6 Regent Street
Livingston, New Jersey 07039
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives:
Rose Art Industries offers over 1,500 products, which include crayons, markers, paints, molding compounds, cosmetics, activity kits, and licensed products--an extremely broad and diverse offering. With over 75 years of experience, Rose Art strives to create new and exciting toys and art supplies for children.
History of Rose Art Industries
Considered the fastest-growing crayon producer in the world, Rose Art Industries is a family-owned and operated private company based in Livingston, New Jersey. Rose Art's products, numbering over 1,500, include a wide array of arts and crafts and stationery items, as well as toys, writing instruments, and bulletin and dry erase boards that are sold at leading retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, KayBee Toys, Walgreen's, and A.C. Moore. Rose Art's growth is associated with licensing agreements with such companies as Mattel, Marvel, and the NBA, and the company manufactures a number of top-selling children's arts and crafts supplies, toys, activities, slumber bags, and back to school products featuring the popular characters Bob the Builder, Spider-Man, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Strawberry Shortcake, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Rose Art manufactures or assembles 70 percent of its products in the United States at plants in New Jersey, Indiana, and Oregon.
Family Business Takes Root: 1923-80s
In 1923 Isidor Rosen founded a small business called Rosebud Art Company in the Bronx, New York, that printed and produced coloring books. During the 1930s, the company changed its product offering to focus on games and puzzles. Two decades after its founding, the company was run by Isidor's sons Irving and Sydney. During Irving and Sydney's tenure as company heads, Rose Art diversified its product offerings to include novelties, American flags, and art and school supplies.
By the late 1970s, the company's name had changed to Rose Art Industries. In 1978 the third generation of the Rosen family--Sydney's sons Jeffrey and Lawrence--became active in the company. Rose Art focused on the manufacture of arts and crafts supplies, including crayons, paints, and chalks. That year annual sales reached $850,000.
In the late 1970s Rose Art moved to Passaic, New Jersey, across the river from New York's Manhattan. During the Labor Day Weekend of 1985, a massive fire swept through the four-block industrial complex where Rose Art was located. The fire destroyed 23 homes and 17 industrial buildings occupied by approximately 60 manufacturers. Damages for the four-block site were estimated at $400,000,000.
Just days prior to the devastating fire, Sydney Rosen had been close to securing a $750,000 loan to buy new equipment for his growing company. Following the fire, the company's entire inventory, manufacturing equipment, and even financial records were destroyed. Rosen's bank, Midlantic Bank/North, had faith in his company, and approved the loan a day after the fire. Instead of going toward new equipment, the loan was used for rebuilding. Additionally, the bank offered Rosen and his company a $1.5-million line of credit.
The quick financial response and determination of the Rosen family aided the company's recovery. Sydney Rosen recalled in The (New Jersey) Record, "The big question the day after the fire was whether we were going to start up at all. My two sons, my wife, they all looked at me and said, 'What are we going to do?' It never occurred to me to quit. I said, 'Well, let's go,' and my two sons sprang into action." Immediately, Rosen installed extra phone lines in his home and ran the business from there until the company obtained a lease at a warehouse in Bloomfield, New Jersey, a month later. Two years after the fire, Rose Art's sales had more than doubled, reaching $13 million in 1987. By 1993 company annual sales had increased by almost 2,000 percent to total roughly $100 million.
Acquisitions and Licensing in the 1990s
Rosen brothers Jeffrey and Lawrence bought Rose Art in the early 1990s. With Larry as president and CEO and Jeff COO, they continued the entrepreneurial spirit of the company by developing a growth strategy based on acquisitions and new product development. Rose Art president Larry Rosen noted in the New Jersey Business that the company would continue to grow by "acquisitions, creativity and innovation." Through a steady series of acquisitions, including Coloron/Avalon, Warren Industries, American Publishing, among others, Rose Art increased its worldwide presence in the arts and crafts and toy industries.
