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Hallmark and American Greetings Baby Shower Little Peanut

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American greeting card visitor

American Greetings Corp.
Formerly Sapirstein Greeting Card Company
Type Private
Industry Greeting card
Founded Brooklyn, Ohio, United States (1906; 116 years agone  (1906))
Founder Jacob Sapirstein
Headquarters 1 American Boulevard[1],

Westlake, Ohio

,

United States

Surface area served

 Worldwide

Primal people
  • John Compton (Chairman)
  • Joe Arcuri (President and CEO)
  • Erwin Weiss (Senior Vice President)
  • Gregory M. Steinberg (CFO)
Products
  • Greeting cards
  • Souvenir wrap
  • Party goods
  • Giftware
  • Jotter
  • Electronic greetings
  • Calendars
  • Educational products
Brands
  • Carlton Cards
  • Tender Thoughts
  • Just For You
  • Gibson
  • Papyrus
Revenue $1.67 billion (2012[2])

Net income

 $57.ii 1000000 (2012[two])
Owner Clayton Dubilier & Rice (60%)
Century Intermediate Holding Co. (Weiss Family, 40%)

Number of employees

 27,500 (2012)[2]
Subsidiaries UK Greetings
Website world wide web.americangreetings.com

American Greetings Corporation is a privately owned American company and is the globe'due south second largest greeting card producer backside Hallmark Cards.[2] [iii] Based in Westlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, the company sells newspaper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such equally wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic expressive content (e.g., ringtones and images for prison cell phones). In addition, the visitor owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts, Only For You, and Gibson brands.[4] [v]

American Greetings'due south quondam toy pattern and licensing division, initially called Those Characters From Cleveland, subsequently renamed AG Backdrop and American Greetings Amusement and now separately owned as Cloudco Entertainment. American Greetings also holds an sectional license for Nickelodeon characters.

History [edit]

Sapirstein Greeting Carte [edit]

Sapirstein Greeting Card Co. was founded in 1906 past Shine immigrant Jacob Sapirstein[4] (1885–1987), who sold cards to stores from a horse-fatigued cart, American Greetings has been run by members of the family since its inception.[2] Irving Sapirstein, Jacobs'south oldest son, became the Jacob'due south first partner in 1918 at age ix. Irving's brother Morris started working at the card company in 1926. Morris and Irving in 1928 got a post carte du jour contract worth $24,000. The company started using self-serve display cabinets for its greeting cards in 1929 further cementing its position in the marketplace. Sapirstein Greeting began in 1932 making its ain greeting cards.[6]

In 1934, the company began hiring sales representatives. Harry, the youngest son, joined the business in 1935. In 1936, the company opened its first branch office and the first major manufacturing facility.[6]

American Greetings [edit]

Sapirstein Greeting Card Co. was renamed in 1938 to American Greetings Publishers. In 1939, the firm first issued the Forget-Me-Not card line. Irving and his brothers changed their last name to Stone in the 1940s. American Greeting Publishers was incorporated in 1944. John Sands Pty. Ltd. of Sydney, Australia and the company signed a licensing agreement, the firm's offset, in 1949.[vi]

The company inverse its name to American Greetings Corporation as the company went public in 1952, issuing 200,000 shares. The funds raised were earmarked for acquisitions and expansion. In 1956, American Greetings formed Carlton Cards, Ltd., a Canadian subsidiary. Also that year, the Howdy Brows humor studio bill of fare line was launched.[six]

In July 1957, the company moved its headquarters to One American Road, Brooklyn, Ohio. In 1958, American Greetings went public.[2] Jacob Sapirstein became chairman of the board while Irving assumed the visitor'due south president postal service in 1960. In Forest City, North Carolina, the visitor build a cabinet manufacturing plant in 1960. A Mexican subsidiary in United mexican states Urban center was ready in 1969. In 1971, a retail subsidiary was formed called Superlative Corporation, later called Carlton Cards Retail, Inc.[6]

