News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Jeff Haken with Drrie and Nemo and Pooh and Piglet.
The familiar figures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger and Nemo, among many others, will bob around in bathtubs across the globe — thanks to a new arrangement between Disney, Wal-Mart and a small company from Sisters.
Grandpa’s Tub Toys, owned by the Haken family of Melvco, Inc. and Haken Cosmetics of Sisters, has just completed a line of tub toys to be sold in Wal-Mart’s U.S. and international stores.
According to company representative Jeff Haken, his family’s company has been selling tub toys of various kinds — cars, fire trucks, and other figures — for two or three years. The company has licensing agreements with the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department, Campbell’s soup and Kellogg’s.
Toys are sold in Fred Meyer stores, Ray’s Food Place, Bi-Mart and other large retailers in addition to Wal-Mart.
The toys are made in factories in China.
The company had always wanted to do Disney characters, but an approach to Disney fizzled out. It was the established relationship with Wal-Mart that got the ball rolling again, Haken said. Wal-Mart buyers arranged a meeting with Disney representatives in Bentonville, Arkansas — Wal-Mart’s headquarters — and the companies agreed to work together.
Wal-Mart handled the cumbersome licensing process, which removed a heavy burden from the small Sisters company.
But it still wasn’t easy getting the toys into stores.
“By April we had a purchase order and it took till August to get the tub toys done,” Haken told The Nugget.
Disney is very particular about the representation of its characters and the level of detail required was staggering.
For example, Haken said, “Nemo” has very distinctive eyes.
“You’ve got to get the eyes just right,” Haken said. “It’s tough to get that much detail.”
That meant a lot of work with an artist who made molds that were sent to China and configured for manufacture. Then samples would be returned and modified and sent back — over and over until the final product met Disney’s approval.
“You just keep going back and forth,” Haken said. “Jeff Dobson (a Haken representative) was really instrumental in hammering out all the details with Disney.”
The initial order for Wal-Mart stores is 200,000 pieces — or 10 railroad cars full. That sounds like a lot, but according to Haken, it’s not a huge order.
It does bode well for the future.
Haken declined to discuss company revenues, but he did say that the Disney relationship could be lucrative.
“There’s a chance, in time, that it could double our revenues,” he said.
Because Disney characters are recognized and desired all over the world, Wal-Mart is putting these toys into its international stores.
“Disney basically opens up the worldwide market instead of us just selling it to U.S. Wal-Marts,” Haken said.
That’s another big step for the Sisters company. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the deal for Haken is the opportunity to be a player in the largest possible market.
“It gives legitimacy to a small little company,” he said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)