In 1992 Rose Art ventured into the doll market when it became the licensed manufacturer of soft-bodied dolls in the "Precious Moments" series. Rose Art dolls in the series started at just under $10 and quickly became a hot seller among collectors and children alike. Also that year licensing agreements with Kodak yielded winners with Rose Art's Kodak Sketch Case, which was awarded the Parent's Choice Gold Award, and the Kodak Designer Desk, which was chosen by child expert Dr. Stevanne Auerbach as one of 1992's "100 Best Product Picks."
In 1993, Rose Art acquired the doll manufacturer Jesco, Inc. This acquisition opened the door for licensing rights with Jesco's famous Kewpie doll on the eve of the doll's 80th anniversary. The doll's official debut was launched at the American International Toy Fair on Valentine's Day, 1994. Rose Art president and CEO Larry Rosen stated, "We expect our new line of whimsical and nostalgic Kewpie Babies ... to recapture the hearts of people young and old everywhere."
Marketing both to the nostalgic and the trendy consumer, Rose Art entered into the fashion doll industry with the release of XUXA, a replica of the wildly popular Brazilian children's entertainer. The 11.5-inch doll's lifelike appearance was gained by sculpting the doll from an actual mold of XUXA. Rose Art's first step into the fashion doll industry set new trends in the business. Larry Rosen stated, "Unlike other so-called ethnic fashion dolls, the XUXA doll is based on a real, charismatic and colorful children's entertainer--a woman with real features, fashions, talents and concerns." Released just in time for the 1993 holiday season, the XUXA doll quickly became the "number one ethnic fashion doll" at Toys R Us, with one outlet selling as many as 500 XUXA dolls in one weekend. Demand for the dolls surpassed the original 200,000 and 50,000 dolls were soon shipped to meet the popular demand.
Predicting the trends of the toy industry increased Rose Art's presence in the marketplace and by 1993, the company posted $105 million in annual sales. Though nowhere near the figure of leading toy maker Hasbro, whose annual sales that same year reached $2.7 billion, Rose Art could still claim to be in the top ten among toy makers. Despite the significance of Rose Art's inroads into the toy industry, the company's niche remained in the crayon and arts and crafts business. Rose Art became the fastest growing crayon manufacturer in the United States, ranking second behind Binney & Smith, the makers of Crayola.
Safety Precautions Alter Crayon Industry in 2000
When a report published in May 2000 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer cited government-certified lab results that indicated asbestos, a carcinogen, could be found in 32 of 40 crayons made by Crayola, Rose Art, and Prang, the media and public quickly took notice. At issue was whether the talc used in the manufacture of crayons could deposit levels of asbestos. While the crayon manufacturers and spokespeople for art supplies safety at the Art and Creative Materials Institute of Hanson, Massachusetts, did not endorse the Post's lab findings, the manufacturers were quick to investigate any safety concerns related to talc. Immediately on the heels of the news release, some school districts removed crayons from all classrooms as a precaution.
By June 2, Rose Art announced that their crayons were deemed free of any asbestos after independent testing through a U.S. government-certified lab. Fifteen months prior to any of the controversy surrounding talc used in crayons, Rose Art had developed talc-free crayons in over 90 percent of its crayon products as a means to create an improved crayon. On June 13, the Consumer Product Safety Commission urged crayon makers to reformulate their products to exclude the use of talc even though any health risks associated with talc crayons were very low. Binney & Smith and Prang agreed to reformulate their crayons within a year, while Rose Art felt secure that they had already taken steps. CEO Larry Rosen asserted, "Because of our reformulation to a talc-free crayon more than a year ago, I believe our crayons to be among the safest on the market. Ironically, it was our determination to make a better crayon, brighter and more durable, that led us to the talc-free formula we feel to be superior to any we've had before."
