Pretty and Practical
Tea Towels from KC
2
KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW • NOVEMBER 2019 • www.kitchenwarenews.com
BY LORRIE BAUMANN
Green Bee Tea Towels is a maker of hand-
printed cotton tea towels owned by Rena
Krouse. From her studio in Kansas City,
Missouri, she and the four other members
of her team have been putting out a line
of functional, decorative cotton towels with
a vintage feel for the past four and a half
years. This year, she's expanding the
business with an aggressive sales strategy
and a new showroom at the Dallas Trade
Center.
"I like the idea of having practical
decorations," Krouse said. "I'm not big on
knickknacks or things just lying around."
Practicality for her products means that
the tea towels are made of 100 percent
cotton that Krouse imports f rom India
and screen-prints in Kansas City with
nontoxic, water-soluble inks. "They won't
peel or fade or crack," she said. " They
require no care at all. You can stain-treat,
bleach or wash them however you would
like."
The company offers more than 100
designs in multiple color variations,
all on a white background. Many
of the designs have a vintage feel
to them. "You can use them every
day," Krouse said. "They're not a
product that goes out of style, and
they work as bathroom hand
towels as well."
With exponential growth in the
past year, Green Bee Tea Towels now
has distribution available throughout
the U.S., and she's hired several sales
representatives and opened a showroom
at the Dallas Trade Center where visitors
to the Dallas markets can see and touch
the towels for themselves. "I'm looking for
showrooms and reps for the rest of the
U.S.," she said. "We're growing as fast as
we possibly can. The biggest challenge has
been hanging on for the ride, keeping up
with the demand and learning how to scale
the business. It's been eye-opening. There
are so many things we thought we knew
how to do, but this year's increase in
production has taken the business to a
whole other level."
For further information, visit
www.greenbeeteatowels.com.
KN
