Hobby & Craft Retail Industry Competitors

Color Me Mine Enterprises brings out the Picasso in you. The company has more than 100 franchise locations in about two dozen US states, as well as in Australia, France, Germany, Kuwait, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the UK....

Its execs may not be the artsy type, but Dick Blick Holdings knows its art. The firm (more commonly known as Blick Art) operates about 30 art supply stores in some 15 states that sell more than 30,000 products (such as paints, brushes, canvas, paper pads, and writing instruments) to professional artists, students, and teachers....

Business at Gold Crest Distributing is for the birds. The company sells more than 5,000 backyard nature and bird items, including bird seed, feeders, baths, Purple Martin houses, and accessories to wholesale and retail businesses nationwide. Gold Crest supplies some 1,300 retail bird supply stores throughout the US....

For pilots who would rather fly their planes from the ground, Hobbico (dba Great Planes) makes and sells radio-controlled model aircraft -- as well as boats, cars, gliders, and related accessories. The company is the world's largest retail and wholesale distributor of radio-controlled hobby products....

If something wicker this way comes, Hobby Lobby Stores may be the source. The firm operates about 400 stores in more than 30 states and sells arts and crafts supplies, baskets, beads, candles, frames, home-decorating accessories, and silk flowers. The #3 craft and fabric retailer (behind Michaels Stores and Jo-Ann Stores), it prefers to set up shop in second-generation retail sites (such as vacated supermarkets and superstores)....

Mitchell & Ness would like to take you by the hand and guide you down that path fondly known as Memory Lane. The company is a manufacturer of authentic vintage sports apparel and accessories including vintage jerseys from MLB, the NBA, NFL, and NHL....

In need of a figurine to complete your latest collection? The Bradford Exchange can help. The company, doing business as collectiblestoday.com, is the e-commerce arm of The Bradford Group, one of the world's largest trading centers for collectibles. The company also sells products of affiliated companies such as The Bradford Editions (mini-plates and canvas prints, Christmas ornaments), Ashton-Drake Galleries (dolls), and Ardleigh Elliot (music boxes), as well as Precious Moments, Elvis memorabilia, and works from artists such as Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade....

The Hobby Hub serves those who get all geeked out over science kits or blow their tops for model rockets. The company operates the hobby and toy retail Web site eHobbies.com, which sells more than 70,000 items, including slot cars, radio-controlled toys, plastic models, model railroads, and telescopes and binoculars....

If you're seeking a stamp of approval (or any other kind of stamp), best to consult with the Stanley Gibbons Group. The company sells stamps, autographs, and other collectibles from its London retail store and its retail web site. It also makes stamp-collecting accessories and publishes Gibbons Stamp Monthly magazine, which has been in continuous circulation since 1890....

When you're ready to whittle yourself a desk, Woodcraft Supply stands by to provide the woodworking materials and tools you'll need for the job. Established in 1928, the company offers chisels, finishes and glues, planes, power tools, router accessories and bits, saws, vises, and many other products from manufacturers around the world for carving, shaping, and finishing wooden objects....

Some are content to merely collect and dust their tchotchkes, but others are compelled to make them. A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts is ready and willing to serve them (focusing on women 25-55). The crafty superstores stock silk and dried flowers, as well as art and scrapbooking supplies and picture frames (which account for about one-third of sales), yarn, seasonal items, fashion crafts, beads, and everything else needed to glue, paint, or arrange....

Aaron Brothers has its hand in custom-framing and crafting. The company opened its first shop in Los Angeles in 1946 and now operates about 165 stores in almost a dozen states, mostly in the western US, but also in Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia. Aaron Brothers stores offer ready-made frames and mattes, art supplies, and custom framing services....

Through careful piecing and pinning, Hancock Fabrics has become a leading nationwide fabric chain (far behind Jo-Ann Stores). The company caters to customers who sew by offering fabrics, crafts, as well as sewing machines and accessories through some 270 stores (down from nearly 450 in 2004) in more than 35 states....

Jo-Ann Stores has sewn up the leadership of the fabric store market. The company is the #1 fabric retailer in the US, well ahead of Hancock Fabrics. Jo-Ann Stores sells fabrics and sewing supplies, craft materials, decorating and floral items, and seasonal goods....

Two teenage girls founded the Michael Olaf Montessori Company (named after their baby brother) in 1983 to offer Montessori educational materials to parents and schools worldwide. The company's toys, music, puzzles, and books are sold in nearly 30 countries through its catalogs....

Michaels Stores is pretty crafty. The nation's #1 arts and crafts retailer owns and operates about 975 Michaels Stores canvassing the US and Canada. Michaels sells more than 40,000 products including art and hobby supplies, décor, frames, needlecraft kits, party supplies, seasonal products, and silk and dried flowers....