Bill Kenerson & Deb VenmanWe mailed our first Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont catalog in April of 1993 to a list of approximately 5000 people. It was a single page with only eight fabrics displayed. In contrast, our current printed catalog has 24 pages, is mailed nearly half a million bow tie aficionados each year, and those first eight fabrics have been replaced with more than two hundred.
We produce nine catalogs each year, each one of which features 20 to 30 new fabrics. Those same choices plus a wide selection of Web-Only ties are available on our web site so you can place orders at your convenience, day or night.
If you would like to have advance notice of these new offerings and Web-Only Specials, sign up for our email newsletter, The Beau Ties Bulletin, and we'll keep you fully informed. To keep up with the all latest company news, take a look at our News pages.
For the first six years of our existence, we operated out of an ever-increasing number of rooms in our house, and for several of those same years both Bill and Beau Ties Ltd. co-founder Deb Venman kept their day jobs, Bill as head of the Addison County Economic Development Corporation and Deb as partner in a local law firm.
It wasn't long before the demand for Beau Ties made this a full time job, and the business outgrew our house. Read more about the history of Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont in the November 2005 Catalog Success magazine cover story (847k pdf).
In 1999 we moved into a new purpose-built facility with the sewing, shipping and telephone operations at the same location. We have included a small retail space so that those of our customers who wish to make the trek to Middlebury, Vermont can see, touch (and buy!) any of our current ties and many of our past offerings.
During the workweek you can also watch our ties being made by our talented group of Vermont craft workers (get directions and drop by during your next visit to Vermont) - or you see can our seamstresses in action by veiwing our Beau Ties Ltd. Virtual Tour online. As a member of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce, we encourage you to visit their site at www.midvermont.com to learn more about the area if you're planning to come visit us.
In the beginning our tie fabrics were limited to those that we were able to find in the New York garment district and various fabric shows. Although we have been very happy with most of our selections, we were sometimes forced to discard a particular pattern because the fabric was not up to our requirements or the design was printed in such a way that we could not use it cost-effectively.
We are very pleased to have been able to expand our selection to offer an array of choices that include both licensed and exclusive designs in addition to our "store-bought" fabrics.
As always, every standard Beau Tie carries our personal, no-explanation-necessary guarantee. If you are not satisfied with your tie for any reason, please return it at any time and we will replace it, exchange it for another size or design, refund your money, or give you credit to be used for future orders. There is no time limit on this guarantee.