Disney Co. moves into home goods

[daveypoo]

Orlando Sentinel
Targeting adults, it will expand into the furniture, linen and wine markets.

Angela Pruitt | Dow Jones Newswires
June 26, 2007

NEW YORK - Walt Disney Co., aiming to be more than a Mickey Mouse operation, is branching out into furniture, linens and even wine.

Starting this fall, Burbank, Calif.-based Disney will unveil a line of home goods including lighting products made by the Minka Group. Disney also plans to market a fashion bath-and-bedding collection with Dan River, and outdoor tabletops and entertaining products with Zak Designs next year.

Next up: Disney is launching a wine label through Costco Wholesale Corp., based in Issaquah, Wash., that is based on its upcoming animated film Ratatouille, the tale of a rat who wants to become a French chef. The chardonnay, from the Burgundy region in France and bearing the Ratatouille name and likeness, will sell for $12.99.

The licensed products, targeted at adults and devoid of mouse ears, underscores Disney's push to gain a deeper foothold on more-sophisticated consumer products. Last fall, the company partnered with Drexel Heritage on an upscale furniture line based on the decor of Walt Disney's home and office during the 1930s and 1940s.

Marketing items based on Disney characters "is the biggest part of our business because that's our heritage. But the noncharacter [segment] is growing very, very quickly," said Jim Fielding, executive vice president of global retail sales and marketing for Disney's consumer products.

He said the company projects that its noncharacter branding will be 10 percent to 15 percent of Disney's licensed business during the next five years.

Disney's consumer-products division also said last week that it expects retail sales by the company and its licensees to rise 13 percent to $26 billion in fiscal 2007, double the level of five years ago.

"If we truly want to double the business again . . . which is what our goal is in the next five years, we need to branch into different parts of the market that we're currently not . . . in, and that's where noncharacter" comes into play, Fielding said.

In the apparel arena, Disney recently launched a line of bridal gowns designed by Kirstie Kelly, and the company is in final negotiations with a major retailer to launch Disney Jeans in the United States, probably by fall 2008.

Disney Jeans was first launched in 2005 in France, Italy, Spain and Eastern Europe. The line, designed for kids and teens, also is sold in Mexico, Japan and China.

"I think that the private-label arena in denim wasn't as developed overseas as it was here in the United States," Fielding said. "So the market for Disney noncharacter jeans was just more apparent in the European market than it has been in the United States."

Fielding said the company also is looking to launch a sporting line in 2008 in Europe for kids, which will have a combination of character and noncharacter branding.

"When you look at the corporate structure, it's a natural extension for Disney to look to other avenues of growth beyond characters," said Tony Lisanti, editor-and-chief of License! Global magazine.

"Their character business has been so strong for so many years. As their consumers . . . continue to get older, this creates pockets of new markets" for the company, he said.
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When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.
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