Photograph by Robert Scheer
Entrepreneur Linda Winterburn puts a Tabby Tag on her cat, O.J.
Pet Project
Linda Winterburn tells the tale of how her cat's disdain for traditional labels turned into the Tabby Tag business
By Cristy Shauck
Linda Winterburn's clients call her "Ms. Tabby Tags," a reference to the identification tag for cats she designed and is marketing successfully in the United States.
The Sunnyvale resident developed the tag a few years ago when she became worried about losing her cat, Squeak.
"Squeak kept trying to pull her [tag] off and would get it caught in her mouth. I cut off three collars because I was afraid she would strangle on them in her efforts to remove them," says Winterburn, president of Winterburn Enter-prises.
"I wouldn't let Squeak out without a tag because I was concerned about her getting lost," she remembers. "A previous cat had disappeared. We never knew what happened to her; that was real hard."
Winterburn used correction fluid to cover up her name on an address label, then she put in Squeak's name and a phone number and taped it to the cat's collar.
"That was the first Tabby Tag," she says. "After searching for a safe collar for two years, I gave up and designed my own. I never imagined it would turn into a full-time business."
With research performed by husband Dan and help from an accountant, Winterburn wrote a business plan for a company that would produce her ID tag, and then pitched her idea to friends in late 1989. They responded positively.
"When we put together an actual package, we invited 18 people to the meeting and 17 invested. We had done our homework; we knew how much things were going to cost, the location of the printer, the sources for the materials."
The ID tag Winterburn invented consists of a self-adhesive address label and a waterproof, clear-plastic tube that shrinks when heated. The pet owner fills in the ID information on the label, attaches it to a standard 3/8-inch collar, slides the tube over the label and collar, then shrinks the tube to fit with a blow dryer.
Winterburn Enterprises today sells three products: single-pack Tabby Tags, bonus-pack Tabby Tags, and Ferret Finders, which are ID tags for ferrets. The company is currently developing three different sizes of dog tags, Winterburn says.
Tabby Tags started off with $19,000, a good portion of which went toward patent trademarks and attorney fees. The display box and four-color business cards at a cost of $350 per box of 500 chewed another hefty chunk out of the initial investment.
"The box lid pops up and becomes a display," Linda explains. "We provide 36 tags per box. Each package has a little hole so the tag can be hung from a rack. On the back of the package is a space for people to fill in and mail to us if they want the name to be computer-generated at no extra cost."
Winterburn, a former motivational speaker, demonstrates how the product works at pet stores. "Not only do I tell people about the importance of the ID, I talk about general care, neutering, spaying and general checkups. I guess that's the teacher coming out in me."
Winterburn says the company currently fills hundreds of Tabby Tag orders a week, selling thousands of tags a month. The company has sold a total of about 500,000 to date, she says.
Humane societies in 43 states, including a new customer, the Humane Society of Kauai, Hawaii, stock Tabby Tags. "We offer it at special prices to shelters. Many of them send every adopted pet home wearing our product," she says.
The product has been featured in Cat Fancy, Pet Companion, Doris Day's Animal Guardian, and the Humane Society's Shelter Sense. In this month's issue of Pet Product News, retailers in the western United States identified Tabby Tags as the product that brought them the highest return on investment in December -- the height of the Christmas selling season.
"We sell about a dozen a week," says Moe Olfat, manager of Monette Pet Shop on Mary Avenue. Premium Pet on El Camino Real also sells Tabby Tags and participated in the Pet Product News selling survey of retailers.
Shoppers can find the product in some unique places. For instance, the Toth Family Winery in Healdsburg, which sells wines under the Tomcat and Magnificat labels, displays a Tabby Tags box in its tasting rooms.
Winterburn and relatives packaged the first 5,000 tags. Now she sends them to Morgan School in Los Altos, which serves individuals with autism and other neurological disorders. "They do an outstanding job. And I have a great time going in once or twice a week to pick up orders or drop off packaging," she says.
In order to focus her time exclusively on Tabby Tags, Winterburn gave up her job giving seminars at corporations. "I would like to see Tabby Tags on cats everywhere. It's exciting to get comments from people telling how Tabby Tags has helped their cats. We sent a tag to the White House for Socks and received a nice letter of acknowledgment," she says.
"The Humane Society of the United States has done a fantastic job of supporting us," she continues. "We will be working with them on disaster-preparedness programs in the future. I would like to see Tabby Tags for dogs and other animals."