Holly Hobbie premiered in 1967 as a line of greeting cards by American Greetings.[7] The character's public appeal atomic number 82 to the formation of Those Characters From Cleveland, Inc. Sale the adjacent year topped $100 million. In 1972, the visitor introduced Ziggy, created past Tom Wilson, which soon had a newspaper cartoon strip generating additional income. By 1977, Holly Hobbie became one of the top female licensed graphic symbol in the world.[half-dozen]

Morry Weiss, Irving's son-in-police, and Irving Stone in 1978 were appointed president and chairman & CEO, respectively. Also in 1978, the corporation ready upwardly two new subsidiaries Plus Marking, Inc. and A.1000. Industries, Inc. Plus Marking was formed to industry Christmas gift wrap, boxed cards, and accessories. A.G. Industries was a brandish fixture manufacturer. American Greeting had seen itself as a mass-marketer and was serving pharmacies, variety stores, discount stores, and supermarkets with low toll cards. While, Authentication Cards ignore the mass market outlets until 1959 with issuance of its Ambassador bill of fare line. The company then used its licensing acquirement on national advertising and other efforts to gain market share from 1981 to 1985. While they had a internet income increase of 613 percent over ten years, Hallmark still maintained its market share. Gibson Greetings started a price war in 1986 and ended in 1987 which had the 3 major greeting menu companies taking a loss. With a drop in licensing revenue, American took until 1989 to recover.[half-dozen]

Those Characters From Cleveland was started up past Tom Wilson on behalf of American Greetings[eight] in 1980. The first property out of Those Characters was Strawberry Shortcake, which generated in 1981 $500 million in retail sales, followed by the Care Bears with $ii billion in sales over its beginning two twelvemonth.[half-dozen]

AG came dorsum with a doubled cyberspace income by 1991 with x percent growth in sales to Authentication's 1 per centum. Weiss was promoted to CEO while Ed Fruchtenbaum was elevated as the 4th and offset not-family unit president. Weiss had streamline operations, cut cost and decreased its card idea development time frame to market. Fruchtenbaum stressed data systems technology with the evolution of software to help the sales force, managers and their retailers to track inventories and trends. The following year, Weiss and Fruchtenbaum were promoted once again to chairman/CEO and president/chief operating officer, respectively, with Irving Stone condign founder-chairman.[6]

Custom Expressions, Inc., the CreataCard producer, was acquired in 1992, The CreataCard units had 1,000 carte options and printed cards in under four minutes for $3.l each. The visitor placed a few thousand units in mass-trade outlets in the The states. By early 1994, vii,000 were installed. The kiosks generated small profits off healthy revenue. With the Bear upon Screen Greetings and the Personalize Information technology! method, Hallmark in 1992 sued AG over patent infringement with a 1995 settlement that allow both to use the engineering worldwide. By 1995, the kiosks were being left backside by personal computers and the net. The units were partially written off. American had also made bargain with online services, Prodigy, CompuServe, and Microsoft Network in early 1996. Their website was redesigned to allow the cards to be designed on the website then mailed from its Cleveland fulfillment center in 1997. Two CD-ROM products, Personal CardShop for Dwelling house and Office and CreataCard Plus, were published both allowed for personalization. CardShop had 150 card choices and used the modem to social club them to be printed and mailed by their fulfillment eye. while CreataCard had iii,000 predesigned greeting cards, invitations, stationery, and announcements and three methods of fulfillment, print on dwelling printer, by electronic mail or via the company'due south center.[6]

In the mid-1990s, American Greetings expanded it operations with acquisitions or starting upward of new lines of business and starting in 1996, the promotion of sideline production categories to semi-democratic units. A reading glasses manufacturer, Magnivision, in 1993 is purchased. Also in 1996, the party goods line is relaunched nether the DesignWare name. Too in 1996, American Greeting entered discussions with BEC Group Inc. to acquire Foster Grant Grouping, a dominicus glass manufacturer, but declined to pursue the purchase. A candle line is relaunched in 1997 under the proper noun GuildHouse. A supplemental educational products subsidiary, Learning Horizons, Inc., is gear up in March 1997. However, in August 1997, American Greetings did sell two subsidiaries, Acme Frame Products, Inc. and Wilhold Inc., producer of hair accessory products, to Newell Brands. Recent Colours, a party goods company in Michigan with licenses included Monopoly and Sesame Street, was bought in Baronial 1999 to add to DesignWare.[vi]

