Memories By Design under new ownership

Bruce Felt and Nadine Woodward-Felt have bought Memories By Design, a business-to-business video production company for the funeral and cremation industry nationwide, formerly owned by Barbara Gustin, who founded the company in 2002.

The business, which specializes in custom tribute videos for families whose loved ones have died, blends photos, custom background scenery, and custom music into its videos. 

The business occupies about 3,500 square feet in the Courtyard Office Center, at 827 W. First, and employs 17 people, 10 of whom are full time. 

The company currently produces about 700, six- to nine-minute videos per month, for funeral homes throughout the U.S., as well as custom videos of up to 30 minutes in length. Felt says the videos, which are used during funeral services, help people celebrate a person’s life and preserve memories honoring that person. 

“The strength of the company lies in its unique ability to produce outstanding handcrafted custom videos using a trained, skilled and, most importantly, a compassionate staff,” he says. “This allows funeral homes to focus on their specific responsibilities and services, while the families can address their personal matters.” 

Both Felt and Woodward-Felt are veterans of broadcast journalism, Felt in video production and Woodward-Felt as a news anchor for KXLY-TV, Spokane’s ABC affiliate. Nadine will continue to anchor newscasts for KXLY and will be involved in Memories by Design as much as possible, while Bruce will oversee day-to-do operations. 

Changes already under way include several customer-focused improvements including technical software upgrades and new theme packages as well as a website redesign with more user-friendly navigation, information, and tools, Felt says. 

—Judith Spitzer

Fringe Boutique opens second store 

Fringe Salon & Boutique LLC, which operates a women’s apparel and accessory shop and an adjoining hair salon on the South Hill, has opened a new shop, its second here, in the Wandermere area north of Spokane.

The new store is located in a leased 1,500-square-foot space at 12208 N. Division, in a multi-tenant building in front of the Fred Meyer store formerly occupied by Blockbuster Video, and employs four full-time workers.

The expansion into a second location comes four years after owner Tiffany Palmer-Mulgrew opened the first Fringe Boutique, at 2622 E. 29th on Spokane’s South Hill, and three years after she expanded it into an adjacent space with a hair salon. The location there currently employs four full-time employees on the boutique side, and operates stations for eight independent hair stylists.

The new location on the north side will be solely a woman’s apparel and accessory shop, Palmer-Mulgrew says. She says that remodeling of the store space on Division included sealing the floors, painting, installing new fixtures to display clothing, and putting in dressing rooms. She declined to disclose the cost of renovations.

Palmer-Mulgrew says she chose the Wandermere location because it felt similar to the neighborhood in which the original store is located.

“Spokane is my hometown,” Palmer-Mulgrew says. “Having two locations in the same city is ideal.”

 

—Lucas Thayer

HomeStyles moves to bigger location

HomeStyles Lighting, an independent lighting and home décor store in North Idaho, has expanded to larger quarters, says Caroline Griffin, who co-owns the store with her husband, John.

HomeStyles now occupies 8,200 square feet of space in a stand-alone building at 5648 N. Government Way, in Dalton Gardens, having moved there recently from a 5,000-square-foot store at 3540 N. Government Way.

“It gives us more showroom space where we have more items on display,” Griffin says of the new location, which formerly was occupied by Helmet Outlet USA.

In addition to lighting fixtures and supplies, HomeStyles also carries fans, mirrors, and other home accessories.

The Griffins opened HomeStyles in 2003. The family-run store has six employees in addition to the owners and plans to bring on a seventh employee in June, Griffin says.

Griffin says 80 percent of HomeStyles customers are contractors, and 20 percent are end consumers.

“We do a lot of business with contractors and deliver a lot to Spokane,” she says.

 

—Mike McLean

Ferrero becomes sole owner at Switch Up

Jennifer Ferrero, co-founder of Spokane Valley marketing agency Switch Up Inc., which does business as Switch Up Web & Marketing, says she has bought out co-owner Kirt Runolfson’s interest in the business to become the company’s sole owner. 

Ferrero declines to disclose the terms of the buyout. Switch Up occupies 700 square feet of space at 609 N. Argonne in Spokane Valley. Ferrero and Runolfson launched the business in 2011.

 “I decided to become sole owner because I’ve been in partnership for all of my career, and I came to the point where I wanted to stand alone as a woman-owned business,” Ferrero says. 

She says she also wants to shift the company’s focus toward the manufacturing, light industrial, and aerospace industries, areas in which she has about eight years of experience working with clients. 

“We’re trying to drive that field and bring manufacturing back to Washington,” she says. 

The company currently has two employees besides Ferrero and two interns, she says. In the next few years, Ferrero says she would like to grow the agency to five employees and possibly move into a larger space. 

Switch Up has more than 50 customers across Washington state and North Idaho. The company offers website development, search-engine optimization services, print marketing, logo development, branding, video and photography services, copywriting, and marketing consulting.

 

—Katie Ross