Celebrate Express Launches Umbrella Website Feb 28, 2007 3:01 PM
, By Jim Tierney
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The new Celebrate Express Website is a party of sorts, one to which all of its brands were invited. CelebrateExpress.com now offers products from Birthday Express, Costume Express, and 1st Wishes, selling costumes and supplies for children’s birthday parties, showers, and other adult parties.
Meghan Hardy, a marketing manager at Celebrate Express, says the new Website is much more manageable. “We wanted to bring all of our party brands into one place,” she says. “We’ve been talking about it for a while and started moving on it very quickly. Our other goal was to make our product easier to find for our customers. We changed the navigation around a bit and switched over to a more powerful search. We’ve changed how we present featured products, and the layout is different. We’re able to feature a greater breadth of product selection on each category page. It’s a much more comprehensive site.” The site debuted earlier this week.
Celebrate Express offers products in more than 150 party themes, and customers can select from preassorted party packs or customize their selection to fit their specific needs. The 1st Wishes brand, a spin-off of Birthday Express, specializes in items for first-birthday parties. The company mails the Birthday Express and Costume Express print catalogs.
The umbrella site comes as Celebrate Express tries to rebound from a disappointing fiscal 2006. It posted a 26% increase in sales, to $87 million, but reported net income of just $405,000, down from $2.5 million the previous year and $9.5 million for fiscal 2004.
In May 2006, Kevin Green was hired as CEO, and in June the company folded its Storybook Heirlooms brand, its catalog of special-occasion apparel for girls. In August, Celebrate Express retained New York-based investment bank Cowen and Co. to “review strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including a potential sale of the company.”