In Canada, the Forget-Me-Non brand was launched in 1993. American Greetings in July 1997 launched its "The All New American Style" marketing strategy that consisted of massive revamping of its everyday carte lines over the next year and a half to encounter nine American culture trends.[six]

In 1990s, American Greetings also pushed more into international markets. Acquisition occurred in 1995 with a purchase of 80% share of S.A. Greetings Corporation in South Africa and in 1996 with the purchase of John Sands, the elevation greeting card company in both Australia and New Zealand. In 1998, Camden Graphics Grouping and Hanson White Ltd. were purchased to add to its UK operations. While in 1999, a bulk stake in Memory Lane Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian greeting bill of fare company, bring American to Asia for the get-go fourth dimension.[6]

American Greeting made a bid for Gibson Greetings, the number 3 card maker, in March 1996, which was rejected.[vi] In 1999, the visitor agreed to purchase rival Gibson Greetings and united the 2d and tertiary largest U.Southward. greeting card makers.[9] Through the Gibson purchase, American gained its strong UK unit and a 27% stake in Egreetings Network Inc.[6]

In 1998, the company shares moved from trading on the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. AmericanGreetings.com, Inc., while non turning a profit, was announced in June 1999 to be taken public, only was withdrawal due to the early 2000 tech stock collapse.[6]

In March 1999, Hallmark started a cost state of war with the introduction of a 99-cent card line forcing American to do the aforementioned. In 1999, the implementation of a new inventory system that slow shipments to retailers. However, this reduced sales by $100 million, 1.5% subtract, ending a 93rd consecutive year of increasing revenue.[6]

Fruchtenbaum was terminated in June 2000 for insider trading policy violation afterwards the board learned that he purchased stock via options then sold them in Dec 1998 before the announcement about the new inventory system implementation's expected loss. Lath member James C. Spira was then appointed vice-chairman.[half-dozen]

In November 2000, Spira was appointed to oversee a massive overhaul. The company cutting 1,500 jobs, airtight six manufacturing and distribution centers, discontinued Forget-Me-Not, one of its four main U.S. card brands, and cutting the offered greeting cards to ten,000 from 15,000. The firm also shifted to recognizing sales at the retailer's annals not when it was stock on the retailer'south shelves to ameliorate control inventory. This cost them $300 million and highly unprofitable in 2001 and 2002 fiscal years.[6]

In its online sector in 2001, American Greeting buy the Egreetings Network shares that the Gibson did not already own.[6] In January 2002, the company purchased Blue Mount Arts (BlueMountain.com) from Excite@Dwelling house with Excite to buy ads on American Greeting websites and Blue Mountain would continue providing ecards for Excite.[10] The company thus had 4 online greeting cards website including BeatGreets.com, a musical greetings website.[six] While the online operations expected to become profitable by the quaternary quarter 2002,[x] the segmentation had a lower loss so in the prior year.[vi]

In 2003, Morry Weiss'southward sons Zev and Jeffrey became CEO and President respectively; Morry Weiss remained Chairman. American Greetings has also branched out onto the net and owns a network of websites. October 25, 2007, information technology announced the buy of Webshots from CNET for $45 1000000 in cash.[11]

In July 2004, American Greetings sold Magnivision to an affiliate of Foster Grant sunglasses manufacturer.[12] In October 2005, American Greetings recalled its Sesame Street toy sunglasses sold from Dec 2003 through August 2005, because the lenses can separate from the frames, posing a choking hazard to immature children.[13]

American Greetings on February 24, 2009 purchased Recycled Paper Greetings. In two cash deals with Schurman Fine Papers on April 17, 2009, the company sells its remaining 341 stores to them and in the 2nd buying Schurman'south wholesale division, Papyrus brand cards and paper products, and a 15% equity stake in Schurman.[xiv]