Surging Ahead into the New Millennium
By the end of 2000, Rose Art secured two key licensing agreements with Mattel to manufacture back to school supplies and activity products for Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company also signed a licensing agreement with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to create a new line of stationery, back-to-school products, and toys using player and team identification. In 2001 Rose Art acquired the Oregon-based coloring and arts manufacturer and distributor Western Graphics Corporation from that company's parent Mead Corporation. This acquisition further strengthened Rose Art's presence in the arts and crafts and stationery market that reached to over 80 countries worldwide. Larry Rosen claimed, "With this acquisition, as well as recent licensing deals and distribution agreements, Rose Art is well positioned for continued growth." As the company celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2003 with more than 1,500 products and continued steady growth, Rosen's words held true.
Principal Subsidiaries: Coloron Industries Inc.; Western Graphics Corporation; Rose Art West Inc.
Principal Competitors: Binney & Smith, Inc.; Faber-Castell AG; Dixon Ticonderoga Company; JAKKS Pacific, Inc.
Related information about Rose
A member of a genus of well-known shrubs or scrambling
perennials, nearly all native to the N hemisphere. So-called
climbing roses do not climb in a true sense, but grow up through
other vegetation or similar supports, and are prevented from
slipping back by the tough, often hooked, prickles on the stems.
The leaves are pinnate, with three or (usually) more oval, toothed
leaflets; they are semi-evergreen, many retaining at least some
leaves throughout the winter. The flowers of wild species are
5-petalled, flat or shallowly dish-shaped, white or yellow to red
or purple, and often fragrant. Many garden roses have larger
flowers with more numerous, less spreading petals, reaching an
extreme in the tight, many-petalled blooms of cabbage roses.
Cultivated forms also show a greater range of colours than wild
plants. The orange, red, or black fruit (hip or hep)
consists of a fleshy receptacle expanded to enclose the dry
achenes or true fruits within, the whole structure often
being crowned with the persistent sepals. The hips are attractive
to birds and animals, and are a rich source of vitamin C. The
bright red growths resembling balls of thread often found on roses
(called robins' pincushions) are galls caused by the
gall-wasp Cynips.
Prized for centuries for their beauty and as a source of
perfume, roses are probably the world's most widely cultivated
ornamental plants, with many wild species being taken directly into
gardens or playing an important role in the development of garden
forms. They are very hardy, tolerate most growing conditions, and
provide a profusion of forms and colours. Exactly when they were
first brought into cultivation is uncertain, but they were being
grown in China and probably elsewhere c.5000 BC. Several distinct types of rose such as
cluster-flowered bush roses (floribundas) have been
developed by horticulturists, and there are now over 20 000
named cultivars, with several hundred more produced each year by
the flourishing rose-breeding industry. The rose has been
extensively used as both a decorative and a heraldic symbol, for
example by the Royal Houses of York and Lancaster, and is the
national emblem of England. (Genus: Rosa, 250 species.
Family: Rosaceae.)
A rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa, and the flower of this shrub. There are
more than a hundred species of wild roses, all from the northern hemisphere
and mostly from temperate regions. The species form a group of
generally thorny shrubs or
climbers, and sometimes
trailing plants, reaching 2?5 m tall, rarely reaching as high
as 20 m by climbing over other plants.
The name originates from Latin rosa, borrowed through Oscan from colonial
Greek in southern
Italy rhodion
(Aeolic wrodion),
from Aramaic
wurrd?, from Assyrian wurtinnu, from Old Iranian *warda
(cf. Avestan
warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian w但r).
The leaves of most species
are 5?15 cm long, pinnate, with (3?) 5?9 (?13) leaflets and basal
stipules; The vast majority of roses are deciduous, but a few
(particularly in southeast Asia) are evergreen or nearly so.
The flowers of most
species roses have ten parts (five petals and five sepals) with the
exception of Rosa
sericea which often has only four of each;
The aggregate fruit of the rose is a berry-like structure
called a rose hip. Rose
species that produce open-faced flowers are attractive to pollinating bees and other insects, thus more apt to produce
hips. Each hip comprises an outer fleshy layer, the hypanthium, which contains
5?160 "seeds" (technically dry single-seeded fruits called achenes) embedded in a matrix of
fine, but stiff, hairs. Rose hips of some species, especially the
Dog Rose (Rosa
canina) and Rugosa
Rose (Rosa rugosa), are very rich in vitamin C, among the richest
sources of any plant. The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds such as thrushes and waxwings, which then disperse
the seeds in their droppings. Some birds, particularly finches, also eat the seeds.
