StarTribune.com:
Winona’s 140-year-old Watkins Inc. is stirring up a healthy batch of growth with a newfangled mix of natural and organic products and expanding distribution at Target and other major retailers.
The natural and organic push harkens back to the home-remedy days of founder J.R. Watkins, who launched the company in 1868 by mixing evergreen and red pepper extracts to create his Original Liniment, still for sale today.
The mass retail strategy, however, might be less familiar to the original Watkins, who once sold his wares door-to-door from a horse-drawn buggy. The company later turned to traveling salesmen before building one of the country’s biggest direct-selling networks.
Together, increasing retail sales, last year’s new lines of natural home and personal care products and strong direct sales have proven to be a growth tonic of sorts. The combination is driving the best results the company has seen in the past two decades, according to J.R. Rigley, vice president of sales and marketing.
Logo from Watkins