ATLA — September/October 2011
Change Language:
The Radar Biz
A Gift Horse
Owner of the popular present company Mud Pie, Marcia Miller has a gift for everything—including business.
It started in 1988 with a handful of ceramic ducks, pigs and chickens—barely enough tchotchkes to stock a curio cabinet. The small pottery line she commissioned was made from molds and glazed to look like terra-cotta, so native Atlantan Marcia Miller blithely named her new project Mud Pie. A playful start to what would soon become a serious business venture.
“Remember the cherub trend?” she asks about the industry fad she jumped on early that helped propel her business.“Well, our [cherub] collectibles quickly became Macy’s No. 1 domestic product line,” says Miller, who realized every artsycraftsy hobbyist’s dream by building a Stone Mountain-based merchandising empire of eye candy from the ground up. The business now includes more than 4,000 fashion, baby and furnishing gift items.
Her products’ gift-readiness (they come with tags and wrapping) has made Mud Pie the go-to vendor for the busy shopper in search of the “adorably packaged and affordably priced present,” says Miller, who commutes from Sandy Springs to her manufacturing bases in China several times a year. “Our market is the upper-middle-class consumer who wants a tasteful gift reminiscent of Neiman Marcus without the sticker shock,” she says.
Miller, 55, grew up near Chastain Park, where she and her husband Mark, the CFO of Mud Pie, are busy relocating back to and decorating an English country house. Architect Peter Block describes their new home as “a boutique hotel for two with occasional visitors.” “We really don’t even need a kitchen because we eat out so much,” she says. Anis, Greenwood’s on Green Street and Circle Sushi are among her home-away-from-home, favorite local dining destinations.
Miller’s future home décor will reflect the sensibilities of Mud Pie: quirky and eclectic. “I won’t design something I wouldn’t like for myself,” says the avid shopper. “And I do not like tacky!”
Owner of the popular present company Mud Pie, Marcia Miller has a gift for everything—including business.
It started in 1988 with a handful of ceramic ducks, pigs and chickens—barely enough tchotchkes to stock a curio cabinet. The small pottery line she commissioned was made from molds and glazed to look like terra-cotta, so native Atlantan Marcia Miller blithely named her new project Mud Pie. A playful start to what would soon become a serious business venture.
“Remember the cherub trend?” she asks about the industry fad she jumped on early that helped propel her business.“Well, our [cherub] collectibles quickly became Macy’s No. 1 domestic product line,” says Miller, who realized every artsycraftsy hobbyist’s dream by building a Stone Mountain-based merchandising empire of eye candy from the ground up. The business now includes more than 4,000 fashion, baby and furnishing gift items.
Her products’ gift-readiness (they come with tags and wrapping) has made Mud Pie the go-to vendor for the busy shopper in search of the “adorably packaged and affordably priced present,” says Miller, who commutes from Sandy Springs to her manufacturing bases in China several times a year. “Our market is the upper-middle-class consumer who wants a tasteful gift reminiscent of Neiman Marcus without the sticker shock,” she says.
Miller, 55, grew up near Chastain Park, where she and her husband Mark, the CFO of Mud Pie, are busy relocating back to and decorating an English country house. Architect Peter Block describes their new home as “a boutique hotel for two with occasional visitors.” “We really don’t even need a kitchen because we eat out so much,” she says. Anis, Greenwood’s on Green Street and Circle Sushi are among her home-away-from-home, favorite local dining destinations.
Miller’s future home décor will reflect the sensibilities of Mud Pie: quirky and eclectic. “I won’t design something I wouldn’t like for myself,” says the avid shopper. “And I do not like tacky!”
Message