In April 2010, the company airtight its DesignWare plant in Kalamazoo as the visitor moved to Amscan manufacturing their political party goods. American Greetings received $25 meg and a warrant for 2 per centum of common stock in AAH Holdings, Amscan's parent corporation, while Amscan received inventory, equipment and processes.[fifteen] In Mexico, the company moved strategically to third political party benefactor model and airtight its warehouse there.[16]

In 2010, American Greetings announced plans to motion its headquarters from Brooklyn, Ohio to a new facility at Crocker Park within the nearby city of Westlake.[17] However, in 2013, the company announced information technology would delay moving its operations to Westlake. Construction had been scheduled to starting time in early on 2013, and American Greetings said it was merely delaying the $150 to $200 1000000 project.[ citation needed ] In 2014, American Greetings sold its Brooklyn, Ohio headquarters to developers and began renting its current offices from the new owners until the move to Westlake.[18] American Greetings opened their new Westlake headquarters in September 2016.[one] The company leases the edifice from the Wiess family until August 2031.[iv]

American Greetings forced Clinton Cards PLC in May 2012 into administration.[19] In June , American Greetings acquired assets from Clinton Cards together with some of its subsidiaries including UK Greetings. UK Greetings' carte brands at the time were Camden Graphics, Hanson White, Forget Me Not and Xpressions. Clinton operated stores under the Clinton and Birthdays brands.[twenty] American Greetings brought in Dominique Schurman, CEO of Schurman Retail Group, to lead Clinton.[19]

Private corporation [edit]

American Greetings went private once once again in mid-2013, thus removing itself from all the public markets, agreeing to pay $18.20 per share, valuing the company at $878 million. The Weiss family unit endemic Century Intermediate Belongings Co. purchased the public shares.[two]

In 2018, the Weiss family sold a 60% majority stake of the visitor to the investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).[iv] The Weiss Family will proceed to operate as directors and shareholders of American Greetings[4] as well as retaining buying of American Greetings Entertainment, which was spun off as Cloudco Entertainment.[21] UK Greetings continued with American Greetings under CD&R while the Clintons retail chain in the UK remained with the Weiss family unit.[22] On closing of the deal, David Scheible was named Chairman in place of Morry Weiss and President John Beeder was promoted to CEO (the former chairman and co-CEOs remaining on the lath).[iv] In January 2019, the Weiss family placed AG'southward headquarters up for sale.[four]

Scheible had been replaced by John Compton every bit chairman. On March ane, 2019, the retiring CEO Beeder was replaced by Joe Arcuri.[23] Partially endemic Schurman Retail Group announced in Jan 2020 that it would closes all of its stores including its American Greetings locations.[24]

Gibson Greetings [edit]

Acquired in 1999, Gibson was founded by brothers George, Robert, Samuel and Stephen in 1855 as Gibson & Company, Lithographers in Cincinnati. It eventually began making greeting cards in 1860s and 1870s, sold to brother George as Gibson Arts in 1883 and Gibson Greeting Cards Inc. in 1960.[25] After existence under RCA Corporation and other owners was sold to American Greetings.

Units [edit]

American Greetings operates with 4 divisions:[26] [xvi]

  • North American Social Expression Products
  • International Social Expression Products
  • AG Interactive (Webshots was formerly part of AG Interactive)[27]
  • a non-reportable operating segment, sometimes referred to as "Retail"[26]

Subsidiaries and holdings [edit]

  • John Sands (visitor), Australian subsidiary
  • Schurman Retail Grouping (15%) runs American Greeting retail stores
  • Uk Greetings, British subsidiary

Cartoonists [edit]

  • R. Crumb
  • Peter Guren (Ask Shagg)
  • Holly Hobbie
  • Tom Wilson

Cloudco Entertainment [edit]

See also [edit]

