Two of the suppliers to our doll sites have announced plans to discontinue in their current form.
Showstoppers, makers of fine porcelain dolls and gift dolls,
sent us this email:
After almost 30 years of enjoying the pleasure of bringing you some of the most exciting dolls available anywhere, we have decided that 2009, will be a good year for us to take some time to get renewed, refreshed, and invigorated.
The uncertain economy, and factory conditions overseas, have played no small part in our difficult decision. This means that we will not be producing any new designs for 2009.
They do go on to say:
We intend to use the second half of 2009 to re-evaluate the economy, and examine the value of the contributions we can offer to the doll and gift industry going forward. We will keep you informed of our progress.
Shortly after that, we learned that long time gift and plush retailer Russ Berrie is changing direction and will concentrate on it’s children’s furniture business; and is selling it’s gift business, (including the plush dolls and bears) to The Encore Group. It’s a complicated deal with licensing rights, subsidiaries, exclusivity clauses and such, but I think the sum total will be, that when we go to the toy show, we’ll be talking to different folks.
Addie and I have a soft spot for Russ Berrie, for it was their Ling Doll that turned our business from failure to success. We’ll devote a special entry to that story next time.
1 response so far ↓
1 Marydale // Apr 30, 2009 at 7:08 am
It’s a great shame that Showstoppers and Russ Berrie are changing direction. I’m not familiar with Showstoppers, but Russ Berrie has been a recognised name and label with a great range of dolls over the decades. I’m not surprised to hear it is selling the gift business, their range and energy they have put into the range seems to have diminished somewhat of late. Still, it’s still sad that they are selling.