Along with Squeak, dubbed Chief Executive Cat, three other felines--Sir Oscar James, Shadow and Buffy--reside at the Winterburn residence. In 1995, she developed and tested a stretch collar with a Velcro fastener. With paws-up approval from her furry research assistants, Winterburn put her new collar on the market at the end of summer. The first shipment of 500 collars sold within an hour, she says. The company that produces the collars just ordered 60,000 yards of fabric to make more, according to Winterburn.
"I think it's an excellent idea and quite functional," says veterinarian William Bazlen of Serra Veterinary Hospital on Fremont Avenue. "No tags hang down to get lost or catch on something. If the collar gets caught, it will break away without strangling the cat."
Winterburn says she would eventually like proceeds from the company to help support environmental or educational programs for the public.
"Having had cats for more than 20 years, I have a pretty good idea of what their needs are," she says.
Tabby Tags retail for $3.99 individually and $6.99 for a bonus pack of three. The tags are availabel in many pet stores, veterinarian offices, humane societies and some gift stores.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 28, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Cristy Shauck,
Special To The Business Journal
Linda Winterburn wanted a safe ID tag for Squeak, a cat she had rescued from the Palo Alto Animal Shelter.
The feisty little tortoise shell had pushed four successive collars over its lower jaw, then nearly strangled itself trying to get rid of a dangling ID tag.
As a temporary measure, Ms. Winterburn, 48, filled out an address label and taped it to Squeak's collar.
After a two-year search in pet stores, veterinary clinics, pet magazines and catalogs for a non-dangling ID tag, Ms. Winterburn designed Tabby Tags.
The product consists of a self-adhesive address label and a waterproof, clear-plastic tube that shrinks when heated. The pet owner fills in the ID information on the label, attaches it to a standard three-eighths-inch collar, then shrinks the tube to fit with a hair dryer.
In 1990, with help from her husband Dan and an accountant, Ms. Winterburn formed Winterburn Enterprises Inc., of which she is president. She and Mr. Winterburn had pitched the idea to 18 friends, 17 of whom invested in the company.
"I had worked with a number of small businesses as a motivational speaker and knew the importance of being organized," Mr. Winterburn said. "[So] we knew how much things were going to cost, the location of the printer and the sources for the materials."
The company began with $19,000, a good portion of which went toward the cost of patent trademarks and attorney fees. Other startup costs included four-color business cards at $350 per 500 and the product display boxes.
While demonstrating how the product works at pet stores, Ms. Winterburn, a former school teacher, often talks about general care, neutering, spaying and general checkups.
A year ago, she tested a stretch collar with a Velcro clasp on Squeak and the other family cats: Shadow, Sir Oscar James and Buffy.
With paws-up approval from her furry research assistants, Ms. Winterburn put the first shipment of 500 collars on the market in the fall.
"We sold out within an hour," she said.
The Los Altos-based company now sells four products--single-pack Tabby Tags; bonus packs containing three Tabby Tags; a tag-and-collar combination; and Ferret Finders, ID tags for ferrets.
The Tabby Tags and Ferret Finders are $3.99 each; the bonus packs and tag-and-collar combinations are $6.99 each.
Packaging is done by adults at the Morgan Center in Los Altos, which serves people with autism and other neurological disorders. When she visits, Ms. Winterburn is called "Ms. Tabby Tags."
Tag sales average more than 2,000 a month, with collars running close behind.
"We expect collars to outsell tags by the end of the year," Ms. Winterburn said.
Tabby Tags are sold in pet stores, veterinary clinics and Humane Societies throughout the country and in Canada and Australia.
"We offer it at special prices to [animal] shelters," Ms. Winterburn said. "Many of them send every adopted cat home wearing one."
The product has been featured in Cat Fancy, Pet Companion, Doris Day's Animal Guardian and the Humane Society's Shelter News.
In the February issue of Pet Product News, Tabby Tags was listed as the product that brought the highest rate of return on investment to retailers during December, normally a slow time for pet product sales.
Meanwhile, Tabby Tag stockholders have given Squeak the honorary title of Chief Executive Cat.
"She attends all stockholder meetings and supervises the day-to-day operations of the company," said Ms. Winterburn.
Her goals include marketing Tabby Tags worldwide and designing a dog collar in three different sizes.
Cristy Shauck is a Sunnyvale-based freelance writer.
©
1996 American City Business Journals Inc.
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