When the Amloid toy company was born in 1916, the founders were making toys out of a garage in Lodi, across from a goat farm.
Now, 102 years later, the fourth generation of this family-owned business have grown the company into a top player in the construction building-block category, while carrying on its tradition of producing the most loved toy at the Jersey shore — the plastic beach pail.
Their secret for surviving for over a century in the highly competitive, winner-takes-all world of toy manufacturing? Keeping control of its production while the rest of the toy world was outsourcing it to China.
“We zigged when essentially everyone else zagged,” says Chief Executive Officer Michael Albarelli, the third Michael Albarelli in his family to lead the company.
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Amloid, now based in Cedar Knolls in Morris County, is one of more than 1,000 toy makers gathering in New York City this week for the annual North American International Toy Fair. It’s the place where manufacturers go to promote their toys and try to grow their businesses and boost sales.
Last year ended on a disappointing note for the industry. Weak holiday results caused sales for the full year to grow by just 1 percent, well below the optimistic 4.5 percent forecast by sales tracking and research firm The NPD Group.
Manufacturers say that they're expecting 2018 to be a much better year, pointing to new products and broader distribution.
For Amloid, it also will be where they tell the toy industry, "Hey, look at how we’ve grown."
“This will be our largest presence ever at Toy Fair." Albarelli said. “We want to represent this company that’s aggressively growing,” he said.
They join a group of North Jersey-based toy companies, including Alex Brands in Fairfield and Epoch Everlasting Play in Parsippany, that are exhibiting at Toy Fair and that say they expect sales growth in 2018.
Declines in 2017? Look at Toys R Us
The September bankruptcy filing by Wayne-based Toys R Us was one of the reasons for the decline in 2017. Manufacturers believe it created the wrong impression among consumers that Toys R Us had gone out of business. Fewer shoppers in Toys R Us stores meant fewer impulse toy purchases, hurting a range of manufacturers.
Toys R Us this month began going-out-of-business sales at 168 stores. The fate of the company’s approximately 700 remaining stores depends on its success in getting its reorganization plan approved by its lenders, creditors, and the bankruptcy court.
The Toys R Us bankruptcy has manufacturers, ranging from the two largest, Hasbro and Mattel, to the smallest companies, talking about the importance of not depending too heavily on any one retailer.
"It's hard to predict what happens in the marketplace in the long run, so you have to make sure in today's world that you're really diversified so the consumer can get your products when and where they want them," said Michael Varda, president and chief executive of Epoch Everlasting Play in Parsippany, formerly known as International Playthings.
Predictions for 2018 are up
At Toy Fair, Epoch, which sells the popular Calico Critters playsets featuring woodland critters, is introducing a new "Town series" of more sophisticated woodland creatures who live in the city and who are designed to appeal to older girls, ages 6 to 9.
After first selling Calico Critters in Toys R Us, Epoch has broadened distribution of that brand, selling them at Walmart and regional chains such as Meijer, and in specialty retailers and online. "We expect sales to nearly double this year," Varda said.
Neil Friedman, president and chief executive of Fairfield-based Alex Brands is also expecting 2018 to be a good year. "We're very excited about this year because we have a lot of newness," Friedman said. "We've been working very hard toward adding creativity and innovation," he said.
New products this year include a collapsible football that fits in a pocket, and foam puzzle balls that come apart to reveal a smaller ball inside, as well as additions to the company's arts and crafts lines.
Bob Wann, a member of the executive board of the Toy Industry Association, which hosts the toy fair, and the chief executive of Wisconsin-based manufacturer PlayMonster , said the fair "is an extremely importance showcase" for toy makers. In addition to bringing retailers and manufacturers together for meetings, he said, it also is an opportunity to spread the word to consumers, through media coverage of the fair, about toys that are likely to be in demand during the holiday season.
Heading into Toy Fair, Michael Albarelli, and his brother Joseph Albarelli, the chief operating officer of Amloid, said the fair gives them an opportunity to meet top executives of the retail chains that sell their toys. They believe the diversity of retailers who sell Amloid products, from mom and pop beach shops, to drugstores, dollar stores and supermarkets, to national giants like Walmart, Kmart, Target, Toys R Us and Costco protects their company from market swings.
The fact that they own their own manufacturing facilities, in Mexico, also has kept the company in the game this long.
A local success story
Amloid made its plastic toys in a factory in Saddle Brook up until 2002, keeping its production in the United States long after other toy makers had shifted to China. Prior to 2002, the company had a joint venture with a Mexican manufacturer to share toy molds. That gave the company contacts and experience in Mexico, and enabled it to shift production to Mexico when it closed the Saddle Brook plant.
“A lot of companies like ours — plastic processors in the United States — either went out of business and closed their doors,” or outsourced their production to Chinese factories, Albarelli said. Moving production to Mexico, rather than using Chinese factories, allowed Amloid to keep control of quality and costs, and keep its distribution centers and offices in this country. They also don’t have to worry about shipping headaches and costs connected with overseas shipping.
Each of the family’s four generations has played a role in giving Amloid more than a century of success. Anthony Barberia, the great-grandfather, had the entrepreneurial spirit to launch a company from nothing. Michael Albarelli, the grandfather, expanded the company's expertise in injection molding in the 1940s, after returning from World War II.
The company is credited with making one of the first plastic beach pails on the market, and it came up with the then ground-breaking idea of selling collections of beach toys in net bags for easy storage.
The next Michael Albarelli, the father of the current chief executive and chief operating officer, made the tough decision to close the Saddle Brook factory and relocate operations to Mexico to keep the company alive. He remains involved with the company, overseeing manufacturing operations.
Now, as the current executives of the company, Michael, 38, and Joseph, 35, are steering Amloid into new category with explosive growth potential — molded plastic construction bricks similar to Mattel’s Mega Blox or Lego’s Duplos — larger sized bricks designed for toddlers and children too young for the mini Lego bricks.
Amloid started making its version of construction bricks five years ago and got a early boost when Costco placed a big order for the toys. Preschool building blocks now represents over 50 percent of the company’s sales and is contributing to the Amloid’s double-digit annual growth, Michael said.
“We’re the number three player market share wise in the U.S. domestic market” for the building blocks junior construction category, he said.
The company has licensing deals with the Crayola crayon brand to make Crayola building blocks sets that are sold in clear plastic crayons, and with the Tonka truck brand for truck themed building sets.
“The fact that we’re still owned by the same family — we’re extremely proud of that,” he said. “We’re going to give it our best effort to keep it around and relevant as long as we can.”
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