Company History

Plush Packet, Inc., (PPI) has achieved financial success and brand recognition with parents and elementary school children through the recent introduction of “Packet the Porcupine.” When the company was first formed fifteen years ago, CEO and founder, Grant Strickler, had a vision of promoting pre-school and elementary-level learning by using fun cartoon characters. Grant had been a career educator in early childhood education with a passion for technology in the classroom. He retired from his teaching position after thirty years of service to start PPI.

In the first year, PPI released two hardcover titles for pre-school reading. The content within those titles was infused with multimedia and technology education. However, more importantly, the titles introduced talking animal characters like “Byte the Bobcat,” “Wire the Weasel,” “Router the Raccoon” and “Packet the Porcupine.” Teachers were given exercises for students which corresponded to the books. In classroom, teachers were supplied with plush toys that looked like the characters in the stories to help captivate students.

In the next few years, PPI expanded to offer other titles for elementary school children, based on the same characters. Sales grew as more units were sold through periodicals aimed at elementary school educators. Grant and his sales staff also attended all the area trade shows related to educational sales. These trade shows bolstered Grant’s success even more. His ability to tell a compelling children’s story intertwined with technology education was popular among administrators, teachers and students.

After ten years, the company had 25 employees, was selling a dozen titles direct to schools, and Grant decided to expand into new markets. PPI developed a series of educational DVDs, CD-ROMs, electronic workbooks, and web-based multimedia that would be sold directly to parents. They also expanded their line of plush toys, and began to sell them at retail stores.

Over the next three years, PPI continued to grow. The primary reason for that growth was a deal PPI made with a major reseller of toys and educational software, EduCorp. A contract with EduCorp led to a half-hour children's television program that was syndicated in major markets. PPI did not directly develop the program (the work was contracted to a company in Japan) but PPI retained the exclusive rights. This was an expensive effort, but it notably raised name-brand recognition because of how much the children seemed to identify with Packet the Porcupine. Packet’s soaring popularity led to some less successful ventures, such as the Packet the Porcupine comic book, board game and the spin-off of some new characters and toys, which have yet to turn a profit.

Plush Packet, Inc. is approaching $100 million in sales annually, with a staff of 350. While some of the new efforts, like television programming, have been outsourced, many of the traditional jobs have been retained, such as sales, logistics, marketing, software development and course development. One exception is plastic and plush toys, which have been made at a company in China since PPI was founded, and Grant is a close personal friend of the owner of that company. In addition, in order to expand into new international markets, PPI has had to take a risk, and borrow money. This seems to have paid off, but with Packet’s popularity having difficulty transitioning to foreign markets, PPI’s management is worried that they have overextended themselves too much.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Secretary
Treasurer

Director of Product Marketing
Director of Sales
Director of Supply Management
Director of IT
Director of Security
Director of Product Development

As its first act, the Board asked the Officers of PPI to develop a plan for cutting costs while still working to build the PPI brand and grow in areas that have proven to be profitable. In addition, the Board would like to find ways to innovate and improve productivity, leveraging IT and the Internet. Specifically, they announced plans to develop an upgraded PPI website where educational games can be accessed for free or by subscription, depending on the content. All functional areas will be heavily involved in developing, deploying, maintaining and upgrading that new website.