GoodToyGroup_web

Association.Within that structure, we had been working with a couple of different companies that did direct mail catalogues. One had gone bankrupt and another that tried to do it decided that it didn’t want to proceed. So, they came to a few of us who they knew and said, ‘If you want to take this on, we will give you all the infor- mation which is in all our systems for making catalogues for toy stores. A group of about twenty or so of us met and decided if all these other people could do it, we could certainly do it, ourselves.We formed a company, which is an LLC, so that all the mem- bers are owners, and elected a temporary Board of Directors, of whom I was one, and started to see if this was, indeed, a possibility.We start- ed out with about 45 members who all put in a very small capital contribution to fund the beginning of the company; we hired one of our members, who had just sold her store to her daughter, to be our Executive Director, and the rest of us were volunteers. Our first catalogue was published in 2000, and we have been in business ever since.We now have a staff and I am still the President and Chairperson, and still running the company. We have about 75 members across the country with about 130 store locations – specialty toy stores, not only in small towns, but in big cities, as well.We’re basically a brick and mortar com- pany, owned by our members, and we do mar- keting–print and digital. BVM: Your catalogue is your major product. How does it get put together? THE GOOD TOY GROUP AT A GLANCE THE GOOD TOY GROUP WHAT: A member-owned, specialty toy marketing com- pany WHERE: South Kingstown, Rhode Island WEBSITE: www.goodtoy group.com