The Entrepreneurs: Boomerang Kids consigned to success

Owners dream of using franchises to take a big slice of Canada’s thrift-store pie

Montrealgazette.com
March 17, 2014
By Francois Shalom

Most parents have been there. A biggish pile of old kids’ stuff - clothes, toys, books, playpens, cribs, strollers - clutters up space but won’t be used again. What to do?

A garage sale? Donation to the Salvation Army? Kijiji? Head down to a local second-hand store and make a few bucks? Mothball it for the next generation?

Krista Thompson and Heather Meek hope to lure you to Boomerang Kids, their consignment-drop variation on the used-item concept, especially if the merchandise is in good condition.

The two Ottawa business partners and former IBM colleagues acquired Boomerang Kids in 2007 from a pair of Ottawa moms who were ready to sell after founding the two-store chain in 1994.

Their goal is lofty. “A national chain,” Thompson said this week. “That is our grand vision.”

That vision took them to St-Hubert last week, where Kristy Thesenvitz is opening the first franchise of at least 15 outlets planned for the greater Montreal area in the next few years.

A Boomerang Kids customer for seven years after her first child was born in 1999, Thompson said she and Meek discussed franchising Boomerang Kids stores, quickly deciding that the model “was scalable.”

“So we approached the owners and bought the two stores.”

Meek and Thompson each managed one store but soon added another outlet for each.

In late 2012, after learning the ropes and upgrading the mini-chain’s business-technology system with the help of a $50,000 federal grant, they sold the four outlets to franchisees and added five other locations, including their first in a large urban area, Vaughan, near Toronto. They also branched out, opening two Rikochet outlets, a similar concept for adult clothing.

Thompson has worked in Quebec and speaks some French. One of the first franchises opened in Gatineau.

But the planned rollout of 15 shops in metropolitan Montreal, including the West Island, Vaudreuil, Laval and the South Shore over the next few years and eventually more across the province and in Ontario, will be the big test.

“Our average store sales so far is about $700,000 a year,” Thompson said. “But that’s mostly in Ottawa, a city of 900,000 people. I’m looking forward to being in a larger-density market to see what we can achieve. Our goal is having million-dollar stores.”

That will give Boomerang a better idea of whether it can compete nationally with larger players like Once Upon a Child, Value Village/Village des Valeurs or Renaissance/Fripe-Prix thrift stores.

Once Upon a Child, based in Minnesota, and Value Village of Bellevue, Wa., did not return calls.

Genevieve Codere, owner of Tralala, a used-clothing shop on Fairmount St., called Boomerang “massive” compared with her single store. But she doesn’t feel threatened by their expansion into her turf.

“I’ve been there for seven years and I have an established customer base of 300 from the neighbourhood,” Codere said. “This business touches on very personal issue for women who come in with their kids’ clothing. Sometimes, they tell me a story about each item. It can take hours.”

Renaissance Fripe-Prix CEO Pierre Legault said that Boomerang Kids comes into a crowded market of “seven or eight Village des Valeurs, 10 Salvation Army outlets, 10 Fripe-Prix and dozens and dozens of small independent stores” in Montreal.