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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

SCHLEICH Relocates North America Headquarters from Canada to Charlotte, North Carolina

04/02/2013
SCHLEICH North America Inc., the German-based producer of soft plastic figurines and collectibles, plans to relocate all North American operations from Ottawa, Ontario Canada, to Charlotte, North Carolina, creating 60 new jobs.

SCHLEICH leased approximately 125,000 square feet of warehouse space at 10000 Twin Lakes Parkway. “We are excited to call Charlotte home to our North America operations,” said Walter Haack, president of SCHLEICH North America Inc. “With the United States being our second largest market, we have the capacity to grow here, meet increased demands for our products and potentially outpace our German sales or headquarters in size. Just like the power of imagination lives within our toys, it also lives within our plans for strategic growth.”

Friedrich Schleich originally founded the company in 1935, but it was not until the early 1950s that the company began to concentrate on the development, production and marketing of comic figurines, the Charlotte Chamber said.These figurines are still popular and well known and include the Smurfs, Snoopy, the Muppet Show characters and many more. Since the early 1980s, the firm has added animal figurines ranging from the lost world of the dinosaurs to the domestic and wild animals of the present. Starting in 2003, knights, the Wild West theme and elves have also been added to the popular SCHLEICH Play Worlds.

SCHLEICH said its products are developed with the assistance of parents, teachers and children. The design of the products intends to be realistic and naturalistic. When deciding on licensing comic figurines, the firm also pays attention to the message they carry. Education aspects play an important part in SCHLEICH’s philosophy.

The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce said it worked closely with SCHLEICH on this project.

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