Nov 3, 2009

Henrico store Tweed looks to build on strong identityBy Joan TupponceTimesDispatch.com

Whenever Ava Deal needs an engagement gift, she knows exactly what to buy: Mariposa cocktail napkin holders from Tweed.

Deal started shopping at the store when it opened in The Shoppes at Westgate in 2004.

“I go there for almost every gift I need. The selection is a combination of whimsical and traditional. It’s unique,” she said. “It’s an upbeat, fun experience.”

Paul and Carol Viall, along with daughters Kate Stottlemyer and Elizabeth Lazay, decided to open the store in the shopping center across from Short Pump Town Center because of the area’s rapid growth.

“We looked all over Richmond,” Stottlemyer said. “We focused our research in Carytown, the Libbie and Grove area and Short Pump. We felt like Short Pump was where the growth was and also the need. There were stores similar to ours in those other areas.”

The concept for the store originated in 2003 when Carol Viall opened Tweed in Sparta, N.J. That store, like its Short Pump counterpart, carries a wide selection of home accents and gifts.

Before Tweed, Carol Viall owned an independent bookstore in New Jersey, and her husband owned Lime Crest, a mining company with marble quarries that also sold lawn and garden products and construction materials.

Based on Tweed’s success in New Jersey, the Vialls asked their daughters to join them in the business. Stottlemyer, who now manages the Henrico County store, developed an operating plan. Lazay created an advertising plan for the new location.

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