Even in this economy, Melissa and Doug toys continue being well-known gifts.
Coming from an All-American design team based at company headquarters in Wilton, Connecticut, the upscale educational toymakers have been able to post year after year of growth for almost two decades.
But it’s not all fun and games at Melissa and Doug; the company’s success is the results of one of the most astute of business masterminds anywhere, the eponymous husband-and-wife team of co-founders who employ one of the roughest job interviews this side of Silicon Valley to part ways of the geniuses from the merely talented.
With a move that could seem more ideal for a technology firm or, even, the cut-throat world of high finance, hopeful applicants are put to a grueling timed test created to push their problem-solving skills to the limits.
Though a toymaker, Melissa and Doug is first and foremost a successful business with global operations and can afford nothing but the best.
Belying its cautiously nurtured image as a good old-fashioned fun American company, it is truly a tough-nosed profit-making darling of Wall Street.
Without a doubt, the brand is famous in part because of its appearance on media from print to television, from The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal to The Oprah Winfrey Show.
But it is not only a toymaker any longer, either – though it has stayed close to its roots, now offering classroom supplies and arts and crafts products in addition to toys and playsets.
After all, what could be more “educational” than playing with objects generally encountered in school!
The educational toy business is almost sure to make a profit as no parent can withstand the urge to splurge on something that claims to help their kids develop their smarts.
With two hundred employes in the United States and another one thousand around the globe, this is one company that’s poised to keep making toys and money!
