Looking back, Karen Rzepecki, founder of Erie-based ReCap Mason Jars, wishes she had savored her early success just a bit more.
After all, her business, which makes and markets reusable plastic lids and spouts that replace the two-piece metal lids on Mason jars, was classified as an Amazon top-seller by the end of her first year in business.
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Rzepecki said she didn’t realize what a big deal that was at the time.
Ten years later, the 60-year-old Venango Township woman, whose company has sold upwards of 1 million units, is determined to fully appreciate her recent success.
And there is reason to celebrate.
Reaching a deal
After being invited twice in the past to make a personal pitch to a Walmart corporate buyer, ReCap was invited back again a few weeks ago, this time for a virtual meeting that Rzepecki conducted from her kitchen.
The third time proved to be the charm.
Details haven’t all been finalized, but the world’s largest retailer has agreed to buy her line of products, which include pour lids, strainers, sprayers and pump caps.
It was different this time, Rzepecki said of his pitch meeting.
She felt confident and comfortable. And thanks to the past guidance of the Home Shopping Network, where she honed her sales pitch for television appearances, she knew exactly what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it.
And ReCap and Walmart were able to agree on a price.
Rzepecki, whose products start at $8.99, said she never considered having her products made in another country, even if she could have saved money.
“Our price point is (based on) made in the USA,” she said. “On tooling alone, I have probably spent $1 million. I can’t compete with China on prices.”
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Rzepecki said that it means something to her that Erie is one of the largest centers for plastics manufacturing in the United States.
“Am I going to offshore it? No, it’s not going to happen,” she said.
A different mindset
Aside from being able to come to terms on a price, something else was different this time. Before, Rzepecki said, she found herself talking herself out of coming to terms with the Arkansas-based retailer.
She wondered, for instance, if it would change her company’s relationship with existing retailers.
“This is the first time we have really wanted to make it happen,” she said. “We want this now. We want to make it work.”
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A Walmart executive seemed to share that enthusiasm in a written statement.
“We’ve met so many amazing small business owners through Open Call over the years, and this year is no exception,” said Scott Gutche, senior director of US manufacturing. “We’re so excited about reCAP’s new product and that they will be joining the Walmart supplier family.”
A plan for the product
Nothing is certain yet, but Rzepecki hopes the product will be stocked in all the chain’s more than 4,700 US stores.
While she doesn’t know when her products will appear on Walmart shelves, she’s expecting it will be several months.
“Spring would make sense to me,” she said.
Rzepecki said she does have an idea how Walmart is thinking about marketing her products, which are made in Erie under contract with the Plastek Group. Products are packaged and shipped from the Keystone Business Services Center at 3823 W. 12th St.
Rzepecki said she had expected might place ReCap products next to the canning cars, but the giant retailer has another idea.
“They have these freestanding displays they call Sidekicks, which are like a two-foot by four-foot display with clips that they can put anywhere. They see our product as a good impulse buy,” she said. “We are super excited about it. It really allows us to brand it. We have this branded Sidekick that we can showcase our products.”
How COVID changed things
Rzepecki, who has four other employees aside from herself — that’s in addition to the work done under contract at Keystone and Plastek — said the pandemic has shaped and changed her business.
“COVID had an impact on us, both good and bad,” she said.
Because many retailers were slow or even closed during the early days of the pandemic, ReCap switched to selling mostly direct-to-consumer as opposed to wholesale accounts.
The company was able to maintain sales figures, but it had to spend more on advertising.
“It was almost a wash,” she said. “But it was more expensive to sell directly to the consumer so it was less profitable.”
Now, after a tentative agreement has been reached with Walmart, Rzepecki expects the emphasis will shift back to wholesale accounts.
Because manufacturing is contracted to another company, Rzepecki doesn’t expect employment at her company to increase dramatically.
But she does expect it will change things for a company that grew, according to the company website, from the founder’s quest “for a solution to shake, pour, and store homemade dressings directly from a Mason jar.”
Rzepecki, who worked for years at GE Healthcare, said it was never really her dream to build a big company.
“But having an idea that I could create something and bring it to fruition was always something I wanted to do,” she said.
The idea quickly turned into a successful business. ReCap was profitable within three months of its launch from a $17,000 Kickstarter campaign.
At the time it was happening, Rzepecki said she simply took it in stride.
“I think overall in the last 10 years I have learned to appreciate what we have,” she said. “I had some early success that I didn’t appreciate enough. I think you have to go through some hard years to look back and really appreciate the good times.”
And she feels good about the future, too.
“I feel our quality is great and we are going to outlast our competition,” she said.
Jim Martin can be reached at jmartin@timesnews.com.