Get Wrapped Up with MailWraps® Creators, Sue and Curt Todd
By Jane Singleton

The story of the Todd's business, Magnet Works Ltd., is an American dream come true. While working fulltime as a registered nurse and raising a family, Sue began the search for a marketable craft that would allow her to be a work-at-home mom. Quite by coincidence while decorating their home for Christmas 1988, Sue shopped for a product that would dress-up the family's mailbox. She couldn't find anything of the quality she wanted.

"All I could find in the stores was a cheap trash-bag-type pull-over thing," Sue said. "I wanted something high-quality and couldn't find it." So she thought about making some type of mailbox cover herself...something that she and other people could change seasonally for the holidays.

Curt spent about twenty-dollars on materials to make a prototype. They decided on flexible vinyl for durability, but couldn't think of a good way to make it stick to the mailbox. Velcro didn't last and self-adhesive tape left marks on the box when the cover was removed.

The Todds were frustrated. But one evening as Curt went to the refrigerator for ice cubes, he noticed a flexible magnetic calendar attached to the freezer door. "I grabbed it and ran outside," Curt explained. "It was 20 degrees and I was out there in my slippers wrapping a calendar around our mailbox." At that moment, MailWraps® magnetic mailbox covers was born and life for Curt and Sue hasn't been the same since.

The first couple of years were very difficult. "We believe that the product was a little bit ahead of its time in the marketplace," Curt said. "The commercial market didn't seem ready to accept our product and we failed the first time out."

Then Curt turned the business over to Sue and it became the basement operation that she had originally dreamed of. That's when Magnet Works, Ltd. began to slowly but surely grow into the company it is today. "That was the year (2000) we finally developed the printing capability that allowed us to reproduce fine art rather than illustrations on our mailbox covers. And once we began licensing popular artists, our wholesale business really took off. So in January 2001, we moved the business out of our basement and soon grew into the 18,000 square foot facility in south St. Louis County that we are in now," Curt said.

"The popularity of our products has far exceeded our expectations. We thought at one time that the business would contribute to college educations for our children, but we had no idea it would support our family and some other people. I guess this is pretty much a self-taught operation," Curt said. "I had some training in printing and marketing, and actual experience that helped on the business side of things, but learning about the gifts industry and how to break into the industry-that was quite a learning curve for us. We had to self-teach that. But from the beginning we hired marketing professionals who successfully projected the image we wanted. They produced our catalogs, our web site, that kind of thing. We didn't cut corners there."

In addition to the changeable mailbox cover designs (MailWraps®) Magnet Works, Ltd. produces decorative metal yard signs and wall plaques (Yard DeSigns®) also with changeable collectible art. Creating the Yard DeSigns® concept was a natural progression from the highly successful MailWraps® mailbox covers. Yard DeSigns® help customers make an outdoor statement. The unique product line features metal yard stakes and wall plaques with over 130 interchangeable magnetic "faces".

Dog breed designs are clearly driven by customer demand. The Todds tried doing a generic dog design, but found that dog lovers are usually very breed specific. "By far," Sue said, "of the breed designs we carry in our mailbox covers, our two Lab designs are the best sellers. We're considering adding a chocolate Lab adult dog design similar to the yellow and black Lab designs we have. Our Lab designs are definitely the most popular of the breeds."

Designs selected for Magnet Works products are very much request, market and freshness driven. They feature art from over a hundred of the most popular artists in the home décor industry. Sue and Curt introduce new designs twice a year in their January and July catalogues-around thirty-to-forty new designs each time. They generally like to produce a minimum of five hundred to a thousand pieces of each design at a time and they receive submissions from artists around the country on a daily basis.

The Todds do intend to add more dog breeds to their line of products. But one limitation they face is finding good outdoor dog art. They don't want to put indoor art outside on a mailbox. "We can find good Boston Terrier art, for example, with a fireplace scene or with the terrier sitting on a pillow. But we are looking for art with outdoors elements. We are always looking for good outdoors art, but we're not sure what the next breed of dog will be," Curt said.

With Robert Abbett, Sue said they were fortunate to find the outdoor elements they were seeking. Abbett paints sporting dogs and has a collection that includes the Labs, but also Brittany Spaniels, Irish Setters and other breeds, all consistently done with outdoor backgrounds. "We also have designs from Pollyanna Pickering. We went to her mostly for the smaller breeds; we not only like the great job she does on the dogs, but she puts them in outdoor settings and that makes her a particularly good artist for us."

Recently Magnet Works Ltd. received an amazing testimonial from a customer in Florida about the durability of the MailWraps® product.

"Our mailbox and support post, although leaning from "Charley's" onslaught looked as attractive as ever since our Magnet Works wrap was securely in place."

From a simple idea: a high-quality decorative mailbox cover that people could change seasonally, the Todds have built an outstanding family-owned business. "Our business is family-owned, family-run, and family-staffed," Curt said. "We have thirty-five employees and probably one-third of them are related in some way. Another third are neighbors or share a church or a social function. We have a lot of relatives working here, a lot of neighbors, a father/son who are in our printing department, also a mother/son in printing/shipping, two sisters, my Mom works here, Sue's Mom works here, my sister and niece both work here. They want to work here because of the relaxed fun and family environment that we work hard to maintain. The heart of our business is our employees."

Another perk of being a Magnet Works employee is the freedom to choose a working schedule week by week. About half of Magnet Works employees are women who work part time in the assembly area. Due to the nature of their work, these women can set their own working hours based on other obligations they may have in a particular week. The company sets the number of hours per week; assembly employees set the times. Not surprisingly, Sue and Curt have a waiting list for these jobs.

Although Sue and Curt don't actually create the art they use in designing mailbox covers and yard signs-they license an impressive group of artists to do that for them-Sue and Curt put the whole package together and offer heartwarming and happy creations that enhance the curb appeal of homes across America.

All Labs is proud to offer Lab MailWraps® and Yard DeSigns® in our store. They are easy to use, interchangeable and durable. We even offer an adapter kit for plastic mailboxes. Let these Labs be the first to greet your visitors without jumping on them!