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Looking Fit Magazine
June 2002 Vol 17 No 6
Page 76 - Distributor Connection
DESERT VIKING
Distributing Company
A Salon's
One-Stop Shop 
Portland Oregon based Desert Viking strives to be a one-stop shopping center for its customers. To do so, it carries everything a salon owner needs: beds, lamps, acrylics, appointment books and more than 50 lotion lines. In 12 years, Desert Viking has grown from a 900-square-foot office building to a 45,000-square-foot warehouse, with plans for still more expansion. The company's goal is to represent the best. The result is excellent customer service and long-term relationships with clients. John Murphy, operations manager, took time out of his busy day to speak to LOOKING FIT® about Desert Viking Distributing's past, present and future.
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Q:
How did Desert Viking break into the industry?
A: Desert Viking Distributing has been in the indoor tanning
industry for more than 12 years. in the beginning, we supplied
local salons with repairs and thought it would be a good idea
to start offering them some of the products they needed to keep
their businesses running, as
well as other products they could sell to their clients, including
lotions. It was an uphill battle. It seemed as though if you
weren't established with manufacturers it was very difficult
to even talk to the people you needed to in order to get established.
We were hit with very large opening orders from the manufacturers
that actually would talk to us-orders so large that you had
to wonder what you could do to sell that much product. It took
a lot of work, but it is obvious that with the commitment that
was given to this project, we have become established as a leading
tanning products distributor.
Q: Did you experience any growing pains?
A: When we started, we were working out of a small office maybe
900 square feet. It wasn't long before we took over many other
offices in the same building. But we discovered it was inconvenient
working out of offices; a warehouse was really what we needed.
We found a warehouse that was more than double the space of
all our offices combined. The new facility had office space
and about 5,000 square feet of warehouse space. Before long,
that space was full. We heard the people leasing the ware-house
next to us moved out, so we took that space. We are currently
in our modern 45,000-square-foot warehouse facility, complete
with plenty of office space.
Q: What do you want industry newcomers
to know about Desert Viking?
A: If we had one message we would like industry newcomers and
actually anyone to know about Desert Viking Distributing, it
would be that we are a full-service tanning distributor. |
We are their one-stop shopping center. We have beds, parts,
lamps, acrylics and appointment books, and we stock more than
50 lotion lines. We have excellent customer service, and pride
ourselves on long-term relationships with our tanning customers,
whom we call partners.
Q: Which of your products are most popular?
A: In our lotion lines, we have several products that stand
out this season. Emerald Bay has a very hot-selling product
in its Margarita Madness, and I think several reasons contribute
to its popularity: It has a nice fragrance, has some glitter,
looks attractive and has a very reasonable price point. Hoss
Sauce Outlaw 6XXX is selling very well this year with its intense
tingle, great fragrance and strong packaging. Then, of course,
we are eeing a lot of repeat orders on California Tan's new
Pure Chocolate, the Step 2 version of Hot Chocolate. In addition,
we sel! a huge number of tanning bed acrylics. I think salons
like the fact that we maintain an inventory of more than 500
in stock and ready to ship. They don't have to wait. We also
sell a lot of lamps, parts and other salon supplies.
Q: What is unique about your catalog?
A: Our 2002 full-color, 124-page catalog is nice. This year,
we went into a lot more detail about each product, giving our
salon customers a reference guide as well as catalog. Although
we carry many lines of products and a wide range of types of
products, we believe the motto we always have used says a lot:
"We Only Represent The Best."
Q: What plans does Desert Viking have
for the future?
A: Our plans for the future include even more expansion, more
advanced customer service and a strong emphasis on having what
the salons want and need in stock. We ship orders the same day
if we receive them before 5 p.m. Eastern time. |
Copyright 2002 Looking Fit Magazine |
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