Palitoy

Palitoy
Industry Toys
Founded 1909 (1909) (as Cascelloid Company)

Palitoy was a British toy company. It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence. Its products included Action Man, Action Force, Tiny Tears, Pippa, Tressy, Mainline Model Railways, Merlin, Star Wars figures and the Care Bears.

History

The Cascelloid Company was founded by Alfred Edward Pallett in Coalville, Leicestershire in 1919 (ref: V&A Museum of Childhood website) to produce celluloid and fancy goods. Their first toy was in 1920 and the first doll in 1925.

Cascelloid was bought in 1931 by British Xylonite and the word "Palitoy" was created as a trademark in 1935 for their toy division. Injection moulding was developed by British Xylonite in 1941 and was used for the Palitoy toy ranges.

In 1978 the Chad Valley toy company was sold to Palitoy.

Palitoy was sold to US food company General Mills in 1968, and formed part of the company's toy division, sometimes known as CPG (Creative Products Group).

In 1981 British toy group Airfix Products fell into receivership. Palitoy's owner General Mills acquired the Airfix kit range and its GMR model railways range. General Mills also snapped up UK rights to Meccano. Back in 1971 it had acquired non-UK rights when it bought Miro-Meccano in France from the receivers of another British toy group, Tri-ang.

Palitoy effectively ceased to be an independent business in 1984 when its parent company, CPG, part of General Mills, closed its entire design department leaving it effectively just a sales and marketing operation.[1] 1 May 1985 also saw the end of most manufacturing at Palitoy with 327 staff in manufacturing and distribution out of 585 made redundant and manufacturing shifted overseas.[2]

The restructure was undertaken in advance of the spin-off of General Mills' toy division CPG, separated from its parent in 1985 as Kenner Parker Toys, Inc. There were many potential acquirers of the business but the subsidiary was floated on the stock exchange with General Mills' shareholders getting equivalent shares in Kenner Parker. This was more tax efficient for General Mills.[3]

Once independent, Kenner Parker's strategy was to withdraw from the modelling market. As a consequence, Palitoy sold Airfix to Humbrol in 1986[4] and ceased to operate its Mainline railways business.

In 1987 Tonka purchased Kenner Parker including Palitoy for $555 million, borrowing extensively to fund the acquisition. However, the cost of servicing the debt meant Tonka itself had to find a buyer and it was eventually acquired by Hasbro in 1991.[5]

Hasbro closed the former Palitoy site in 1994 with manufacture of the last product made there, Play-Doh, being transferred to Hasbro's Irish factory.[6] The 10-acre site was put on the market in July 1996 for a price of £1.25m with outline planning permission for housing.[7]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/collections/archives/the-palitoy-archive/ at the Museum of Childhood
  2. ↑ Dow Jones News Service, 1 May 1985: UK Unit of General Mills to end some operations
  3. ↑ Ward, Arthur(2009), The Boys' Book of Airfix London: Ebury Press (Ebury Publishing).
  4. ↑ Airfix
  5. ↑ Wojahn, Ellen (2003) Playing by Different Rules: The General Mills/Parker Brothers Merger" New York: Beard Books
  6. ↑ http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/collections/british-toy-making-project/toy-manufacturers/palitoy
  7. ↑ Property Week 5 July 1996: Action man goes green as factory sold.
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