  • Cardmaking
  • Hallmark Cards

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b "American Greetings opens new Westlake headquarters". Crain's Cleveland Business. September 28, 2016. Retrieved Nov v, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f k Cho, Janet H. (April 1, 2013). "American Greetings' Weiss Family Aims to Take the Company Individual Over again, Via an $878 Million Offering for Outstanding Shares". The Patently Dealer . Retrieved April 4, 2013.
  3. ^ Gillies, Trent (December 9, 2017). "Authentication greeting cards take adjusted to the digital revolution". CNBC. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f yard Pledger, Marcia (February xiii, 2018). "American Greetings announces new investor taking 60 per centum ownership". The Plainly Dealer . Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  5. ^ "American Greetings, Form 10-Thou, Almanac Report" (PDF). Securities and Exchange Commission. April xxx, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
  6. ^ a b c d east f g h i j m l m due north o p q r s t u v "History of American Greetings Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.59. St. James Printing. 2004. Retrieved July 25, 2019 – via FundingUniverse.
  7. ^ Dickson, Jeremy (January 3, 2012). "AGP expands Holly Hobbie brand". Kidscreen . Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  8. ^ Segall, Grant (September nineteen, 2011). "Tom Wilson of Ziggy comic fame dies at 80: news obituary". The Plain Dealer. Advance Ohio. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  9. ^ "American Greetings to buy rival". Reading Hawkeye. Associated Press. November 4, 1999. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  10. ^ a b Hu, Jim (January 2, 2002). "American Greetings buys Excite unit of measurement". CNET . Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  11. ^ "American Greetings, Class 8-K, Current Report". Securities and Exchange Commission. December 20, 2007. Retrieved January six, 2013.
  12. ^ "American Greeting Earnings Lifted by Auction of Reading Glass Unit". Fox News. Associated Printing. Dec 23, 2004. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  13. ^ "CPSC, American Greetings Corp. Announce Recall of Sesame Street Sunglasses" (Press release). U.Southward. Consumer Production Safety Commission. September 1, 2005. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  14. ^ Roguski, Randy (June 26, 2009). "American Greetings Corp. wraps up tough year". The Plain Dealer . Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  15. ^ Killian, Chris (Dec 23, 2009). "American Greetings to bid good-bye to DesignWare, 225 jobs". Kalamazoo Gazette. Mlive Media Group. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  16. ^ a b McKee, Tyler (March thirty, 2011). "Higher Prices Still In The Cards For American Greetings". Forbes. Archived from the original on Oct 6, 2014.
  17. ^ Cho, Janet (January 7, 2010). "American Greetings may pull its world headquarters out of Brooklyn, Ohio". The Evidently Dealer. Cleveland. Retrieved January vii, 2010. American Greetings Corp., the nation'southward largest publicly held greeting carte manufacturer, is exploring moving its global headquarters from Brooklyn to another community - maybe even out of country - with lower taxes.
  18. ^ McFee, Michelle Jarboe (July ane, 2014). "American Greetings sells Brooklyn headquarters; Lichter, Semarjian plan 150-acre industrial park". Cleveland.com . Retrieved May ix, 2015.
  19. ^ a b Simpson, Emma (December 24, 2012). "Tin Clinton Cards reinvent itself?". BBC.com . Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  20. ^ "U.s.a. company American Greetings acquires Clinton Cards". The Guardian. June seven, 2012. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
  21. ^ Loveday, Samantha (August 28, 2018). "American Greetings Spins Off Its Licensing Arm". PG Fizz. Max Media Ventures. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
  22. ^ Brown, Jakki (Feb thirteen, 2018). "Majority shareholding in American Greetings sold to US investor, Clayton Dubilier & Rice". PG Fizz. Max Media Ventures. Retrieved July xix, 2019.
  23. ^ Brunsman, Barrett J. (February 14, 2019). "One-time P&G executive hired as CEO of American Greetings". Cincinnati Business Courier. American City Business Journals. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  24. ^ Hays, Holly V. (January 21, 2020). "All Papyrus stores to close, including 2 Indiana locations". Indianapolis Star. USA Today Network. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  25. ^ "History of Gibson Greetings, Inc. – FundingUniverse".
  26. ^ a b "Company Overview of American Greetings Corp". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 2014. Archived from the original on October vi, 2014.
  27. ^ "Company Overview of AG Interactive, Inc". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 2014. Archived from the original on October half dozen, 2014.

External links [edit]

Official website

  • American Greetings SEC Filings

andersonwhailee.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Greetings

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