2009 December, 4th

Mihaela Lica

Whitney Wreath in Machias, Maine is one of those companies that are synonym with Christmas and the holiday’s spirit. The company founder, David Whitney, made Christmas wreaths since he was a teenager. Back then he sold them from the back of a pick-up truck. Today, he owns the biggest mail order Christmas wreath company in the USA, according to a Fox News report. Whitney Wreath has a new contract with L.L. Bean, a company specializing in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. Like Whitney Wreath, L.L. Bean offered Christmas wreaths every year, and now even more, as the new partnership means more business for Maine, more jobs, a even a great PR boost for both companies. L.L. Bean and Whitney Wreath expect a sales boost without precedent this year.

“Whitney Wreath has done a great job ramping up this business. He hires a lot of local folks. It’s part of their culture. They love the jobs,” said L.L. Bean spokesperson Carolyn Beem.

“We operate out of 9 different facilities. We’re building a new facility which will give us much greater efficiency and capacity to be able to compete, not just on a local level but, throughout the country,” Whitney said.

With an unemployment rate of 10% in Washington County, no wonder that Whitney Wreath is celebrated by the media today. The deal with L.L. Bean created about 250 jobs in the county, and the response from the local community was tremendous according to Whitney:

“Absolutely fantastic, the people of the area are just so happy for us they’re sending us thank you notes, they’re sending us flowers, they’re thanking us for doing this and to make sure this business was going to stay in Washington County. That’s very important.”

The new jobs, some just seasonal, are just part of Whitney Wreath’s brilliant PR campaign. The company also announced that it will donate 20% of the proceeds coming from the sales of its Original Christmas Wreaths to the National Autism Association.

Whitney Wreath also sells wares and wreaths on the home shopping channel “QVC” and via their own company catalog and website.

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About the Author

Mihaela Lica is senior partner at Pamil Visions PR and editor at Everything PR. She is a widely cited authority on search engine optimization and public relations issues (BBC News, Force for Good, Reuters and others), with an experience of over 8 years in online PR. Mihaela writes occasionally for SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, and other online publications. Follow Mig on Twitter or send her an email at mig [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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