---

Ornament exporter aims
to build on success
with new shop

A former Hawaii exporter of the year has started a retail shop downtown. Karen Sotomura, president of Joseph K & Co., opened the Downtown Christmas Store in early November at 911 Alakea St., selling the Hawaii-themed Christmas ornaments on which she built a multimillion-dollar business. The company employs about 45 people, some of them seasonal hires.

The store is in the space formerly occupied by apparel retailer Mango Moon. "We're there on a temporary basis, but at this point we may stay, because we also have another line," Sotomura said. The company also sells room accessories, primarily for children, including picture frames, clocks, clothes trees and growth charts. "Our niche is, we personalize all these items."

The company also licenses mall kiosks in the other 49 states, called Santa's Pen, where the items for sale are personalized with calligraphy pens. There are 170 such kiosks from Maine to California.

Sotomura was named Hawaii's Small Business Administration Exporter of the Year in 2000, with a business her husband once told her was a cute idea that he didn't think would go very far.

It wasn't the first time he'd had to eat his words. She was named Small Business Person of the Year in 1995 and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997.

But back to the ornaments. The items Sotomura peddled door-to-door in Waikiki in 1985 have grown into other products. "Ski things for ski resorts, tropical Santas and things for beach resorts and lakeside resorts," she said. The souvenir ornaments can bear the names of destinations such as Lake Tahoe or Key West, Fla.

Joseph K & Co. also makes profession-related ornaments.

Attendees at this weekend's Candy Cane Lane event at Bishop Museum can check out Sotomura's wares for sale from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Sotomura will donate some 2,000 pieces to the nonprofit Friends of Foster Kids for a private dinner event. She also donates products to selected public schools each year, giving "Christmas ornaments as gifts for children or for them to give as gifts to their parents."

The Christmas giving this year extends to active-duty or retired military personnel and dependents who present a valid ID at the downtown shop. Each will receive a free U.S. Flag ornament through Dec. 24.

The store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

"One of the joys of this type of business is that you get to know your customers. They share with you stories of who they're buying something for and why they're buying it. It's a very personal business," Sotomura said.

TV news

A ruling this week granted KALO-TV parent company Pacifica Broadcasting Co. its request to establish programming on digital channel 10. That was not music to the ears of the Hawaii Public Television Foundation, which broadcasts PBS Hawaii on analog channels 11 on Oahu and 10 on Maui.

PBS Hawaii opposed KALO's request because it feared interference from KALO's digital signal, but a Federal Communications Commission decision found PBS' argument "lacking in both specificity and technical support."

PBS Hawaii is not going to ask the FCC to reconsider, said Kalowena Komeiji, director of community relations. "Unless we start getting inundated with calls," she added.

KALO, a religious broadcaster, had been originally assigned to digital channel 39 by the FCC, drawing an interference-related objection from KITV, said Pacifica President Chris Racine.

The FCC instructed Pacifica to choose another digital channel. "We could have picked 7, we could have picked 12; we didn't do it to be in their way," Racine said.

The bottom line is when final FCC approvals are granted and KALO's digital transmission facility is built within 90 days, "if we cause (PBS Hawaii) any interference, we've got to shut down until we take care of it -- it's the interfering party that has to take the steps," Racine said.