Roswell-based Cavanagh Group International, a leading licensee of Coca-Cola and Harley-Davidson gift and collectible items, will expand its operations from Asia to Europe and South America next year.
John Cavanagh, the company president, told GlobalFax in a telephone interview last week that he has a new contract with Ceramarte, a stein manufacturer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to produce special Harley-Davidson beer steins there. And in France, he plans to manufacture three-dimensional framed art interiors depicting scenes such as mechanics working on motorcycles.
He said that new business opportunities, not the currency devaluations in Asia, prompted the entry into Brazil and France. Ceramarte is a well-known stein manufacturer and the artist, Patrick Richard, who is creating the three-dimensional framed art interiors is French.
The currency devaluations in Asia, however, should reduce the Group’s manufacturing costs in Taiwan and China and the cost of plush materials from Korea. He added that he did not expect the company’s operations in the Philippines to be affected.
Since the mid 1980s, the Group has been filling orders of Coca-Cola and Harley-Davidson gift and collectible items including Christmas ornaments, figurines, musicals, bean bags and other soft goods, known as plush, for the country’s largest retailers such as WalMart, Sears and Target stores.
The Coca-Cola items include the Coke polar bear, star of the “Always Coca-Cola” ad campaign, and the Coke Santa who was created in 1931 and now may be even as widely recognized as Coke’s own logo.
Meanwhile, Cavanagh’s Coca-Cola Christmas Collectors Society is growing rapidly with 15,000 members across the U.S. collecting Coke memorabilia.
For more information about Cavanagh, call Jim Hollister at (781) 237-8855; fax, (781) 239-0234. Mr. Cavanagh may be reached at (770) 643-1175.