According to Sky News, growth has stalled since the pandemic and the main shareholders are said to have been unwilling to inject more money into the business.
In 2022, LoveCrafts acquired the digital patterns and yarn stock of Deramores, a UK-based ecommerce retailer that was closing after a decade in business.
So, altogether, LoveCrafts owns three yarn brands, a digital pattern marketplace, two large ecommerce sites, and one of the largest brick-and-mortar yarn stores in the US – an impressive portfolio of yarn-focused businesses.
Missouri Star
Missouri Star is one of the largest quilting suppliers in the world and has, until now, just dipped its toe into the yarn sector.
At the end of 2020, it opened One Big Happy Yarn Co., a brick-and-mortar shop at its home base in Hamilton, Missouri, along with ecommerce and instructional video content focused on knitting and crochet. One Big Happy sells yarn shop quality yarns and kits. Earlier this year, the One Big Happy website was folded into the Missouri Star brand.
Founded in 2008 by Jenny Doan and her family, Missouri Star pairs instructional videos on YouTube with ecommerce and has grown into a massive quilting retailer. The company has revived the once abandoned downtown of Hamilton, Missouri, renovating buildings and opening a total of 15 shops and a retreat center. Hamilton is now often referred to as “the Disneyland of quilting.”
It also has a record of acquiring established craft companies. Under the parent company, Creativity Inc., it acquired Let’s Make Art from founder Sarah Cray in 2017, then earlier this year sold it back to her.
In the spring of 2020, Missouri Star acquired Nancy’s Notions, the iconic quilting company founded by PBS star Nancy Zieman. Missouri Star’s Jenny Doan shared similarities with Zieman as televised sewing educators with a strong retail accompaniment and community focus. After Zieman sold the company to Tacony Corporation in 2003, customers reported that the quality and service at Nancy’s Notions had declined. Nancy’s Notions continues to have its own URL separate from Missouri Star.