Teresa Collins Announces New Partnerships, Products

Teresa Collins has been very busy extending her brand this year. This week she has made two major announcements of new product lines and partnerships.

The first new partnership is with big box retailer Joann Fabric & Crafts. Teresa has designed some exclusive add-ons to her January 2014 line "Hello My Name Is" for the chain, and the company is prominently promoting both that line and her other product lines with partners like Xyron and Craftwell. All of the products are currently available for sale on Joann.com, and are currently showing up in local Jo-Ann stores as well.

Teresa Collins Rub Ons

Exclusive new products designed for the "Hello My Name Is" line for Jo-Ann stores appear to include the adornments, sticky notes, journal cards, vellum stickers, cards & envelopes, garland, wood dots, border stickers, decorative brads, rub-ons, journaling tidbits, matchbook stickers, 4.5 x 6.5 paper pad, layered stickers, layered butterfly stickers, photo banner kit, celebrate banner kit, and chipboard buttons.

Unbeknownst to many consumers, Teresa's products have been in big box stores for some time, although not usually with her name on them. Her older lines have been sold rebranded, and she's also quietly designed exclusives that were distinctive enough in her signature style that the stores were often accused by angry fans of stealing from her.

In explaining her decision to partner with Jo-Ann Stores, which she knew would be unpopular in some quarters, Teresa laid out some brutal truths about the current state of the industry:

The truth is that when I started in the craft industry, we had probably close to 5,000 plus stores in the independent market. A product run can be at a smaller amount- 2,400 units. Sadly, the independent market has drastically decreased with many stores closing. This means that the number of stores now cannot support the minimum needed to do a production run for a company. This means, with out "big box" orders, many manufactures will not be able to even continue to survive.

Many small retailers expect a manufacturer to be "loyal" to small stores only, but the reality is that a manufacturer needs to serve both markets to be healthy in the current market. The key is to find a way to balance the needs of both to serve their needs, and Teresa has addressed several ways of doing this, like designing custom lines for the big boxes, or offering lines to the small stores first before putting them in the big boxes.

The second announcement that Teresa Collins formally announced this week had already been leaked during the National Stationery Show in May but details are just being officially announced now. Fans of Fiskars tools who would prefer a color other than brilliant orange for their tools will be thrilled with the new Teresa Collins line of tools from Fiskars, which offers Fiskars basics in pretty gold and pink, along with some items like punches designed by Teresa herself. A total of 19 tools make up the new line.

Fiskars-and-Teresa-Collins

To promote the new line, Fiskars is hosting a huge giveaway on their Facebook page.