When plush toy manufacturer Aurora World Inc. refers to animals, it’s usually of the stuffed variety, but now the company is getting involved with the living kind.
Pico Rivera-based Aurora is rolling out a line of pet products, including beds, carriers and clothes for dogs and cats. The items are expected to hit the shelves next month at major pet and gift retailers.
“The pet business is a fast-growing market segment we want to take advantage of,” Paul Roche, a senior vice president at the company, said in a statement.
Aurora is the latest of several local companies lining up to cater to four-legged customers. Malibu-based Jakks Pacific Inc. acquired the Pet Pal product line to make its push into the furry arena.
Expanding into pet products, an industry which accounted for an estimated $35 billion last year, enables companies to move into stores that may not carry their core merchandise. Aurora already distributes its 3,000 plush items to about 25,000 retailers around the world, including Mervyn’s LLC and Hallmark Cards Inc.
Aurora isn’t entering the pet business blindly. It tested consumer interest in pet products last year by introducing its Fancy Pals line of toy carriers for children and young teenagers, hoping to cash in on the Paris Hilton-driven celebrity trend of toting small dogs.
Aurora believes it can lure pet products consumers unfamiliar with their lines with attractive prices. The items, which typically come in leopard, Dalmatian or pink heart prints, range in cost from $9.99 for clothes to $44.99 for a pet carrier.
At the same time, Aurora is hoping to make a big splash with “Pink Panther” toys. The company has the license to make toys related to the Steve Martin film, which opens Feb. 10. Among the items will be stick-on car window toys, similar to the “Garfield” figures.
Thin Sales
Los Angeles designer Phyllis Maks has stumbled onto a lucrative area: the tummy.
Maks’ clothing company, Phyllis Maks Inc., markets a line called PK Maks Slimfitters. It features pants, skirts, dresses and tops with built-in body support to smooth unseemly stomach bulges. Apparently there are plenty of women who want a little tuck: the L.A.-based company racked up $2.5 million in pants and dress sales last year, up from $250,000 after the line launched in 2001.
“Women want to look good more than anything, and the style is almost not as important as the fact they want to look thin,” Maks said. “It is baby boomers not wanting to age.”
Catalogs and retailers are taking notice. In the last year and a half, Maks added the Novato, Calif.-based TravelSmith Outfitters Inc. to her growing catalog business, which includes Norm Thompson Outfitters Inc. and Soft Surroundings by Triad Catalog Company LLC. PK Maks also sells to about 800 smaller retailers.
PK Maks’ most popular items are boot-cut pants, wrap tops and gauchos, all with built-in support. The clothes range in price from $35 to $125.
With about 30 years experience in the apparel industry, 50-year-old Maks detects a substantial shift in the market for women middle-aged and older. Unlike the days when baggy clothes were the norm, she said those customers are now going for fashionable clothes that more closely resemble those of their daughters’ generation than their grandmothers’.
“She doesn’t want to look old, and that goes up all the way to 90-year-old-women,” said Maks. “These women have money, and they are buying like crazy.”
Although most large chains focus primarily on the younger crowd, Maks isn’t the only one to recognize the buying power of older customers. Other companies, such as L.A.-based SLL Inc., maker of the Tummy Tuck Jean, have developed their own body-cinching products.
Toy Bill
The organization Environment California claims that toys and baby bottles which are made with the chemicals bisphenol-A and phthalates are unsafe. The group is backing state legislation to ban the use of the chemicals, saying that exposure can cause premature puberty, obesity and other health problems.
Rachel Gibson, staff attorney for Environment California, was positive after her group pressed the case before the state Assembly. “I am optimistic that the hearing helped the legislators better understand the science behind the bill. I am hopeful we can move this forward.”
The Toy Association of Southern California is fighting the bill, AB 319, which is authored by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) and backed by several legislators, including Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-Los Angeles).
In a letter sent to the Assembly by the trade group’s president, Leeton Lee, the association asserts that claims of harm are unfounded, and that bans of bisphenol-A and phthalates would be costly for local toy makers. “The deleterious impact to the California toy industry, which has already been significantly impacted by foreign competition and a challenging retail environment, from the passing of AB 319 will be irreversible,” Lee wrote.
California would be the first state with such legislation. The European Union and several countries have limited the use of phthalates.
*Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
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