Katy Sue buys Alphabet Moulds in European expansion
17th January 2022
Katy Sue, makers of the world’s best silicone moulds, have today acquired one of their largest competitors in a significant international expansion. The fast growing craft business, which is implementing a buy and build strategy to consolidate the highly fragmented craft market, has completed the acquisition of Austrian mould manufacturer Alphabet Moulds.
Having grown rapidly by acquisition over the past 4 years, Katy Sue, headed by founder Sue Balfour, has acquired Acrylic Crafts a maker of laser cut craft supplies, paper craft experts Craft Creations and last year the acquisition of paper quilling experts JJ Quilling. The latest international acquisition is one of a number of deals the business is looking at as it hopes to build a family of well-loved craft brands.
Alphabet Moulds brings with it over 300 new mould designs along with additional manufacturing capacity perfected over the past 11 years. Sue Balfour explains,
“We have known Helen and David for some time and have always admired their business which has a complimentary customer base to ours but is predominantly based in Europe. We are delighted they have trusted us with maintaining the legacy of Alphabet Moulds and we have ambitious plans to develop that website and grow our newly expanded capability.”
Alphabet Moulds owners Helen and David commented, “We always felt there was a good cultural and creative fit between the two businesses, and we see a combination of the businesses as the right next step for Alphabet Moulds. We can assure all our customers and partners that after a slight pause to make the transfer it will be business as usual, with all production moving to Katy Sue’s large UK manufacturing site in South Shields and the website www.alphabetmoulds.com remaining as the core web channel.”
Katy Sue has grown to over 30 staff during the pandemic and is investing heavily in its ecommerce capability, specifically its own websites and market places such as Amazon. This expansion is part of the company’s plans to grow revenues to £10m, employing over 100 staff by the end of 2025. This European expansion compliments the companies based in the UK and its USA operation in New York.
Katy Sue expect to re-open the Alphabet Moulds website by mid-February 2022.
Visit the Katy Sue family of craft brands:
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