My Biz: Kalona business specializes in food container replacement lids

KALONA — A conversation about missing food container lids has turned into a growing business — shipping about 600 plastic lids out each week.

Mary Dunn, one of three founders of the Lid Store and More in Kalona, was frustrated when she couldn't locate plastic replacement lids for her Pyrex glass dishware.

'My brother, Robb Flagg, is an entrepreneurial type and wanted to know more about this problem and if others were having it,' she said. 'The more people we asked about this, the more we realized that almost everyone who uses higher-end glass storage containers has this similar problem.'

The flexible plastic lids are prone to warping or can get lost, she said. But the manufacturers don't sell separate replacement lids.

So three years ago Dunn, her brother and their friend, Emily Pettijohn, launched an online lid replacement store. The group started by selling the replacement lids on eBay. Today, it carries a variety of Pyrex and Anchor Hocking lids, she said, and the company is constantly expanding its inventory.

'Robb is our idea guy, Emily is our business person who puts the legs behind it, and I'm the content provider for our marketing and sales,' Dunn added.

Dunn said the company wanted to sell more than Pyrex, and added Anchor Hocking was the other big competitor, so they began buying lids from the company and selling those as well.

'We were selling enough of their lids that last year they contacted us and asked us to be their exclusive provider of lids to Canada,' she added. 'It wasn't worth their time for the amount of shipping and customs and so forth, so they asked us if they could just ship us their lids instead.'

Dunn said the company started in her basement, where the three did everything themselves 'the hard way.' As the business grew, they hired 3 part-time employees to man the warehouse and handle the inventory and shipping.

A web media consultant also helps with the multichannel venture that includes eBay, Amazon.com and the company's own website.

Pettijohn, an MBA candidate at the University of Iowa, handles many of the corporate functions for the small business such as forecasting, budgeting and payroll, and serves as liaison with the company's accountant and lawyer.

The threesome is always keeping an eye on its competitors and looking for that next product that might lead to expansion.

'We've piggybacked off a very successful name brand with the Pyrex,' Flagg said. 'And while that will always be the core to our business, we are looking at expanding our own product type of line that is native to us that can add the same value.'

Dunn agreed.

'It's about finding that one common household thing that is not yet capitalized on,' she said.

'If there's one thing I've learned in this process, it's that there's always an idea.'

l Know a company that's been in business for more than a year and would make an ideal 'My Biz'? Contact Chelsea Keenan at chelsea.keenan@thegazette.com

AT A GLANCE

• Owners: Mary Dunn, Robb Flagg and Emily Pettijohn
• Business: The Lid Store and More
• Address: 1385 Nutmeg Ave., Kalona
• Phone: (888) 300-8915
• Website:

  www.thelidstoreandmore.com