Meet the face(s) behind Soft Landings Towels

How did you get started and how did you end up where you are today?

Our first company, Maxtex was born in 1987. I grew up in the “rag” business in Los Angeles and met my husband Gary who worked for the Los Angeles company while living in Phoenix, AZ. I moved to Phoenix, and while I was working for the Arizona Republic, we started Maxtex to become a visible force in the valley. 30 years later, still in business, we are the oldest industrial textile company in the valley of the sun. We offer products like cotton rags, paper wipes, lint-free wipes, safety products and other “specialty” kinds of industrial textiles for our customers.

​

During these years, I brought a couple of products and earmarked it for the beauty and spa sector, hence Soft Landings was created. I marketed Soft Landings a little differently in 2009. Due to my hearing disability, I chose Facebook as my method of “reaching out” to people. It was the perfect platform to stalk, add, get in people’s faces, and offer to send free samples of our towels and wipes. I was not comfortable using the phone to “cold call” people so I used the chat feature and email to get my information delivered. It didn’t take long to get instant recognition and popularity for the best lint-free towel and wipes available.

​

Nail companies from places outside of the USA, such as London, Abu-Dhabi, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, and Australia all carried our products. I feel amazingly grateful for the close-knit group of individuals who perform beauty and spa services. We support one another and this group helped me put Soft Landings Towels and Wipes on the map. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest are all the fabulous venues to promote my business.

​

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?

​

Owning and operating a business for 30 plus years is not without problems and issues.

Sometimes it was a shortage of product availability for our customers. Other times it was a freak accident or illness that one of us had which made us rely on individual strength and knowledge of the business to go forward. Sometimes it was cash flow issues because customers took a long time to pay their bills.

​

We were only as good as the sale we received that day. Striving to have products available to fill for our customers was very important to us. We never wanted to be that company that said, “Oh, it’s on back-order.” We wanted our customers to feel that they were important. Businesses change people, move on, new companies crop up and it’s important that we have the “tool” to help their business grow and succeed.

​

What are you most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others?

​

I am most proud of the fact that even though my father of blessed memory has been gone for 32 years, I carried on his legacy and proved successful in my own right. I didn’t inherit the business as the Los Angeles company was sold, but I did inherit my father’s business mind and along with my really smart husband, we have created a niche in the marketplace for companies to purchase our products.

​

So, what’s next? Any big plans?

Gary is the creative genius in our business. He always comes up with new ideas for marketing a product or changing the way something is packaged to deliver to a new customer. We are almost ready to launch a new product that was developed and created for the mass consumer. Because it’s not launched yet, I am not at liberty to share but sometime this summer we will be happy to let you in on the news! It will be revolutionary.

​

Original Interview : http://voyagephoenix.com/interview/meet-kathy-weltman-gary-weltman-maxtex-soft-landings-west-side/