Gwen Hall, left, and Molly White are working together to keep You Regatta eco-friendly in Falmouth. Contributed / You Regatta
Promotional products company Logo Owl of Cumberland and customized products store You Regatta of Falmouth have merged with a goal of paying special attention to the impact they have on the planet.
You Regatta supplies customized products such as apparel, trophies and awards, and restaurant, yacht club and regatta supplies. Logo Owl, now operating under You Regatta, also customizes products for businesses and organizations.
Logo Owl’s Gwen Hall, now senior account manager of You Regatta, saw eco-friendly products start to take off when she started her company in 2008. When the economy tanked soon after, those products, often more expensive, became less desirable, but Hall was committed to them.
“When I started Logo Owl, I wanted to do only eco-friendly products,” Hall said.
She partnered with 1% For the Planet, a global network of businesses that work to fund environmental organizations, and she hopes to implement a similar program for You Regatta.
Molly White, a former SAD 51 fifth grade teacher, started You Regatta with her husband, Carter White, in 2007. After taking over the day-to-day operations of the business two years later, she has taken steps to to make You Regatta more environmentally friendly, she said.
“We work to make sure that we’re recycling everything,” White said. “We work with a lot of suppliers that are using sustainably sourced products and items that are made from recycled materials.”
Product packaging is all recycled or eco-friendly material, she said.
That effort is becoming increasingly important to clientele, Hall said.
“I’m finding that as younger marketers are getting into the ordering process, they’re demanding eco-friendly products,” Hall said. “It really says a lot about a business when they’re giving out eco-friendly products.”
These types of products are becoming more desirable, especially to younger generations. In the last two years since a study from First Insight was published, Gen X consumers’ preference to shop sustainably has increased by 42%, according to a report in Forbes magazine. Consumers from all generations are more willing to spend more for sustainable products, the report said.
The merger between You Regatta and Logo Owl gives the company an opportunity not only to expand in eco-friendly products, but also to improve their customer service.
Hall found that after 20 years of running Logo Owl from her house, her client base had grown too large to handle by herself. Last summer, she stopped into You Regatta, where she ran into White, who had been one of her children’s teachers. White said she had been planning to call Hall to discuss some sort of partnership when Hall walked through her door.
“It was like fate. Something aligned,” White said.
“Everything has just fallen into place really nicely,” Hall said.
You Regatta is located at 400 U.S. 1, Suite 3 South, in Falmouth.
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