Kids Today is reporting today that Child Craft has been sold, this time to a commercial crib maker (Foundations). This sale comes two years after Child Craft was sold to Gateway Manufacturing, a contract manufacturer best known for its baby gates.

Foundations makes commercial cribs for hotels, child care centers and other commercial customers. Kids Today quotes the Joe Lawlor, president of Foundations, on the reasons for the purchase:

“The acquisition of Child Craft and our entry into the retail and consumer segments is a natural evolution of our business. The acquired assets enhance our capabilities to serve and develop business in all markets,” said Joe Lawlor, Foundations president. “The Child Craft brand has been a trusted name in juvenile furniture for generations and is consistent with the Foundations brand positioning of quality, safety, and superior value. The acquisition provides diversification and leap growth into entirely new product categories while also opening new channels of distribution for existing product lines.”

Foundations plans to move Child Craft's operations from Indiana to Ohio. It is unclear how many of Child Craft's current employees will make the move.
This marks the latest sad chapter in Child Craft's history. At one point in the 1980's, Child Craft was the world's largest crib maker, churning out 375,000 cribs a year in 1989. But the company never adjusted to the import wave and failed to innovate in recent years. A 2004 flood that destroyed the company's warehouse (and $12 million worth of stock and equipment) added to Child Craft's woes. The flood knocked the company off-line for several months and it never quite recovered.
Enter Gateway Manufacturing, which acquired Child Craft in 2007. The company promised to roll out a new web site for Child Craft and launched a ready-to-assemble line of furniture under the company's former luxury label, Legacy. Meanwhile, the company continued its decline, with its dwindling customer base reduced to a few online retailers (Costco.com among the most prominent).
The recession no doubt added to Child Craft's problems, causing Gateway to through in the towel.
So what does this mean for consumers?
A reader and Child Craft customer emailed us this story today:

I wanted to alert you (and fellow readers) to something that I just discovered through my own experience yesterday. We had ordered our nursery furniture from Child Craft back in June. I called to check on the status of the order on Friday and was informed yesterday that Child Craft was bought out (again) and that all orders in que will be made, however they are saying that it will be an additional 4 weeks "at least" before they can get to them. Apparently the new company has to switch the Child Craft computer system to their own computer system, and they are expecting this to take 4 weeks. Once the system is moved from Child Craft to their own computer system, they will again begin processing the orders that are in que. If a person's order was not in que, they will not be processed until all the other orders that are in que are completed. 
 
We were told that our order, which is already in que, will take an additional "month at least" to complete and be shipped. 
 
If any of your readers have placed C
hild Craft orders in the last 2 months or so, I would suggest they contact the vendor they ordered through to double check whether their order is in que or not… if not, it may be a long time before it is fulfilled.  

If you are having a problem with receiving an order of Child Craft furniture, please email us or post below.