Stampin' Up! makes changes

Stampin' Up!, a Riverton-based manufacturer of decorative rubber stamps, announced that Dale Fillmore has been named president and that the company is restructuring to pursue an aggressive growth plan.

Fillmore is replacing Jerry Day, who stepped down as president last October. Fillmore was formerly a board member of the company.

Shelli Gardner, chief executive officer of Stampin' Up!, said Monday that the restructuring will result in the company's international and U.S. divisions being rejoined. Gardner said the changes will not result in any layoffs.

"As we are looking to grow the company substantially, we need to pull those resources back together under one roof," Gardner said. "We need to be a little more assertive in marketing our opportunity and our product and looking at new markets."

In the past year, the company has expanded into Quebec, Canada — its first non-English-speaking market — and Australia. In the future, Gardner hopes to take the company's products to the United Kingdom, Japan and Mexico.

Stampin' Up! has roughly 550 employees. About 100 of those employees work in Kanab, where the company's manufacturing facility is located. The remainder are based at the company's Riverton offices.

"We're hoping that we add on several countries in a year," Gardner said. "We've certainly had great growth because of the scrapbooking trends. That has propelled us, I think, to a different level. When we first started we were cards and gifts and wrapping and things like that. In the last few years, we've started to flatten out a little bit. Hence the need for some diversification."

In 1988, Gardner founded Stampin' Up!, filling orders from her Las Vegas home. The company uses a direct sales approach patterned after business models of Tupperware and Mary Kay, through the home party system and independent demonstrators.

Today, the company has annual sales of roughly $240 million and is completing an additional 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Kanab.

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