Enesco

Last updated
Enesco, LLC
Company typePrivate
IndustryGiftware
Founded1958;66 years ago (1958)
Headquarters Itasca, Illinois
Key people
Michael Griffith (president) [1]
ProductsGift, Garden and Home decor products
Subsidiaries Department 56, Gregg Gift Company, Enesco Limited (UK), Enesco Canada, Enesco France
Website www.enesco.com

Enesco is a privately held American giftware company that began in 1958. After changing ownership many times, the company was bought in 2023 by holding company Ad Populum. Brands owned or licensed by Enesco include Heartwood Creek (Jim Shore) and Department 56, and formerly Precious Moments and Things Remembered.

Contents

History

In 1958, Enesco was the import division for the N. Shure Company. Enesco was founded by its first president, Louis R. "Bob" Miller, Jr. When N. Shure was sold to Butler Brothers, the import division was spun off. The name "Enesco" was an acronym from the N. Shure company, "N S Co", and phonetically named his company "EnEsCo". [2]

Thereafter, the company was sold three times, and in 1983 became a part of Stanhome, Inc. After separating from Stanhome in 1998, Stanhome immediately collapsed—leaving Enesco with all of Stanhome's assets.[ citation needed ]

Enesco is known in its industry for its 25 years of success with the Precious Moments porcelain figurine line of products. Freedman worked with original artist, Sam Butcher, to bring his designs to market. The company sales soared throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s until its peak in 1997.[ citation needed ]

In 2002, Enesco partnered with artist Jim Shore to create and license the Heartwood Creek product brand. The agreement was renewed for five more years in 2014 and has continued since then with an "open-ended" status. [3] [1]

By 2004, Enesco, Corp. posted an operating loss of $15.7 million US dollars. The sales of Precious Moments items plunged from a high of $206 million in 1996 to $55.7 million in 2004, a drop of $27.5 million from 2003. [4]

According to Enesco's 2004–2005 annual report, "Precious Moments revenues represented 22% of consolidated net revenues in 2004 compared to 33% in 2003." In 2005 Enesco ended its business partnership and license arrangement with Precious Moments, Inc.[ citation needed ]

In 2006, a year after the departure of Precious Moments, Enesco's fourth president, Cynthia Passmore-McLaughlin (formerly of Revlon) resigned. Enesco's stock price fell below US$1 and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. After a few months of over-the-counter trading, Enesco withdrew its public offering altogether. On January 12, 2007, Enesco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. [5]

In February 2007, Enesco Group, Inc. was purchased by Tinicum Capital Partners and became Enesco, LLC. [6]

In 2009, Enesco acquired Department 56 from Lenox. [7]

Balmoral Funds, a Los Angeles-based private equity fund acquired Enesco, LLC in 2015. [8]

Spin Master acquired the Gund business from Enesco in 2018. [9]

In 2019, Enesco bought most of the Things Remembered company, [10] before closing all of the retail locations and selling the brand to 1-800-Flowers in January 2023. [11] [12]

The Ad Populum holding company acquired Enesco in January 2023. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Media</span> American mass media company

Liberty Media Corporation is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in Formula One, Sirius XM, and Live Nation Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PR Newswire</span> American distributor of press releases (company)

PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, operated the service from his house in Manhattan for approximately 15 years. The business was eventually sold to Western Union and then United Newspapers of London. In December 2015, Cision Inc. announced it would acquire the company. On January 1, 2021, Cision formally merged PR Newswire into the company, ending its status as a legal entity after 66 years. Cision plans to continue utilizing the brand name for the foreseeable future in the United States, as well as in Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flex (company)</span> Singaporean contract manufacturing company

Flex Ltd. is an American headquartered multinational diversified manufacturing company. It is the third largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), original design manufacturer (ODM) company by revenue, behind only Pegatron for what concerns original equipment manufacturers. Flex's U.S. corporate headquarters are located in Austin, Texas. The company has manufacturing operations in over 30 countries, totaling about 172,000 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ally Financial</span> American financial services company

Ally Financial is a bank holding company organized in Delaware and headquartered at Ally Detroit Center in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mortgage loans, and other related financing services such as installment sale and lease agreements.

Yakira, L.L.C. is an American urban fashion company founded by Marc Ecko in 1993. The company makes apparel and accessories under the brands Ecko Unltd. line for men and the Ecko Red line for girls and women. It is headquartered in New York City. The company's products gained public attention in the late 1990s; they were originally associated with hip-hop and skate culture and moved into mainstream urban culture in the early 2000s. It is most often associated with hip-hop. The style is based on graffiti art. Its brand features a rhino as its logo. Rap artist MC Serch of 3rd Bass assisted with marketing in the early years of the company.

