the retailers more powerful.
Looking toward the future, Puckett said she hopes to further expand Droll Yankees’ offerings.
“We are working on breaking into the pet industry, and developing feeding products for people who have caged birds,” she said. “It will be a big venture for us in 2007.”
