History of The Teddy Bear

Carte Blanche Greetings the company behind Tatty Teddy and Me to You has formed a strategic partnership with Russ Berrie to Launch the Me to You Brand In America.

Russ Berrie need to do something new as their figures have been badly hit by the swing to dressed Teddy Bears, from the likes of Maxine Clark’s Build-a-Bear in the USA and Bear Factories in the UK. I was recently at the Harrods shop at Gatwick airport and got into conversation with a very pleasant shop assistant there. I asked her what was her best selling Teddy Bear. This is what she said. “ I’ve sold Teddy Bears for many years and I’ve have seen a distinctive pattern emerge. People used to buy just Teddy Bears but now they demand Bears with some type of clothing on them. Our best seller is a Bear with a Jumper and the Harrods logo embroidered on it.”

Whist I’m a great fan of Carte Blanche, they are one of the fastest growing companies in the UK I’m concerned about the number of copycat offerings of grey bears that have appeared. Here in Blackpool every market stall and discount store has a rip off version of Tatty Teddy. We recently sampled up Bears for every nationwide conference team for their AGM dinner. One of the clubs chairman phoned me and said, I like your bears but can you give me another colour other than grey you can see grey bears on every street corner. I t is such a shame that companies in the industry have to resort to copying others. When we opened our shop in Benidorm there was no one selling personalised or dressed Bears. Now we have at least seven shops that are selling inferior copycat versions of our product and there is a Build-a-Bear copycat offering.

Paul Lakeman

FlyingCards