Northwoods Wreaths

Dear Group Leader,

Thank you for your interest in Northwoods fundraising programs. This year marks our 30th season of providing quality seasonal products to help your group meet its financial goals. In 2011, Northwoods provided its services to over 240 groups helping them to earn an estimated $600,000 in net profits. While this averages over $2500 per group, we have several organizations that net over $10,000 from their sales. We currently offer three fundraising programs-Christmas evergreens, Spring bedding plants, and Coffee/Hot Cocoa. A secret to our customers’ success is leveraging the annual annuity of these seasonal events. There will always be Christmas, Spring, and Fall, and people enjoy coffee every day.

Northwoods’ identity has been formed in its unique history. Its founder and current owner, Andy Barrie, grew up selling wreaths to friends, family, and neighbors as a Cub and Boy Scout in Milwaukee. In high school and college, Andy earned extra money unloading trucks of wreaths and later managing the wreath distribution center for another wreath company. Upon graduating from college, Andy opened Northwoods Wreaths in 1982 selling to Chicago area youth groups. After several years of success, Northwoods grew to five manufacturing sites in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

In 1993 Northwoods made two strategic decisions. First, we decided to incorporate indoor/outdoor evergreen products made of premium quality Noble Fir into our fundraising product mix. Our groups quickly found out that offering a choice of both indoor and outdoor products increased their gross sale per customer and overall net profit. Northwoods created a new company in Washington State to manufacture the Noble fir products.

Second, Northwoods began to offer a Spring plant fundraiser. This sale leverages the same customer base that groups sell to for Christmas by offering quality annual and perennial bedding plants.

In working with us you will constantly notice our commitment to quality. We realize that the products you choose to sell support the identity and reputation of your group. For us, quality goes beyond state of the art refrigeration and product inspection. We include accuracy of what was ordered, timely fulfillment of additional orders, and prompt customer support

Fundraising with Northwoods is easy to start and manage. Please follow these easy steps to begin the programs with us:

1) Read the attached overviews and sales brochures to make sure our programs are right for your group. To join our program, go to www.northwoodswreaths.com to sign up. We’ll need your name, group name, address, email address, and phone number.

2) Let us know how many people will be selling our products. Brochures can also be ordered online. We supply the first 125 brochures free of charge and will send them to you in August/September for Christmas and January/February for Spring.

3) From www.northwoodswreaths.com you can access Excel programs and other tools to manage your group’s sales and submit orders.

4) Place your orders online two weeks in advance for Christmas sales and one month in advance for the Spring sale

Please contact us at 800-933-2125 with any questions.

Best Regards,

Andy Barrie

Fundraising with Northwoods is easy to start and manage.

Thank you for helping Northwoods celebrate our 30th season in the Christmas fundraising business. This year we are pleased to have the opportunity to be working with you once again and we also welcome our new groups to the program.

You may not realize that our wreath and garland manufacturing promotes tree growth. No trees are killed or harmed by our harvesting and we can cut on the same tree two years later!

We have some exciting changes and enhancements to our product line and program for 2012:

-We have consolidated our Decorator wreaths to a 24” Noble fir based decorator with incense cedar, painted western cedar, red berries, pine cones, and a premium indoor/outdoor ribbon.

-Continuation of our pre-pay option. Groups that pre-pay on their orders by August 15, 2012 will receive a 5% discount off of the amount they pre-pay. For example, if you pre-pay $5000 by 8/15 your group will receive a $250 discount on your final bill. We also offer a 4% discount for pre-payments before 9/15/2012.

Since Northwoods introduced our indoor products like the Noble Mixed Wreaths 15 years ago, we have the best product line in the industry. This has increased your group's net profits by over 33%. On an average, groups selling both our indoor and outdoor lines earn $800 more than those just selling outdoor balsam items. If your group isn't selling our indoor products today you're missing a great opportunity.

We are also continuing to offer the following services to help you increase sales and organize your efforts:

www.northwoodswreaths.com By mid-August all of Northwoods marketing material is available on the Internet. You can sign your group up for the sale, order brochures, download sales tools, and place orders.

Spreadsheet Software This year we are offering an expanded Excel spreadsheet to help you organize your group’s sale. You will be able to track sales by product and salesperson and accurately estimate your group profits. You can download this software via our Internet homepage or we can mail/email a copy to you. You will need a current version of Microsoft Excel 7.0 or higher to run the program.

Remember that you must sign up with Northwoods ASAP to let us know your group is participating in this year's sale. Groups are accepted on a first call basis.

Season’s Greetings -

Andy Barrie