Three years ago, Cathryn Bothe, president and majority owner of Bothe Associates Inc., came up with an idea that would transform the Kenosha-based precision machine tool shop founded in 1950.
Bothe Associates, with 32 employees, produces surgical tools, components for hydraulics, pieces used in railroad tracks, manifold blocks, stems and seats used in flow controls, and many other machined products.
“In the job shop business, there’s always the blessing of abundance or the curse of not enough work,” said Kent Werner, chief executive officer of Bothe Associates. “My dad (Werner Bothe, founder of Bothe Associates) spent part of his time looking for something compatible because if you build a product you can at least build inventory. It was a quest for him. He came close a couple of times but never was able to put it together.”
Cathryn Bothe, Kent Bothe’s wife, found that product while she was knitting at home.
“I was grumbling about why I couldn’t have a better point (on one of my needles),” she said. “There was no great high quality needle out there. Kent said he would take it and see if he could make it better.”
Bothe Associates’ employees spent the next year working on knitting needles – developing multiple points, lengths, diameters and several styles of decorative caps on the end of the needles. Its CNC machines, high speed lathes and Swiss machines used for precision machining were used to create needles that were more precise than anything else on the market, Cathryn Bothe said.
“Different people use different styles (of needles) and there was never a tool that addressed that,” she said. “Because knitting is a very tactile thing, we have people who are very passionate about one of our three points (needles) and they will not buy another one.”
Two years ago, Cathryn Bothe created Signature Needle Arts, a company based around the knitting needles. Signature is based out of Bothe Associates’ offices and all of its products are created there, and many of the company’s managers are shareholders in Signature. The company is separate from Bothe Associates and does not have any employees now. However, Signature will need its own employees in the next year or two, Cathryn Bothe said.
Most knitting needles that are available through large chain stores, hobby shops or specialty stores are made in China and sell for a few dollars per pair. Signature’s needles sell for about $30 per pair, but customers are willing to pay for quality.
“We have a customer at Bothe who makes analytical equipment and their philosophy is that they’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment and it should look beautiful,” Cathryn Bothe said. “And these same employees (that make that equipment) are doing the finishing on our needles.
“We’re taking something that’s made offshore on a massive scale and dialing it back to medium scale, treating it as an actual product, treating it as its own wonderful tool.”
Signature’s needles were first sold at a knitting and needlecraft trade show about two years ago – and the company is seeing dramatic growth. Sales of its needles have increased 210 percent from one year ago, which has helped maintain a level of business at Bothe Associates despite the down economy.
“At the end of the fiscal year, Signature is going to be 15 percent of our sales,” Cathryn Bothe said. “(Without Signature) we would be down.”
Signature’s products are sold through retail stores and at trade shows. The company also takes orders through its web site from all over North America, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the Philippines and other countries.
Social media has also helped drive the continuing demand for Signature’s products, said Daniella Rosenthal, human resources manager at Bothe Associates who also handles much of the online marketing for Signature.
“There is a web site called Ravelry, a knitting social media site, where people talk about what they buy and what they like,” she said. “And there is a whole Signature needle lover’s group there.”
Signature entered the knitting market two years ago making only straight needles – available in 12 different diameters, three lengths, with three different tips and three different caps. It recently introduced double-tipped needles used for knitting scarves, shirt sleeves and socks. The company’s double-tipped needles are available in nine diameters and four lengths.
Later this year, Signature plans to introduce circular knitting needles, which are used for larger projects. The company’s circular needles are in research and development now, Catherine Bothe said. Straight and double-point needles are a much smaller portion of the market, and circular needles could dramatically increase demand for Signature’s products.
“There is an immense piece of our people who are begging us to make (circular needles),” Cathryn Bothe said. “This (growth) has been astonishing. That will be explosive (once we introduce them).”
Signature Needle Arts/ Bothe Associates Inc.
6901 46th St., Kenosha
Industry:
High end knitting needles/precision machine shop
Employees: 32
www.SignatureNeedleArts.com
www.Bothe.com
