Baby products for parents

TRIPLET OUTLOOK: Baby's Journey, a juvenile-products manufacturer in Pawtucket, is projected to triple its sales in the coming year. President & CEO Steven Gibree, second from left, meets with staff, from left, Israel Alarcon, director of quality assurance and project management, Ryan Michienzi, project manager, and Lois Glasgow, vice president of marketing. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
TRIPLET OUTLOOK: Baby's Journey, a juvenile-products manufacturer in Pawtucket, is projected to triple its sales in the coming year. President & CEO Steven Gibree, second from left, meets with staff, from left, Israel Alarcon, director of quality assurance and project management, Ryan Michienzi, project manager, and Lois Glasgow, vice president of marketing. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Steven Gibree is a veteran in the baby-products industry and his experience is paying off. His newest venture, Baby’s Journey Inc., is projected to triple its annual sales to $9 million this year.

Born and raised in Rhode Island, Gibree’s career as a design engineer began at Hasbro Inc., where he started making toys in the mid-1980s.

“I loved working on toys,” he said, remembering back to the start of his career at Hasbro. “It was a new challenge.”

His new company, however, is a little bit different than toys. The baby-products manufacturer designs, markets and distributes products intended to make parenting easier. Products range from baths and nursery accessories to baby gates and mattresses.

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Starting in 2011, the company produced 20 items to sell in its first year and Gibree hasn’t looked back. He has leveraged his old contacts in the retail world, helping Baby’s Journey grow quickly. Last year it did more than $3 million in annual sales. A trained engineer, Gibree’s business-savvy comes from his nine years as executive vice president of product development at Summer Infant Inc., the publicly traded baby-products company in Woonsocket.

Gibree and his business partner, Jason Macari, a former colleague from Hasbro, took a chance and bought the then-struggling company in 2001. The duo started at about $1 million in annual sales, which within a decade grew to about $280 million. In 2007, they took the company public.

“It was really powered by new-product development and we had the right team,” Gibree explained.

Having a good team is a key ingredient for success in Gibree’s book and has been central to his growth strategy through the first few years at Baby’s Journey.

“I’ve been building the team,” he said. “I’ve tried to surround myself with lots of great folks.”

The manufacturer has done well so far, as it’s partnered with mattress-giant Serta, growing that line of business from four products the first year to now 24 products. In February, the company agreed to partner with telecommunications giant AT&T to launch a new baby-monitor line, designed to provide “instant and intelligent information about babies’ health and wellness.” The monitors recently became available on the retail market.

“We’re a little Rhode Island company and we’ve landed two huge national brands,” Gibree said.

Most of the company’s manufacturing happens in China, but some products are made in Pennsylvania and others in Los Angeles, which Gibree says is standard for the industry. Otherwise, Gibree looks to collaborate with Rhode Island companies and does work with Fuzion Design Inc., Octo Product Development Inc. and Pawtucket Credit Union.

After all, as he put it, he’s “a Rhode Island guy.

“It’s important to me to have the business in Rhode Island and it’s important to me to use other resources in Rhode Island,” he added. •

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