Business Is Up, And They're Flying High

 

Joe DelVecchio's balloons are popping up all over the country, from Washington, where they were seen at the White House and Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, to Boston, Las Vegas, and points west.

DelVecchio, the 39-year-old founder of Balloon Bouquets, calls himself and his family "balloonatics." His brother Frank, a Harvard law school graduate, is president of the company and Frank's wife, Marian, operates a Boston franchise. His father, 81, a streetcorner balloon vendor, is senior adviser on new product development, and his Uncle Sal now sells balloons in Tucson, Ariz.

DelVecchio, who holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Maryland, decided in 1976 to leave his job as a consumer affairs specialist in the Department of Transportation and go back to what he enjoyed doing best: selling balloons on the street. He found to his surprise that people were no longer buying one or two balloons, but whole bundles of them, as birthday and get-well gifts.

To meet the demand, DelVecchio started a personalized delivery service, sending off dozens of helium-filled balloon bouquets to hospitals, homes, and offices. Balloons began to float in fancy French restaurants and backstage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

His balloons sell for $30 for two dozen. Since he started Balloon Bouquets in 1977, DelVecchio has seen a 500% growth rate in sales in his Washington operation. He has 21 franchises in the United States -- at estimated start-up costs of up to $10,000 each -- and plans 25 more by the end of 1981.

Though competition has cropped up, in the form of an estimated 500 balloon vendors in the country, DelVecchio sees them only as "imitators." To stay a step ahead of the rest, the pioneer of this new industry has added a room decoration service and now offers 18 varieties of bouquets like "colors of the rainbow" or the "hurricane" version, a mixture of purple, white, blue, black, and silver. "After all," DelVecchio notes, "a florist doesn't have just one arrangement, does he?"