First Years
When a company is around for more than half-a-century, it certainly is treated with a lot of respect in the market. The First Years, Inc is one such company - a major player to reckon with in the breastpumps industry.
Avon, Massachusetts-based The First Years, Inc was formerly known as Kiddie Products Inc. The company has fully focussed on marketing of stuff required by infants in the first three years of life, such as feeding, sleeping, bathing, diapering, and transporting / travel.
In a formal association with the Child Development Unit of the Children's Hospital at Boston, Massachusetts, the company has consistently come up with products that are medically of the highest quality in terms of their functionality and utility.
The company has been consistently winning awards for product design and product safety over the years. Last year, the company's name figured at the thirty-fifth position in the "Global 100" listing brought out by the prestigious Boston Globe, which grades the top-performing publicly-held companies in Massachusetts on the parameters of return on average equity, and yearly changes in revenue, profit margin and total revenue.
What marks The First Years as different from the rest of the competition is their demonstrated effort at building a network of parental network all on their own. The "Parents Council" is an online community of 300,000 parents who bond together for the purpose of sharing of news, views and experiences on issues related to child care. Though naturally centered around The First Years' own products, the network is nevertheless an excellent source of information for new and expectant parents who are invariably in a state of anxiety on matters pertaining to infant care and rearing. A very important advantage that the company derives from this community is that it obtains feedback information from parents on its present products, plus proactively collects opinions and experiences of parents on their usage. The parents are also involved in new product development; members of the community get to try out the company's latest prototypes before the rest of the world. This grass roots' connectivity is what gives The First Years an edge.
In the breastpumps segment, the company has the following offerings - Natural Comfort Single and Double Electric Pumps, Natural Comfort Manual Pump, Easy Comfort Single and Double Electric Pumps, and Easy Comfort Manual and Deluxe Pump. Needless to say, each model has gone through a rigorous design process aided by the Children's Hospital, and has been approved by the Parents Council!
The company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of RC2 Corp in September 2004. With the combined might that RC2 Corporation along with its other companies brings to bear, The First Years' now has the benefit of targetting its wares to children with a touch of glamor! RC2 has licensed "Winnie the Pooh" and "Mickey Mouse" from Disney Enterprises, Inc; and "Sesame Street" from Sesame Workshop, for marketing the products of First Years as well as other associate companies under its belt. Further, The First Years has now leveraged RC2's marketing network to supply its wares to mass merchandising chains, drug store and grocery chains and specialty retailers. With such positive winds blowing in its favor, the future of The First Years appears quite rosy.