Most roses have thorns or prickles. pimpinellifolia instead have densely
packed straight spines, probably an adaptation to reduce browsing
by animals, but also possibly an adaptation to trap wind-blown
sand and so reduce erosion and protect their
roots (both of these two
species grow naturally on coastal sand
dunes). The most serious is rose rust (Phragmidium mucronatum), a species of
rust fungus,
which can defoliate the plant. More common, though less
debilitating, are rose
black spot, caused by the fungus Diplocarpon rosae,
which makes circular black spots on the leaves in summer, and
powdery mildew,
caused by Sphaerotheca pannosa. Roses are also used as food
plants by the larvae of
some Lepidoptera
species;
Cultivation
Roses are one of the most popular garden shrubs and are also among the most common flowers
sold by florists.
Many thousands of rose hybrids and cultivars have been bred and selected for garden use,
mostly double-flowered with many or all of the stamens mutated into additional
petals. As long ago as
1840 a collection numbering over one thousand different cultivars,
varieties and species was possible when a rosarium was planted by
Loddiges nursery for
Abney Park
Cemetery, an early Victorian garden cemetery and arboretum in
England.
Roses thrive in temperate climates, though certain species and cultivars
can flourish in sub-tropical and even tropical climates, especially when grafted onto appropriate
root-stock. These are some of the oldest garden roses, probably
brought to Great
Britain by the Romans. Examples: 'Semi-plena', 'White Rose of
York'.
-
Gallica
- The Gallica roses have been developed from R. gallica
versicolor).
-
Damask - Robert de Brie is given credit for
bringing them from Persia
to Europe sometime between 1254 and 1276.
Examples: 'Ispahan', 'Madame Hardy'.
-
Centifolia (or Provence) - These roses, raised in
the seventeenth
century in the Netherlands, are named for their "one hundred" petals.
Examples: 'Centifolia', 'Paul Ricault'.
-
Moss - Closely related to the centifolias, these have
a mossy excrescence on the stems and sepals. and 'Parks' Yellow Tea Scented China',
1824) were brought to
Europe in the late
eighteenth and
nineteenth
centuries which brought about the creation of the repeat
flowering old garden roses and later the modern garden roses.
Examples: 'Old Blush China', 'Mutabilis'.
-
Portland - These are named after the Duchess of Portland
who received (from Italy
in 1800) a rose then
known as R. Introduced in France in 1823. The roses have significant value and interest
for those growing roses in tropical and semi-tropical regions,
since they are highly resistant to both nematode damage and the
fungal diseases
that plague rose culture in hot, humid areas, and capable of
blooming in hot and humid weather. The ancient Greeks and Romans identified the
rose with their goddesses of love (Aphrodite and Venus). The phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", means to keep a
secret?derived from this ancient Roman practice.
Early Christians
identified the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of
Christ. Roses also
later came to be associated with the Virgin Mary.
Rose culture came into its own in Europe in the 1800's with the introduction of
perpetual blooming roses from China.
Culture
Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used
as a symbol of the
Virgin Mary. Roses are so important that the word means pink or
red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages,
Greek, and
Polish).
The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the
symbol of England
Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower
of Yorkshire and
Lancashire in
England (the white rose
and red rose respectively) and of Alberta (the wild rose), and the state flower of four US
states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. Portland, Oregon
counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual
Rose Festival.
Roses are ocassionally the basis of design for rose windows, such windows
comprising five or ten segments (the five petals and five sepals of
a rose) or multiples thereof; however most Gothic rose windows are
much more elaborate and were probably based originally on the wheel
and other symbolism.
