The company moved from Perry to Lewiston in 2009, when it also took on another co-owner and investor, John Andrew Andreliunas, who currently serves as the company’s president. In 2013, it added another investor and co-owner, New Orleans-based investment firm Advantage Capital. The Shoreys own a majority share in Quoddy.

Quoddy grew quickly. It formed a number of partnerships, including with UGG, specialty retailer J.Crew, L.L.Bean and Sperry.

J.Crew was a turning point for the company, Kevin Shorey said. That contract ran from 2010 to 2013, though Quoddy still does some business with J.Crew.

During the J.Crew contract, Quoddy had 50 employees. About half of its $2 million in revenue came from that contract.

When the contract ended, it still was able to keep revenue at $2 million and stay profitable by streamlining to 14 employees and pivoting to make more expensive, custom shoes and that it sold directly to consumers on its website.

“Customers could pick the sole type and the shoe color. The sales price point was higher, on average $250 to $300 a pair,” Shorey said. The higher price made up for the fewer employees making fewer shoes, he said.

Expanding carefully

Quoddy has grown its business and stayed profitable using Yankee ingenuity and frugality.

“We need to grow smarter, not bigger,” Shorey said.

Learning from the J.Crew experience and the seasonality of the shoe business, Quoddy has used just-in-time techniques to pay for what it uses when it needs it.

The Pepperell factory’s owner has let Quoddy expand and contract space as needed. A new tenant is the expansion space now, but the Shoreys said they have enough room to expand in their existing space, and can rent storage for any inventory they need to house.

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They also tapped both the Finance Authority of Maine and Community Concepts for loans to buy materials, especially expensive leather. Those organizations can respond more quickly than banks and tend to take on more risky clients.

That includes funding the 1,000 slippers the company has made in advance for this holiday season and a line of “ready-to-wear” shoes that it started in April.

Ready-to-wear gives customers fewer options to customize their shoes in exchange for getting them in 3 to 5 days, compared with 4 to 6 weeks for fully custom shoes. It already makes up 25 percent of sales.

The company also saves money by putting soles on the shoes only after the customer orders them to avoid having to resole them if the buyer wants a different color.

“We want to grow, but banks don’t want to talk to us because of the risk,” Shorey said. “And they want so much collateral.”

Quoddy expects next year to expand its shoe lines for women and add a line of waterproof boots through a collaboration with DMG International, a Dominican Republic-based contract shoemaker that moved into the space abutting it in the Pepperell factory.

But the made-to-order shoes will remain the heart of its business, Shorey said.