Member Article

Durham craft business lands major US contract

Crafter’s Companion has won its biggest ever order, a $250k contract with the largest craft retailer in the US.

The County Durham-based firm’s first order with Michaels stores will see thousands of Crafter’s flagship product, ‘The Ultimate’ - a patented, 10-in-1 paper-crafting tool.

With its HQ in Dallas, Michaels is North America’s leading arts and crafts specialty retailer and has more than 1,100 stores in the United States and Canada.

The order will also deliver a major boost to the region’s manufacturing sector as the product is made locally at manufacturing-partner M&S Plastics’, an injection-molding facility based in Spennymoor.

Crafter’s Companion is run by award-winning entrepreneur Sara Davies who founded the business while at university in 2005. A global star in the craft sector, she regularly features on TV channels Ideal World and Create & Craft and is the current board chair at the Craft Hobby Association UK.

She said: “We are naturally delighted with this order given it’s the biggest one we have ever received or manufactured, which will go a long way in helping us further boost our US sales over the next year.

“Michaels is probably the most respected craft retailer on the planet so to be working with them is a fantastic honour. We understand the Ultimate will be used as part of a craft education initiative within its stores and online, which is great news as it will further boost our product’s presence in the US Market.

“Being able to get our product into the hands of thousands of US consumers will hopefully lead to more demand from what has become a $30bn US craft market and at the same time ensure we exceed our £1m export target this year,” added Sara.

Crafter’s Companion’s products are sold online, through retail outlets and TV shopping channels around the world. Aside from crafting tools, the company also distributes an array of third party brands and develops products with licensing partners.

The base model of The Ultimate was originally created in 2005 and it has become renowned for delivering incredible value for money for end-users as a one-off flexible tool. To date, hundreds of thousands of the multi-award-winning tool have been sold, helping create and safeguard many jobs in the North-East.

The craft supplies business recently announced a £100,000 investment to improve its packing and distribution facility in Coundon to enable its expansion plans over the next five years after it opened its first operation on mainland Europe.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .