Couture Cardstock announced today via its blog that it is ceasing wholesale and distribution operations after its parent company, Cardstock Warehouse, was acquired by an unnamed company. (Updated to reflect corrected information received from Cardstock Warehouse.) Although Cardstock Warehouse may continue to use the Couture Cardstock name for retail operations, the unit brand name as it had been operating has ceased to exist. This includes, unfortunately, the termination of all of the personnel, including company president CarrieAnne DeLoach:
Cardstock Warehouse Paper Company, Inc, the parent company of Couture Cardstock, has this week concluded an acquisition agreement with a distributor. The resulting sale of Cardstock Warehouse Paper Company, Inc” assets has caused a major reorganization of Cardstock Warehouse Paper Company, Inc. This reorganization has lead to the immediate end of Couture Cardstock’s existence as a wholesale or distribution entity. This unfortunately also makes the staff of Couture Cardstock, including its President, customer service agents, designers and design team coordinators no longer necessary.
Update: The personnel involved were contract personnel and not Cardstock Warehouse employees.
Couture Cardstock had informed publishers it was advertising with, including Scrapbook Update and Papercrafter’s Corner, that it was discontinuing its advertising contracts several days ago for unspecified reasons.
Cardstock Warehouse/Couture Cardstock was scheduled to be an exhibitor at CHA Summer 2010 in Rosemont, IL at the end of this month. The announcement does not indicate whether the parent company will still maintain a show presence in that booth. (Update: Cardstock Warehouse will still be maintaining their presence at CHA Summer as planned.)
Couture Cardstock entered the scrapbook industry as a new player in 2009. Several of their specialty products, such as cardstock designed for use with watercolors and Copic markers, received a lot of buzz at the CHA Winter 2010 trade show. But any new cardstock company faces an uphill battle in the current marketplace, which is dominated by Bazzill (with several other companies such as Core’dinations holding their own significant pieces of it as well).
(Update: Couture was a separate marketing brand of Cardstock Warehouse. Its products will continue to be available through Cardstock Warehouse.)
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About Nancy Nally
This is so sad! I truly love my Couture Cardstock
Wow, that’s quite a surprise. I thought they had a great line and I was looking forward to being a customer for many years to come. I feel really bad for the employees, contractors, vendors and design team members who seem to have had no notice about this.
This is sad news. It’s always discerning to me when this type of thing happens to a company, especially with the positive buzz after CHA last year.
They have a wonderful line! I too feel sorry for all of the employees out of work. This company will be missed by me.
This truly is sad. I just learned about them not to long ago and I haven’t been able to take advantage of their product as of yet. But, I was willing to try.
hard to believe so many companies fate of late.
This is unfortunate. Couture Cardstock had paper that worked with the Copic markers but their real specialty was their mulberry and mirrored papers. When Bazzill acquired Prism Paper they removed mulberry and mirrored from the paper lines leaving Couture Cardstock as one of the only paper companies to offer such products. This leaves a huge hole in paper products!
~Molly
I’m told that Couture’s products will still be available through Cardstock Warehouse – it’s just the separate marketing brand that has been shut down.
Couture Cardstock is still carrying mulberry and mirrored papers. Please visit our website.
Couture Cardstock is still providing all of the wonderful products. The company did not shut down, only reorganized. Lots of incorrect information has been passed around.
Couture Cardstock’s website is still available: http://www.couturecardstock.com and http://www.cardstockonline have merged as of July 2010.