Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Tableware supplier Creative Tops and its Hong Kong operation, Creative Tops Far East, have been acquired by Lifetime Brands, one of the largest tabletop, home décor and kitchenware organisations in the US.
The deal, the terms of which have not been disclosed, will significantly broaden the Creative Tops product range whilst helping to introduce some of the company’s most successful tableware brands – including V&A, Katie Alice and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – to new retailers across Europe and North and Central America.
Lifetime Brands is a leading global provider of an extensive range of branded merchandise, with names such as Farberware, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Sabatier and Pfaltzgraff. In its 2010 financial year the company had sales of $443m.
Commenting on the deal, Creative Tops managing director Pat Dawson said that the acquisition of Creative Tops and CTFE by “such a high-profile US tabletop organisation will strengthen our foothold into Europe and global markets.
“This acquisition will also enable the company to offer our customers a far more extensive product range outside of our current offering and will help strengthen our existing brand portfolio.”
In addition, Creative Tops will be able to take advantage of Lifetime Brands’ significant facilities and resources. Amongst these are two permanent showrooms – one in Garden City, New York, displaying over 40,000sq ft of kitchenware products, and a second in Manhattan.
Lifetime Brands also has a design studio employing over 100 designers and product developers, which will now be available to further Creative Tops’ own product development in the UK.
The American company’s strong B2B and B2C internet infrastructure and expertise in this area “will be of fundamental importance as we continue to grow our e-commerce business,” Dawson added.
Creative Tops’ senior management team will remain in place and the company will be run autonomously in the UK, with no change to the way it operates on a day-to-day basis.
Meanwhile, Lifetime Brands’ chairman, president and CEO Jeffrey Siegel, said that the acquisition represented “a compelling, multifaceted opportunity that will allow us to accelerate our growth and to strengthen our businesses.
“Creative Tops is a highly-regarded resource for private label and branded tableware and kitchenware products with significant design and supply chain infrastructure. We’re impressed by the quality, commitment and passion of Creative Tops’ management and expect the continuing management team, under the leadership of Patricia Dawson to integrate seamlessly into Lifetime’s operating structure, enabling Creative Tops to increase its rate of growth and profitability beyond what it would be able to achieve on its own.”
Creative Tops currently has markets in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan and the US, the latter through Lifetime Brands.
