Entrepreneur Vibeke Stølen Andrup has after five years managed to turn Alpaca Society into a profitable business. Stationed at Lysaker, the company specializes in designing knitwear and clothing for women, men and childrenmade of alpaca wool.
The operating income for the Alpaca Society has been in the red recent years, but in 2009 this changed to a turnover of nearly 5.6 million kroner and an operating profit of 1.1 million kroner.
– The fact that we have finally begun to make money is a result of many factors. We have worked on the original idea of creating classic, timeless and versatile designs made of alpaca materials, plus we hit the market very well with the collection we had in 2009. Now we have reached a good level in regards to retailers, and making ends meet, Stølen Andrup says.
Alpaca Society has about 70 retailers in Norway. Fifteen of them are situated in Oslo.
– We do not plan on expanding with more retailers, but we are working on building the organization and focus even harder on our products. It takes time to build something from scratch, but we are starting to obtain a certain reputation, and we know that customers like to come back to buy more products, Stølen Andrup.