When his clothing store went out of business, Hans Gonner realized he had a tremendous amount of yarn left over. He seized the opportunity and found a machine to make the industrial yarn into individual balls for knitting.
Today, Hans and his wife Andrea have a small shop in the town of Riedlingen, Germany where they employ 40 people. Customers come in and buy high quality yarn for projects ranging from hand knit socks to high-end fashion. In addition to their storefront, the Gonners have a warehouse from which they sell one million balls of yarn a year.
With the help of eBay’s marketplace, Hans says his business “exploded,” offering a direct market for customers around the world.