TheStreet is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus, a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by Bob Lang and Chris Versace. TheStreet was founded by Marty Peretz and Jim Cramer, and the site boasts numerous notable former contributors, including Aaron Task, Herb Greenberg, and Brett Arends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Property Group</span> International real estate investment trust founded in the United States

Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Worldwide, it owns interests in 232 properties as of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Precious Moments, Inc.</span> American catalog order company

Precious Moments Company, Inc. (PMI) is an American catalog order company that sells giftware. The company was formed in 1978 by the illustrator Samuel J. Butcher, as a licensing company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albemarle Corporation</span> American chemical company

Albemarle Corporation is an American specialty chemicals manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It operates 3 divisions: lithium, bromine specialties and catalysts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial Metals Company</span> Steel and metal manufacturer

Commercial Metals Company (CMC), headquartered in Irving, Texas, is a producer of rebar and related products for the construction industry. Along with Nucor, it is one of two primary suppliers of steel used to reinforce concrete in buildings, bridges, roads, and infrastructure in the U.S. The company also owns Tensar, a producer of foundation systems used for the construction of roadways, public infrastructure, and industrial facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axa XL</span> Bermuda-domiciled insurance company

Axa XL is an American subsidiary of global insurance and reinsurance company Axa. It is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, domiciled in Hamilton, Bermuda, and has more than 100 offices on 6 continents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gund</span> Canadian/American manufacturer of plush stuffed animals

Gund is a Canadian-owned manufacturer of plush stuffed animals. The company is based in Edison, New Jersey, and distributes throughout the United States and Canada as well as in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South America. Gund is currently run by third generation family owner Bruce Raiffe whose grandfather Jacob Swedlin purchased the company from the original founder in 1925. Their slogan is “Gotta Getta Gund”.

RLH Equity Partners is a private equity firm based in Los Angeles that focuses on making investments in growing services businesses. Sectors of particular investment interest to the firm include business services, healthcare, and government services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SandRidge Energy</span> American energy company

SandRidge Energy, Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the Mid-Continent region of the United States. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cousins Properties</span> American real estate company

Cousins Properties Incorporated is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) that invests in office buildings in Atlanta, Charlotte, Austin, Phoenix, Tampa, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The company has developed notable properties including CNN Center, Omni Coliseum, 191 Peachtree Tower, and Emory Point in Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qurate Retail Group</span> American fashion holding company

Qurate Retail, Inc., also known as Qurate Retail Group, is an American media conglomerate controlled by company chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares.

Starz Inc. is an American entertainment company that owns and operates pay television channels, including the namesake Starz network, Starz Encore and MoviePlex, as well as a media distribution company. The company is headquartered at Meridian, Colorado, and uses nearby Englewood as its location in corporate filings and press releases. On December 8, 2016, The company was converted into a subsidiary of Lionsgate.

QTS Realty Trust, Inc. is a provider of carrier-neutral data centers and provides colocation services within North America and Northern Amsterdam and is based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company's largest operating areas are: Northern Virginia, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Hillsboro, Oregon, and New Jersey.

Things Remembered is an e-commerce retailer specializing in personalized gifts, messaging and engraving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarivate</span> American analytics company

Clarivate Plc is a British-American publicly traded analytics company that operates a collection of subscription-based services, in the areas of bibliometrics and scientometrics; business / market intelligence, and competitive profiling for pharmacy and biotech, patents, and regulatory compliance; trademark protection, and domain and brand protection. In the academy and the scientific community, Clarivate is known for being the company which calculates the impact factor, using data from its Web of Science product family, that also includes services/applications such as Publons, EndNote, EndNote Click, and ScholarOne. Its other product families are Cortellis, DRG, CPA Global, Derwent, MarkMonitor, CompuMark, and Darts-ip, and also the various ProQuest products and services.

References

  1. 1 2 Erd, Amanda (January 12, 2023). "After News of Acquisition, Is Jim Shore Parting Ways with Enesco?". Gifts & Decorative Accessories. Retrieved December 18, 2023. The open-ended agreement
  2. Enesco, LLC. "corporate information - about us". Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  3. "Enesco and Jim Shore Ink Long Term Licensing Deal Through 2019". PR Newswire (Press release). Enesco. July 22, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  4. Carthage Press 2005[ not specific enough to verify ]
  5. Schwartz, Meredith (January 2007). "Enesco files Chapter 11". Home Accents Today. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2007.
  6. Enesco, LLC (February 15, 2007). "Enesco and Tinicum Capital Partners Announce Completion of Asset Sale" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  7. Black, Sam (April 24, 2009). "Lenox sells Dept 56 to Illinois firm". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal . Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  8. "Balmoral Funds Completes The Acquisition of Enesco, LLC". BusinessWire. November 9, 2015.
  9. Master, Spin. "Spin Master Announces Acquisition of GUND from Enesco". PR Newswire (Press release). Spin Master. Retrieved 2021-10-09.
  10. "Things Remembered Announces Sale Agreement with Enesco". PR Newswire (Press release). Things Remembered. February 6, 2019. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  11. O'Brien, Dan (December 28, 2022). "Things Remembered Distribution Center to Close". The Business Journal. Youngstown, Ohio. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  12. "1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. Expands Its Leadership Position in the Personalized Gifts Marketplace through its addition of Things Remembered". Business Wire (Press release). 1-800-Flowers. January 10, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  13. "Enesco acquired by holding company". Gift Shop Plus. January 10, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2023.