Success is child’s play

All together now: Thank you, Little Mermaid.

The doe-eyed Disney sea princess has helped Irv Zakheim sell millions of sturdy little dishes and cups that make dinner a little more palatable for even the most discerning toddler.

“You could say we owe a lot to Muriel,” Zakheim said as he offered a tour of Zak Designs’ sprawling headquarters in Airway Heights.

Zak is a Spokane success story that just keeps getting better. The business may have started in Los Angeles, but the innovation and workers that are turning it into a quarter-billion-dollar force is all Spokane.

Zak has gone from a niche company with $15 million in sales a dozen years ago to an operation that rang up $152 million worth of whimsical dinnerware last year.

Batman, Dora, SpongeBob, Darth Vader, Big Bird, Pee-wee Herman and scores of other popular characters appear on acrylic plates, sippy cups – virtually anything that has to do with enticing children to eat their vegetables and drink their milk. The company boasts a 95 percent market share of children’s dinnerware in the United States.

But like American pop culture, Zak has global reach.

The company has sales offices in nine countries, and children in Asia, Europe and South America can beg their parents to buy small plates graced by Spider-Man.

Blending the popularity of Hollywood with durable, high-quality products has earned Zak valuable shelf space at large retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target.

“We just make sure we do it right and people keep buying,” Zakheim said.

He grew up in Los Angeles as Disneyland opened and said he was enamored with showbiz.

His first business venture, however, was selling puka-shell necklaces on the beaches of Hawaii.

Sales were so strong that he began importing the necklaces from the Philippines.

After that first foray into the import business, he leveraged that experience, a dose of entrepreneurial go-get-‘em and his fondness for show business into Zak Designs.

His business clicked in Los Angeles; meanwhile, Zakheim married Angie Long, a Lewis and Clark High School graduate.

When she wanted to settle in Spokane, Zakheim, who owns 90 percent of the privately held firm, looked into moving the company and liked what he discovered: instant cost savings.

Among them were a cheaper cost of living, no state income tax, a trimmer payroll, little traffic and lower expenses for utilities.

“Spokane has worked for us,” Zakheim said.

He also credits a strong relationship with Washington Trust Bank and a solid employee base.

Indeed, Zakheim said the company is poised to hit $250 million in global sales within three years.

He’s betting on a new line of dinnerware for adults. The pieces look as if they’re made of ceramic or glass. The dinnerware will be sold in stores such as Crate & Barrel, just the sort of national retailer that has Zakheim convinced the bold move into a new product line can be a success.

Workers manufacture the dinnerware at factories in China. Everything is then shipped to Spokane where it’s inspected, repackaged and shipped.

Like the movies, sometimes Zak misses.

The company took a hit when the Hunchback of Notre Dame flopped.

Sales of Star Wars I items also didn’t reach what Zakheim now calls unattainable expectations.

“There was just no way to live up to the hype,” said company spokesman Chris Cogley.

The Little Mermaid licensing agreement was basically given to Zak. Disney actually awarded Zak a license for the Dick Tracy movie and asked Zakheim to create a line of products for a lesser-known film it wanted to promote starring a mermaid named Muriel.

Zakheim turned that opportunity into a sales blockbuster.

Workers in Airway Heights continue to package and ship Little Mermaid plates, cups and other items.

All the activity makes Zak the leading importer in Spokane County.

“We’re on a roll,” Zakheim said.