Basil's soft goods growing strong
Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, August 22, 2005
Rome, Ga. — the amount of pillows, bed coverings, trims and table runners purchased by R.J. Fricks' co-owner Ramona Fricks for her design clients, Greg Fricks saw a business opportunity.
Ten years after the brainstorm, Ramona Fricks is indeed the largest customer of Basil's, a pillow and bed covering producer housed on the second floor of the Fricks' pre-Civil War building on Rome's main downtown street, a building that houses both the R.J. Fricks showroom (first floor) and the Fricks' home (third floor).
Greg Fricks and Bill Morris, a friend since childhood, combined to start up Basil's to focus on the high end and on territories that encourage the mixing of business and pleasure —southern California and Florida.
"These are territories I don't mind traveling to," Fricks said.
Basil's customers include Robb & Stucky in Florida, Treasures in California, Lillian August and Storehouse.
The manufacturing division has been "a real benefit to our retail furniture business," Greg Fricks said. "Basil's lets me go into some of the better stores in the country."
The benefits go both ways, as well, since R.J. Fricks has given Basil's a retailer's sensibility. The company stresses uncommon customer service.
"When Treasures couldn't deliver for one reason or another a while back, we FedExed the goods to the consumer and followed up with a phone call," he said. "We back up our retail partners because we know what it's like (and) what can happen."
Fricks is the company's designer, which takes him to High Point twice a year to pick fabrics at Showtime and twice more to show in Market Square at the furniture market. Morris, meanwhile, oversees production and crunches all of the numbers.
"It's a great partnership," Fricks said.
Basil's has plenty on the boards to drive growth. The company will show at a boutique hotel supply exhibition in Miami in September, a new market for the company. Fricks also is developing a pillow and bed covering assortment with Habersham that will debut at the October market in High Point.
And the company just unveiled a new line called A Rivé, which was developed by Basil's designer Ashlie Harper.
