Creativity Inc. Sells Scrapbook Brands
Creativity, Inc. has announced that it is selling its scrapbooking brands Westrim, Autumn Leaves, DMD and Crop In Style to ANW/Crestwood, along with the company's Hip In A Hurry brand.
At CHA Winter 2010, Creativity Inc. was clearing out the remaining inventory for those brands and had indicated to Scrapbook Update it planned to shelve those brands. The sale to ANW/Crestwood, which is the parent of The Paper Company, Paper Adventures, and TPC Studio, will finalize in March. Operations for those brands will continue in Los Angeles under Nick Lazarou and Abbey Blaszczyk. As part of the transition, Creativity Inc. will provide support services for ANW’s west coast operations, including warehousing and shipping, throughout 2010.
Tinkering Ink, which became part of Creativity, Inc. in January 2009, does not appear to have been part of the sale transaction.
Going forward, Creativity Inc will focus on growing its rapidly expanding Blue Moon Beads brand.
“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to expand our business with the addition of these outstanding product lines and brands” said Mark Caliguire, Co-President of ANW/Crestwood. “We believe that there is a very strong fit with our existing customer base, as well as the opportunity to grow in new channels with our combined products, brands and design skills.”
“With our combined design and sourcing talent, we believe that we can offer truly compelling products in all our categories” said Nick Lazarou. Abbey Blaszczyk added “There is a great fit between the cultures and working style of Creativity and ANW. We are already working on new products that we can offer together.”
“These businesses have been a very important part of Creativity and I believe that they will be an equally important part of ANW/Crestwood” said Ron Cooper, CEO of Creativity. “The sale of these businesses allows us to focus completely on growing our Blue Moon Beads fashion beads business. We have doubled the sales of Blue Moon over the past 5 years and believe that we can do so again with the resource focus and streamlining that this transaction provides. In short, we hope that this transaction will help both businesses be more successful.”