A red rose (often held in a hand) is also a symbol of socialism or social democracy; it is
also used as a symbol by the British and
Irish
Labour Parties,
as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish Socialist Workers'
Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian,
Dutch (Partij van de
Arbeid) and European socialist parties. This originates from
the red rose used as a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in
Paris.
Victorian symbolism
According to the Victorian "Language of flowers", different coloured roses each have
their own symbolic meaning:
-
Red: love
-
Pink: grace, lesser feelings of love
-
Dark Pink: gratitude
-
Light Pink: admiration, sympathy
-
White: innocence, purity, secrecy, friendship, reverence
and humility.
The rose came to symbolize the Republic of
Georgia's non-violent bid for freedom
during its Rose
Revolution.
The symbol of a rose can also refer to the red rose of
Lancaster, and the white rose of York, from the Wars of the Roses
period.
Mythology and superstition
- In some pagan mythologies, no undead or ghostly creatures (particularly vampires) may cross the
path of a wild rose. It was thought that to place a wild rose
on a coffin of a recently deceased person would prevent them
from rising again.
- Since the earliest times, the rose has been an emblem of
silence:
- In Greek Mythology, Eros presents a rose to the god of
silence.
- In a Celtic folk legend, a wandering, screaming
spirit was
silenced by presenting the spirit with a wild rose every
new
moon.
- Roses were used in very early times as a very potent
ingredient in love philters.
- According to Indian mythology, one of the wives of
Vishnu was found
inside a rose.
- In Rome it was often customary to bless roses on "Rose
Sunday".
- Amongst Muslims, it is still believed that the first rose
was created from a tear of the prophet Mohammed, and it is
further believed that on a certain day in the year the rose
has a heart of gold.
- In Scotland,
if a white rose bloomed in autumn it was a token of an early
marriage.
- The red rose, it is believed by many religions, cannot
grow over a grave.
- Rose leaves thrown into a burning flame are said to give
good luck.
- If a young girl had more than one lover, it is believed
in one mythology, she should take rose leaves and write the
names of her lovers upon them before casting them into the
wind. The last leaf to reach the ground would bear the name
of the lover whom she should marry.
- It is believed that if a rose bush were pruned on
St. John's
Eve, it would be guaranteed to bloom in the
autumn.
In art
Roses are often portrayed by artists. The French artist Pierre-Joseph
Redout辿 produced some of the most detailed paintings of
roses. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
act II, sc. Robert
Burns, A
Red, Red Rose
- Hearts starve as well as bodies; James Oppenheim,
"Bread and
Roses"
-
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose ? (more
commonly referred to as the 'Nowhere Man'), Yellow
Submarine (film)
Perfume
Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of
volatile essential
oils obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses.
The technique originated in Persia (the word Rose itself is from Persian) then
spread through Arabia and
India, but nowadays about
70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca
is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. for
example, about 2,000 flowers are required to produce one gramme of
oil.
The main constituents of attar of roses are the fragrant alcohols geraniol, which has the
empirical formula C10H18O and the structural
formula
CH3.CCH3:CH.CH2.CH2.CCH3:CH.CH2OH
and l-citronellol;
They can also be used to make herbal tea, jam,
jelly and marmalade.
Notable rose growers
Notable rose growers include:
- David Austin
("English" roses)
- Peter
Beales
- Paul
Chessum
- Jos辿phine de Beauharnais
- Griffith
Buck, professor of horticulture at Iowa State University from
1948 to 1985, hybridized nearly 90 rose varieties.
class=ilnk>Conard-Pyle Co. (Star Roses)
- Jules
Gravereaux
- Jean-Baptiste Guillot
- Meilland
family
- Jean
Pernet, p竪re
- Joseph
Pernet-Ducher
In the UK,
different parts of the National
Collection of Roses are maintained by David Austin, Peter Beales, and the
Royal
National Rose Society, with Mottisfont Abbey maintaining a collection of
pre-1900 shrub roses and the University of Birmingham Botanic Garden maintaining a
collection entitled 'The History of the European Rose'.
References
-
Easy and Elegant Rose Design, E.
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