What's happening at Daisy D's?

The internet has been buzzing with rumors the past few days about the future of Daisy D's Paper, since they made it known to buyers that due to slow orders they are not going to print the two new lines that they showed at CHA-Summer in Chicago last month.

I'm a great fan of Daisy D's and so I picked up the phone to get the story on Daisy D's future straight from the source: Lisa Higley, president of Daisy D's.

Here's a quick summary of our conversation earlier today:

• Due to decreasing sales, Daisy D's will not be producing any new lines under their current management for the remainder of this year. They also do not plan to attend CHA-Winter '09 under the current management since product production would already need to be starting for that event.
• The company's operations going forward will consist of converting its plentiful stock of inventory to cash while it waits to see whether the market will improve enough for it to resume creative operations.
• Due to the lack of creative operations at the company, there will of necessity be some lay-offs in those areas.
• The company's investors are open to financial offers to purchase such assets as the unproduced creative materials, or the company's name.
• Higley indicated that she would try to provide a window of notice of at least a month if the company were to shut down operations altogether.

I think Daisy D's has great products that were executed much better than many of their competitors (the cardstock die-cuts I used on this layout, for instance, are a much more usable "shortcut" product than many others out there). Their combination vintage/distressed style in their past few product line introductions has been at once timeless and still trend-aware. That is very hard to do in this industry and I hope that we get the opportunity to see more of their creative vision in the future.

(Note: Love Daisy D's and want to stock up? A Cherry On Top seems to have the biggest selection that I can find right now. )