Vitamins Baby

A Brief History
Celebrity International, Inc. was founded in 1965, by Morris D. Matalon, President and CEO. Matalon and his three sons are the sole owners of this family business. Headquartered in the heart of the Childrenswear district of New York City, Celebrity International has steadily grown to become a leading children's apparel company. The company is broken into 3 sales divisions: Celebrity, Lovespun (Private Label) and Vitamins Playwear. This structure allows the company to manufacture and market a combination of licensed properties, private label businesses and its own proprietary brands-Vitamins Baby', Vitamins Kids' and Baby V'. The company attributes its success in the children's wear industry to its focus on Quality. This is reinforced by an operating style that exudes a non-compromising attitude, as if each and every garment has a personal guarantee on it. The company first started manufacturing in New York, 35 years ago, with 25 sewing machines. It later moved to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, increasing its sewing operation to a total of 150 machines. Five years later, the company outgrew this facility and relocated to an enlarged plant in Dexter, Georgia. In 1975, its importing department flourished and superceded the need for domestic production. Since then, Celebrity has opened its own overseas offices in each country where its products are sourced, in order to maintain its mission of quality.

Vitamins Brand Launched
In 1994, Celebrity International, Inc. launched the Vitamins brand. At the time, the retail children's wear business was out-of-sync with the evolving demands of the consumer. Research determined that consumers now desired better designed and better quality garments. As anticipated, these same consumers quickly embraced the company's European influenced--100% cotton-designs, marketed under the Vitamins‚ brand name. The Vitamins Playwear‚ Division continues to maintain a separate development, marketing, merchandising and sales staff from the other brands in the Celebrity stable. Nevertheless, every division shares the unifying vision that has resulted in the steady growth and success of Celebrity International, Inc.: each brand is focused on the consumer. Equally important, the company understands that to reach the desired consumer, it must develop an integrated strategy for the corresponding distribution channels. For instance, Vitamins‚, is marketed to the upper moderate consumer--primarily "mothers,""gift givers" and "grandmothers--"and accordingly, is distributed to upper tier retailers, inclusive of department stores and independent specialty stores. Logo TK

Product Design and Development
As Celebrity has grown over the years so has its reputation for well-designed products. To spearhead these efforts, the Director of Merchandising and Product Design travels twice yearly with alternating design team members, to Europe to capture the latest in color and fashion trends. These efforts have produced a series of nominations and awards for excellence in design of children's wear. It has also allowed the company to leverage these successes into further line segmentation and development of new categories -i.e. Layette and Sleepwear.

The Mission of Total Quality
As stated earlier, Celebrity's attributes a great portion of its success to its focus on Quality. Consumers that purchase Vitamins products are increasingly fond of this reputation. Equally important, many of Celebrity's retail partners share this same appreciation for quality of Vitamins‚ products. However, the company felt that producing high caliber garments wasn't where the relationship should end. Therefore,. the company made a decision to increase the quality benefit to its retail partner. Thus, the development of an attitude and environment that would provide a Total Quality Mission (TQM) was established. TQM would reach beyond the product itself and focus on any opportunity to provide high quality results to every customer. Examples of these efforts can be found in the Customer Service division, where the company has established and consistently maintained high standards for the delivery and completeness for every purchase order received. Resultantly, Celebrity enjoys one of the best reputations in the industry for prompt delivery and completeness of order(s), making it a quality resource for its trading partners. The company continues to achieve this recognition through a network of overseas affiliates. This strategy unfolded first in Manila, in 1975, later in Hong Kong (1980), Bangkok (1988) and most recently in Sri Lanka (1996). These offices, whose primary function is to manage total quality control and production scheduling, are vital components to the company's success.

Celebrity Leads The Way
In order to be qualified as a brand leader in the childrenswear business, the company recognized the need to be known as a purveyor of the relevant categories that comprise the childrenswear industry. They are, as follows: Layette, Sleepwear, Preemie, Take Me Home, as well as Playwear, Activewear, Fleece and Sportswear, in sizes 0-4T. Over the past decade, Celebrity's brands and private label division have evolved to produce and market products for each of these categories. Vitamins®-Award Winner In 1999, Celebrity received great news. Its Vitamins‚ Brand was presented with an Earnie Award for excellence in design, in sizes infants through 4T. This award is sponsored by Earnshaw's--a leading industry trade publication--and the CMA-Childrenswear Marketing Association.

Vitamins Kids™-Brand Extension
Winning the Earnie award inspired the company to initiate a brand extension with a new brand name: Vitamins Kids™. This brand extension was initiated in late 1999 to capitalize on the preference to now dress our infant and toddler children in looks that were formerly exclusive to older children. It also provides a perfect companion for its "younger" sibling brand-Vitamins Baby™.

Celebrity Brands
Celebrity International, Inc. prides itself on not just maintaining the brand equity associated with each of its lines, but also on contributing to that equity. Celebrity does not simply acquire a new brand, rather it seeks to truly partner with each licensor, as it does with its retail trading partners. Brands included in Celebrity's coterie are:

- Vitamins Baby™-reflects a European design influence, capturing trends that help to shape the industry. High quality cotton yarns are used to fulfill the design intention. Products are offered at best value pricing making them affordable for a wide range of consumers. This brand is featured in Federated, May Co., Dillard's, Belk's, Dayton Hudson's and most major upscale department stores. This brand is fast becoming a favorite of many independent specialty stores.

- Vitamins Kids™-reflects the same European design influence as its younger-Vitamins Baby™ sibling. Once again, high quality cotton yarns are used to fulfill the design intention. Products are offered at best value pricing making them affordable for a wide range of consumers. This brand is featured in Federated, May Co., Dillard's, Belk's, Dayton Hudson's and most major upscale department stores. The company expects that this brand will quickly join its sibling in becoming a favorite of many independent specialty stores.