Profile: Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (BBW)

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is company providing a make your own stuffed animal interactive retail-entertainment experience. As of January 3, 2009, the Company operated 346 company owned retail stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, including 292 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in the United States and Canada, one stand-alone friends 2B made store in the United States, 51 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and three Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in France. It also operated eight friends 2B made stores adjacent to or within Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in the United States. Franchisees operated 62 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in other international locations.

The Company offers a coordinated selection of merchandise, including over 30 different styles of animals to be stuffed and a variety of clothing, shoes, and accessories for the stuffed animals. The Company’s store average approximately 2,700 square feet in size and has a visual and colorful appearance, including custom-designed fixtures featuring teddy bears and other themes relating to the Build-A-Bear Workshop experience. The Company also markets its products and builds its brand through a nationwide multi-media marketing program that targets its core demographic guests, principally parents and children. Its Website, buildabearville.com, promotes brand connection and in-store products and events with customization options, and social connectivity features.

Guests who visit Build-A-Bear Workshop stores enter a teddy bear-themed environment consisting of eight stuffed animal-making stations: Choose Me, Hear Me, Stuff Me, Stitch Me, Fluff Me, Dress Me, Name Me, and Take Me Home. The Company has designed its stores to provide a theme park destination in the mall that is open and inviting with an entryway that spans the majority of its storefront, and visual and colorful teddy bear themes and displays. The duration of a guest’s experience can vary greatly depending on his or her preferences. While the guests choose to participate in the full animal-making process and all eight stations, a process which averages 45 minutes to complete, guests can also visit a Build-A-Bear Workshop store and purchase items, such as clothing, accessories, the Company’s Bear Buck gift cards or pre-made animals in only a few minutes.

The Company competes with Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us, Target, Kmart, Sears, Ty, Fisher Price, Mattel, Ganz, Russ Berrie, Applause, Boyd’s, Hasbro, Commonwealth, Gund, and Vermont Teddy Bear.