From Beanies To Bestsellers: How Acorn Kids Grew A Seasonal Niche Into A Year-Round Brand Build Your Profitable Product Business With Mel Robbins Thelotco Business podcast

Content provided by Melissa Robbins. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Melissa Robbins or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

build your profitable product business with mel robbins thelotco business podcast »
From Beanies to Bestsellers: How Acorn Kids Grew a Seasonal Niche into a Year-Round Brand

10h ago 46:34

MP3•Episode home

Send us a text

A Melbourne winter. A real gap in kids’ wool headwear. A founder with a finance brain and a product heart. That is how Acorn Kids began. In this episode, Fiona Savaris shares how a winter beanie line turned into a year-round headwear brand that stockists love, why wholesale still wins for volume, and how she just launched swimwear by leveraging prints, suppliers, and existing demand. If you care about cash flow, indent, stockist relationships, and direct-to-consumer growth, you will love this founder story.

Learn how to use indent orders to protect margins and place smarter production bets
See how a wholesale-first strategy can fuel longevity and repeat stockist revenue
Steal the exact assets that help retailers sell more hats, beanies, and swim hats
Hear the behind-the-scenes of a category expansion into swimwear that makes sense

The spark: Fiona could not find warm, design-forward kids hats in Melbourne. She starts winter-only with wool beanies, mittens, and scarves made through a women’s collective and Brunswick production.
The shift: Summer hats unlock smoother cash flow. Parents need hats for daycare and kinder. Kids lose hats. Heads grow. DTC sells summer all year.
The engine: Wholesale remains the volume play. Disciplined launch timing, no constant discounting, and shared lifestyle photography keep stockists profitable.
The system: Present ranges on Brandboom, take indent orders, back winners, manage MOQs for healthy margins, and hold core SKUs for reorders.
The expansion: From swim hats to swimwear. Same brand prints. Specialist makers. A product customers already asked for.
The team: Two full-time. Outsourced specialists for Klaviyo email marketing, Meta ads, photography, design, and sales support. Agents plus trade shows to reconnect face-to-face.
The real life: Growth is not linear. Family health, market swings, and pacing. How to keep building without burning out.

Timestamps
00:00 Origin story in Melbourne. Wool headwear that kids actually want to wear
06:30 Winter-only to summer hats. The cash flow unlock
12:15 Wholesale first. Protecting stockists and full price sell-through
18:20 Indent explained. Sizing curves, MOQs, and backing winners on Brandboom
24:05 Printing your own fabrics. Reusing prints across styles
27:00 New swimwear launch. Why timing and supply chain mattered
32:40 Who buys and why. Repeat purchases and lifetime value in kids headwear
3

Support the show

I'm Mel Robbins! from @thelotco
Want a Roadmap to Building a Profitable Product Business head here for directions!
Looking for ongoing support to grow your brand and sell more of your product? Join the Product Business Growth Club here.
Find more details at https://www.thelotco.com.au/
Business Coach for product-based businesses. Teaching creative business women how to build a scalable and profitable million-dollar product business whether a physical Retail store or Brand.
Over 25 years as a Retail and Wholesale Strategist (Sales and Marketing for Brands).
Grab my 8 step checklist on building a profitable product business.

167 episodes

#Entrepreneur #Business #Marketing #Melissa Robbins #Small Business #Product Based Business #Business Coach #Female Business Owner #Starting A Business