KiwiCrate brings jobs to Lathrop,
creativity to life

May 25, 2017

By Nora Heston Tarte

LATHROP — As a parent, Sandra Oh Lin worked hard to
introduce her children to STEAM education. She had a passion for hands-on, fun
projects that encourage creativity and curiosity in kids, but found that with
her busy lifestyle it was difficult and time consuming to set up enriching
projects at home.

That’s when the idea for KiwiCrate was born – a monthly
subscription box service that brings the materials and instructions to complete
age-appropriate projects to consumers’ doorsteps.

“The idea was around creating a subscription service for
parents to receive products in the mail they could do with their children or
children could do on their own,” James Kim, Vice President of Operations at
KiwiCrate, said.

The company, headquartered in Los Altos, outgrew its Mountain
View facility in its first five years of operation, and executives began a
search for a new fulfillment warehouse.

The company chose a Lathrop warehouse near Ghiradelli’s that
is approximately eight times the size of the previous Mountain View facility
and moved in on March 1, fully transitioning operations to the site in April.

The industrial building in Lathrop will be used to complete
100 percent of the e-commerce businesses’ fulfillment services.

“The Central Valley had appeal to us because there are a lot
of warehouses there, a lot of fulfillment centers, businesses like ours,” Kim
said.

Kim also cited the area’s available workforce and cost for
its decision to move to Lathrop.

“We looked everywhere from Hayward to Union City, Tracy to
Livermore,” Kim said. “Frankly if I had not had experience with the Central
Valley I think it would have been harder for us to make the leap, that extra
30-40 miles.”

“Because of our location on the I-5 freeway, we are pretty
conducive to warehouses and logistics,” Rebecca Schmidt, AICP Director of
Community Development in Lathrop, said.

While Schmidt said warehouses don’t typically create a lot
of jobs in the area, Kim said the company is looking to double its workforce
before the holiday season, and almost 100 percent of the employees already
hired at the Lathrop facility are Central Valley residents.

In two to four years, Kim estimates that number will
quadruple based on year-on-year growth patterns.

Kim said finding qualified employees in the Central Valley
has proven easier for KiwiCrate because the area workforce’s specialties are
geared toward this line of work. The availability of labor is simply more
robust in the Central Valley than the peninsula, even if they do have warehouse
competition with large, nearby facilities like Amazon.

However, Kim points out that while the job types may be
similar, the companies themselves are vastly different. Amazon sells everything
to everybody, and KiwiCrate has a niche market.

The subscription boxes offer five different options (with a
sixth option slated to launch soon), the cricket crate for 0-2 year olds, the
koala crate for 3-4 year olds, the kiwi crate for 5-8 year olds and the doodle
crate or tinker crate for kids 9-16-plus years old.

Prices range from $16.95-$24.95 per month depending on
subscription length.

KiwiCrate has multiple active job postings and is looking to
hire more employees for the Lathrop facility. All of the positions fit in the
warehouse fulfillment-oriented space and include mid-senior level fulfillment
center employees as well line personnel/associates.

“We have a fun work environment. Almost all of us are
parents … a lot of us have young kids,” Kim said.

In Los Altos, the creative side of the company is growing,
too. KiwiCrate has added creative parents who dream up the projects, valued
experts who review them and a community of kid testers who keep creators on
their toes, ensuring the projects are fun and engaging. It’s come a long way
since the early days when Oh Lin, CEO, was using playgroups as a test market
for her product.

https://cvbj.biz/2017/05/25/kiwicrate-brings-jobs-lathrop-creativity-life/